Part II: Phillicia Crawford-Lee Continues the Conversation on Education, Legacy and Community Responsibility
By Shabazz | Kourage & Kulture
Phillicia Crawford-Lee returned to Kourage & Kulture with the conversation focused firmly on the future.
Working in campus management at Austin Community College’s Highland Campus, Crawford-Lee sees firsthand how important guidance can be for students entering unfamiliar educational environments. She pointed to programs such as BRASS, which supports African American students, and emphasized the need for more Black professionals willing to serve as mentors.
For Crawford-Lee, representation is practical.
A student struggling through their first semester may need more than information. They may need someone who understands their experience and can help them navigate it.
“It’s kind of like having a friend to help walk you along that path,” she explained.
HISTORY MUST STAY ALIVE
Crawford-Lee is equally concerned about what Black children are not learning.
Through her work with the Austin Area Heritage Council and its youth oratory competition, she has spent years exposing children to Black history, public speaking, research and community service.
Her position is clear: families and communities cannot assume schools will teach everything Black children need to know about themselves.
She believes young people must understand the Black thinkers, professionals, inventors, organizers and community builders who came before them.
Without that knowledge, she warns, children risk losing connection to their community, heritage and identity.
EXPOSURE CREATES POSSIBILITY
Crawford-Lee intentionally brings elementary-age students onto a college campus so they can see possibilities before they are forced to make career decisions.
Students are exposed to fields including nursing, business, culinary arts, photography, radio, television, engineering, theater and music.
Her strategy is simple:
Let children see the future early enough to prepare for it.
She also rejects the idea that education has only one form. Community college, certifications, technical programs and career training can all become pathways forward when young people understand their options.
NEVER GIVE UP
Crawford-Lee closed the interview speaking directly to Black youth who may feel disconnected from school.
“Never give up.”
Her message was not complicated.
You may fall.
Get back up.
You may have to work harder.
Keep moving.
There is something ahead worth reaching for, but nobody can grasp it for you.
“The world is yours. The future is yours.”
That may be the clearest expression of the work Crawford-Lee inherited—and the work she continues trying to transfer.
LAW — TRANSFER
Pass history, opportunity, mentorship and hard-earned knowledge forward. A generation cannot inherit what the generation before it refuses to teach.