Through the Office of Minority Community Outreach, NEA participated in activities during the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans which provided an opportunity to increase the visibility of NEA while sharing its message with the greater ethnic minority community. 

Six hundred Essence attendees took the Priority Schools Campaign pledge.

On July 1, NEA participated in the Essence Healthy Living Fair at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans.  The day began with rain, but the sun quickly came out, which also brought out the New Orleans community to listen to music and messages from celebrities about health and the importance of living well. 

NEA’s Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle addressed the crowd after lunch about ways that NEA has been involved in the movement to promote healthy lunches for students and on NEA’s outreach to the greater New Orleans community during NEA’s visit to the city. 

NEA also promoted the Priority Schools Campaign and an ESEA petition at the event and both were met with great support.  During the Healthy Living Fair, several celebrities, including Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child and Carla Farrell of the Steve Harvey Morning Show, stopped by NEA’s tent to take pictures with the Cat in the Hat and to record messages in support of public education. 

From July 2-5, NEA participated in the Essence Music Festival exhibits at the Morial Convention Center.  There was a lot of activity in the convention center since it not only housed Essence attendees, but also the NEA Representative Assembly.  The staff who worked at the NEA booth were easily identified as they wore their Priority Schools Campaign T-shirts. 

The booth provided information about NEA and shared materials regarding the Priority Schools Campaign and its mission to change NCLB during the reauthorization of ESEA.  The team engaged members about the Priority Schools Campaign and had them sign pledge cards to show their support to help turn around low-performing schools and transform public education.  The pledge cards will be returned to local school districts in hopes that those districts will contact these willing volunteers who want to give their time to help local schools in their respective communities. 

Also, many of those who visited the booth signed the petition targeted for our members of Congress to promote full funding of ESEA while making additional funds available to attract and retain the best teachers in our effort to transform public education.  NEA greeted many visitors at the booth in those days and solicited over 600 pledge cards and over 1,000 signatures. 

Many NEA members stopped by and cheered the booth and stated that it made them proud to see NEA’s presence on the Essence side to promote the organization.  Special thanks goes to the staff who worked at the booth and spent days engaging the public about NEA and garnering their support for the Priority Schools Campaign.  The response to NEA’s presence clearly demonstrated that the ethnic minority community can be a real ally in our efforts to transform America’s schools. 

By James Sledge, NEA