“When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, Malcolm X was alive; great, great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement.”

American writer, progressive activist, and educator

Jonathan Kozol is an American writer, progressive activist, and educator, best known for his books on public education in the United States. His work has focused on the conditions and inequalities of American schooling, and he has become closely associated with writing that examines public education as a social and political issue. Across his books and public work, he has argued from a reform-minded, progressive point of view.