No Struggle No Progress: A Warrior s Life from Black Power to Education Reform Paperback – September 9, 2014

Born in Shreveport, LA on January 14, 1941, the only child of Juanita Smith, Howard Fuller credits his mother and grandmother Pearl Wagner as the greatest influences shaping his life and making him who he is today.

Fuller attended elementary schools in Milwaukee, WI and was graduated from North Division High School. Named an All-City Basketball Player, he received a scholarship to attend Carroll College where he became its first Black male graduate.
After he earned his Master's Degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, he worked for the Chicago Urban League. Later, inspired by the writings of Fredrick Douglas and Paulo Freire, he returned to North Carolina as a community organizer and developed a reputation as an uncompromising advocate for changing the lives of low income and working class people.

During the 1970's he taught college students at Duke University to become organizers, demanded that African studies be incorporated into the curriculum, and founded the Malcolm X University which operated for three years. His students bestowed on him an African-Swahili name of Owusu-Sadaukai, meaning One who leads the people. He was one of the foremost proponents of Pan Africanism and a staunch supporter of liberation movements in Africa. He was the lead organizer for the African Liberation Day demonstration in Washington, DC in 1972.

Returning to Milwaukee in the late 1970's, Fuller lead efforts to challenge the status quo for low income people. He served as Secretary of Human Resources under Governor Tony Earl, Dean of General Studies at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and Superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools. In the 1980's, completed his Ph.D. in at Marquette University and served on its Board of Trustees.

Since founding the Institute for the Transformation of Learning in 1996 at Marquette University, Fuller has become a national figure in the school reform movement. In 2000, frustrated by the lack of people of color "at the tables" of policymakers, he founded the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). The distinctive mission of BAEO is to increase assess of Black children to high quality education options by actively supporting transformational education reform initiatives and parental choice policies that empower low-income and working-class Black families. Later, he was the Founding Board Chair for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Locally, he serves as the Board Chair of Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, a charter high school serving low income children.

Fuller's support today for fundamental education reform and empowerment of low income and working class families is an extension of the fight he has carried on for most of his adult life.