Early Childhood Education

A white woman in a yellow dress reads to a classroom full of Black and white children, 1966. — **First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, visiting a Project Head Start classroom, March 19, 1966**
Courtesy of Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, photograph by Robert Knudsen

Early childhood education became a focal point for education reform when the Head Start Program was launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Head Start was designed to teach low income and minority children the skills required for success in primary school. Today only a small percentage of eligible infants and toddlers are able to secure spots in this program—a challenge that has contributed to poor and minority children’s underperformance in schools.

Handmade poster featuring art of a Black panther. Reads, "Free breakfast for children served here Mon. thru Fri. 7am to 9am. Illinois Chapter, Black Panther Party." Circa 1970. — **Black Panther Party Free Breakfast sign**
Source Unknown

Social justice organizations, including the Black Panthers, founded community schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s as an alternative to public school systems. This sign advertises the Panthers free breakfast programs.