Howard Fuller (activist)

Dr. Howard Fuller (born January 14, 1941) is a civil rights activist, education reform advocate, and academic. He is best known for the community organizing work he did in Durham, North Carolina as an employee of Operation Breakthrough, and as a co-founder of the Malcolm X Liberation University in 1969. In the 1970s, Fuller adopted the name Owusu Sadaukai, organized several national African Liberation Day celebrations, and was one of the foremost advocates of Pan-Africanism in the United States . Decades later, Fuller rose again to national prominence as one of the leading advocates for school vouchers. He served as the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools from 1991-1995 and is currently a distinguished professor of education, and founder/director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Fuller's unique style of activism enabled him to become one of the most significant civil rights leaders in North Carolina from around 1965 to 1975. His evolving, complicated, and at times contradictory ideological positions throughout his career, however, also mirror many of the debates and conflicts of the black freedom struggle of the 1960s, '70s and beyond.

Dr. Howard Fuller was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on January 14, 1941 as the only child to Tom and Juanita Fuller, who were sharecroppers. His parents divorced not long after his birth, and his mother moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in search of employment. After living with his grandmother, he moved to live with his mother at age seven. He attended St. Boniface Catholic Parochial School for elementary and middle school and North Division for high school. He was the sole black student at St. Boniface. From an early age, he demonstrated leadership qualities, leading "the student body of every school he attended". He was also a skilled basketball player, and this skill earned him a basketball scholarship to Caroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin to study sociology. By matriculating, Fuller joined the first racially integrated class at Caroll. He then went on to study at Case Western Reserve University and graduated with a Master's in Social Administration. He also earned a Ph.D. in Sociological Foundations of Education from Marquette University in 1986.

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