Sweet, Beautiful, Soul Saving Joy in the Advocacy for Our Daughters

Abstract

Joy comes with incremental progress when barriers are removed, allowing girls access to high-level instruction. Advanced coursework placement criteria are often hidden from students of color through gatekeeping strategies that make access, and especially inclusion, unattainable. Joy is apparent at every step of the journey as the authors eradicate historical practices that have persisted since the inception of desegregation and the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Students’ early inclusion in advanced programming is significantly essential, as this practice prepares them for advanced learning and access to the highest levels of education. Joy remains at the center of the advocacy exhibited among the authors’ interest in paving the way for our daughters, a common thread of Black folks in America. The authors’ joy resides in generational advocacy that impacts the authors’ community’s future, one that is beautiful and that exists “down in our soul.” This advocacy work is not only the authors’ passion; it is the authors’ ministry. The authors feel joyous when the authors provide transparency in hidden placement criteria. This joy is embedded in eradicating exclusionary institutional practices, starting at the elementary level.