ABSTRACT
It is appropriate that the Head Start story be included in a volume centered on the theme of social justice. The birth of Head Start was part of a massive national effort to provide both social justice and parity to impoverished U.S. residents whose life circumstances had removed them from America’s mainstream. These families lived in blighted urban centers as well as poor, rural areas where decent education and job opportunities were elusive. Their plight was made vividly clear in Michael Harrington’s (1962) aptly named book, The Other America. The story of horrid poverty existing in one of the wealthiest nations on earth incited voters and their elected officials to do something about it.
