The National Youth Summit on Education, Justice, and Leadership

02/11/2026

Looking back at our remarkable journey. The National Youth Summit on Education Justice and Leadership in Jackson Mississippi.

As life goes, this was The Ethics Project's final summit. The following year, as we sat, once again, with Lynne Jackson and Kenneth Morris, Jr. during a breakfast with history, the City of St. Louis was shut down for large events due to COVID.

With the following two years spent engaged in planning the next summit, a world summit, to be held at Alabama State University, we engaged with partners in Pakistan, Austrailia, and London.

Neither would ever take place. Two variants of the virus reared their heads making plans in 2020 and 2021 too dangerous to execute, particularly in densely populated India.

We appreciate every speaker, workshop facilitator, volunteer, parent, student, and school administrator who made five annual national summits possible. Each was an outstanding experience for us.

03/13/2024

The events before, during, and after the Attica prison riot that arose in pursuit of better conditions, sadly reflect the corruption in our police departments and prisons today. The dehuminization of those incarcerated, the brutality, the misconduct to gain many wrongful convictions, and the cover-ups that whitewash the injustices explain much of the growing violence, suicides, and mental health issues we experience today.

Erupting in 1971, we have since seen the number of prisons grow from 511 to over 1600 today. The number of people incarcerated has grown from 200,000 in 1971 to over 1.8 million today. The majority of those return to society after years of abuse.

That we are far less safe while others are reaping wealth from mass incarceration is proof positive that our criminal justice system is not about safety but about profit at all human cost.

The telephone calls came at all hours of the night.