Indiana Council Taskforce Leader, Dr. Jo Russell, “works to promote learning for local black males”

Newsmaker: Jo Russell | Woman works to promote learning for local black males

By Dale Moss • dmoss@courier-journal.com • October 3, 2010

Jo Russell did not want her age published. Readers could fixate on it, she guessed. They might miss her plea. They might not help her try to improve education for African-American males.

In New Albany and in Jeffersonville, like most everywhere, too many of these boys and young men get too little from school. But they’re more likely to succeed in life, of course, if they succeed in the classroom.

“If we don’t start now,” said Russell, “it’s just going to be hopeless.”

Russell, of New Albany, leads a local push encouraged by the National Council on Educating Black Children. More than a dozen such grass-roots efforts have taken hold in Indiana, likewise built on a broad base of people confronting the problem.

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