My name is Albert Sykes and I was a 6th grader in Jackson, Mississippi, at Brinkley Middle School in Ms. Moss’s class, when I first met Taba and was introduced to the Algebra Project.  Here was this 22-year old guy wearing a white t-shirt and Timberland boots doing math with us.  First we started playing a math game to teach us remainders; and it was different than anything we had ever experienced before.  In other classes, we were penalized for talking and socializing, so this was the first time we really interacted with each other in a learning environment.  What I now realize is that Taba was teaching us to teach each other.

Bob Moses was working with the 7thgraders, so we knew about The Algebra Project.  The word was out that they were doing something different in their class but we did not know who Bob Moses was.

When we were offered the opportunity to take the State Algebra 1 Exam in the 8th grade we were not scared because we had so much prep from Taba and Omo.  We were in 8th grade doing something with confidence that many high school students were struggling to do. For once, in education, we felt like we had the upper hand in something, and of all things it was math.  This turned the tide for me and so many others.  Bob made the argument that if given the chance to take the test we could take and pass it -- and we did.

We realized why this process of learning was important for our lives and why we needed to succeed in high school, college and beyond.  We were required to think, to reason and to explain. YPP pushed us out of our anti-social boxes to learn together, think together, succeed together. Throughout these experiences I was always attracted to the mathematics activities, but what changed my perspective about YPP and AP was when I found out more about Bob Moses the organizer. 

I grew up in the same neighborhood where Medgar Evers lived and died. I can walk and see where his kids and wife watched him take his last breath.  So I grew up knowing that I lived around the corner from someone who gave and lost their life for the rights of others, and I thought all the leaders and organizers from those days were dead until I met and got to interact with Bob.  As a young person, it angered me to know what people were dealing with on a day-to-day basis.  Mr. Evers’s community is YPP’s birthplace so it’s only natural that some of us were born with some fight.

 

After Katrina in 2005, YPP shifted focus to Finding Our Folk which came out of meeting in South Carolina with Chris Adagbonyin, Omo, and others. They were brainstorming what we could do to support people in New Orleans and then Omo came up with the idea of a tour. After the meeting, Chris started reaching out to college students from New Orleans and asking what could we take to folks that would be relevant? We did not have the resources of Red Cross, but what wanted to figure out what could we do.

Finding our Folk became a four weekend, eight city tour to connect with and document the stories of Katrina’s survivors. We were also able to bring along a small touch of New Orleans culture with the amazing Hot 8 brass band.

That was 2006. Then in 2007, back in the neighborhood in Jackson, Chris got killed. Since the tour, I had not talked with Omo very much, but when it happened Omo was the person I could talk to. YPP was the only thing that helped me rectify what had happened. Chris, the dude that I talked with, organized with, dreamed with and grew up with had died. All I had was YPP. So now, it was bigger than the Quality Education Campaign and Finding Our Folk, it became about real local organizing so that stuff like this was not the norm.

My life now is about YPP; but it is not just about YPP growing.  It is about how I bring in people like my mom and my larger community who need to know about what is happening with our communities and in our schools.  People view school as a place where we can just drop our kids off, but we need to put pressure on ourselves and the system and demand more from our schools.  I keep asking myself, where is the disconnect between where we came from in the 60s and now.  If no one can say that Albert helped them, then I have accomplished nothing. The same is true for every member of my generation. There are many problems facing us, organizing will be my contribution to the solution.

 

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