Participants in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program recently spent time at the LBJ Library in Austin, learning about President Johnson’s leadership in the passage of the Voting Rights Act. We’ve asked some of the program’s participants to share their thoughts about mending the divides in our communities.
Janelle Carter Brevard is the president of The J Carter Group in Washington, D.C., and a participant in the inaugural class of Presidential Leadership Scholars, which is a partnership between the presidential centers of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
As part of her work in the PLS program, Brevard has launched a project in her hometown of Moss Point, Mississippi. Its focus is on expanding reading at home among school-age children, including during summer vacation.
In this interview, Brevard, who once served as a speechwriter for former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, explains that developing reading skills for each child before third grade is critical to healing a community’s broader divisions. As she says, reading is the gateway to success in life.
