In 2021, President Joseph Biden issued the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. The executive order is a commitment to solve racial and systemic injustices within the public school system, higher education and the workforce.
While the promise to ensure educational equity and economic opportunity for every African American might seem like a tall order — particularly considering continued challenges of racism in the country — the Education Department sought to answer the challenge with Power Up, a national tour series that kicked off in October 2023, focusing on equitable access to resources that serve the needs of Black students, families, and communities.
On the heels of the Biden-Harris administration’s end, the seventh Power Up summit took place last month in Las Vegas, leaving the program hanging in the wind with a new administration afoot in just a few days.
“If there was more time, we definitely would have had more locations. We absolutely would have planned for another four to six cities or communities,” said Executive Director for the Black Americans Initiative Alexis K. Holmes. “I definitely would have liked to add even more time for Black youth engagement.”
After the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action in 2023, the once popular initiatives working toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) began to take a backseat, with companies beginning to eradicate programming and fire DEI leaders. However, Power Up remained true to its mission and has been there to fill in the gaps.
“I think that as those DEI programs do phase out, the Black community needs community more than ever,” Holmes explained. “In terms of the programming, I’m just so proud of what the team has put together. Our Power Up series is an opportunity that brings our community together and also brings different elements of the community.”
Consisting of national, local, and virtual engagements in the Black community, Power Up was created following the COVID-19 pandemic to help reestablish community, inspire innovation and provide information to students and their families.
Through Power Up, officials held one virtual and six in-person discussions in partnership with Discovery Education in Charleston, South Carolina, Suwannee, Georgia, Denver, Colorado, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas. To promote deliberate engagement and frank conversations in a safe space, no summit was recorded nor livestreamed.
“We wanted to show up in some places that were a bit unexpected,” said Holmes. “We saw students being able to interact with federal agencies and learn about programs that target high school students and provide internships, connecting families around mental health services and financial education. We served a variety of needs in our community. We were witnessing real-time collaboration and community care. We also learned our community needs community.”
During the summit, resources were shared by officials representing government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the IRS. In addition, Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona appeared at several Power Up summits, alongside local policymakers.
Further, college officials like Wilvena McDowell, Common App’s Minority Serving Institutions member recruitment manager, provided detailed presentations and personal conversations to students and their families about higher education for Black students who often count themselves out from applying after high school.
“Those students, they smiled,” said McDowell, who presented during the Colorado and South Carolina Power Up summits. “You felt their energy, and could see that they were thinking, ‘we matter. We matter so much that the U.S. Department of Education came to our school.’”
Benefits of Power Up and Potentially Saying Goodbye, Again
Navigating the nuances of applying for, being accepted to, and finishing college can be tricky, however the Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans, and particularly the Power Up program, were there to lend a helping hand.
“One thing that I really liked about the Power Up series is that it helped students connect the dots,” McDowell said. “There is a visible support system: here’s Common App, here’s the Dept of Education, here are state educators and administrators.”
Power Up opened up a whole new world of opportunity for Black students and families.
“Students started to see and recognize their purpose in life,” McDowell explained. “This is why in Black and Brown communities getting a degree is still seen as the economic liberator for communities of color.”
Now, educational equity advocates are concerned about what’s in store for the future, as one of the proposals outlined in Project 2025 is to eliminate the Department of Education and programming like Power Up.
However, the changing administration would not be the first time such programming is being eradicated.
While the Biden-Harris administration has referred to the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans as “the newest kid on the block,” it was, in fact, first created and signed by President Barack Obama in 2012 as the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
Eliminated during the first Trump administration, the initiative returned under Biden-Harris, adding equity and economic opportunity, which Holmes said was historic because “real generational wealth” for the Black community became an intentional conversation and action item in the White House. McDowell agrees and fashions her conversations with students around the personal benefits and economic impact of successfully matriculating through college.
“We’re not just telling students to go to college to accumulate student debt; we brought the economic piece to it,” recalled McDowell, emphasizing the importance of Power Up. “There’s an economic shift that happens when you go to college that isn’t just felt by the student. It’s felt by the family, and the community gets jobs when [students graduate and] they are able to reinvest their money back into the community or the household.”
The continuation of the Education Department’s Power Up program will be left up to the next administration, officials said.
“The legacy I hope the Power Up summit leaves for the communities, students, and businesses that participated is one of empowerment, collaboration, and sustainable growth,” said LaWanda Toney, Education Department deputy chief of staff for strategic communications and partnerships. “I want the participants to carry forward a sense of possibility and innovation rooted in shared knowledge and strengthened networks.”
While the future of Power Up remains unknown, Toney said participants can continue to pass on the lessons learned from the programming.
“The White House Initiative for African Americans and the Biden-Harris Administration prioritized community, continuous learning and championing diversity and creating opportunities for underrepresented voices in all places and spaces,” Toney, a Prince George’s County resident, said. “By embodying these principles, participants can create lasting, positive change that extends well beyond the summit.”