In October 2007, Commissioner/Chair Patricia L. Gatling led a discussion on equity in education and narrowing the racial achievement gap as part of the Commission’s Civil Rights Public Lecture Series. The event – held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem – featured Dr. Roland G. Fryer, Jr., the NYC Department of Education’s Chief Equality Officer who jointly serves as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Dr. Fryer’s remarks focused on his application of economic research techniques to confront issues of race and discrimination and find ways to motivate underachieving City school children to read, learn, and reach their potential.

Other speakers at the event included: Christopher D. Cerf, Deputy Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education; Rev. C. Vernon Mason, CEO of the Fund for Community Leadership Development and CEO of Uth Turn; Dr. Edison O. Jackson, President of Medgar Evers College and a NYC Human Rights Commissioner; and Dr. Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Program in Inequality and Social Policy at Harvard University.