Diallo Brooks

Senior Vice President of Programs and Advocacy | The Schott Foundation for Public Education

Pronouns: he/him

Diallo Brooks is Schott Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Programs and Advocacy. A leader in the fight for social justice and civil rights, he has spent his entire career working to advance progressive policies that create safe, healthy, thriving, and sustainable communities for all. Recently, Brooks served as Senior Director of Field Mobilization at People For the American Way, working as a national spokesperson on issues including civil rights, voting rights, and civic engagement. He also led People For’s Defend the Black Vote, a nationwide fight against voter suppression that successfully engaged millions of Black voters in the 2020 elections.

Presentations from Facing Race 2022

More than Brown v. Board: How Today’s Struggle for Racial Justice Runs Through the Schoolhouse Doors

Since Reconstruction, the public school has been a central site of struggle for racial justice, from segregation and redlining to curriculum and the school-to-prison pipeline. Any movement strategy that leaves out schools is missing a key element of victory, and ceding ground to the forces of reaction. The anti-Critical Race Theory controversies show that we can't afford to be merely reactive when it comes to public education, but organize communities on an ongoing basis so they're prepared long before the next wave of far right attacks.

How do we break down silos to better integrate the fight for public education into larger movements for racial justice? In this session we’ll hear from practitioners who have organized across disparate issues to bring neighborhoods and cities together, and collectively chart new paths forward for grassroots activism centered in BIPOC communities.

Speakers: Diallo Brooks, Zakiyah Ansari, Ruth Idakula (invited)