LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A tenured professor is offering a free education to some of Louisville's top executives.
Dr. Ricky Jones, a full professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville, believes most, if not all, of the city's top executives are uneducated about a crucial part of American history.
"They're in a box that most of us are in," Jones said. "We are either mis-educated', as Carter G. Woodson said, or we are under-educated."
Jones said the offer or appeal is specifically for the bosses.
"These are highly privileged and highly successful people, and there's nothing wrong with that," he said.
The offer: a course on "Exploring the Black Experience Past and Present."
"What if we could get the most privileged, most powerful, most influential and successful people in our community to see the world in a different way?" Jones asked.
The offer is to CEOs and board chairs, perhaps some of Louisville's deepest pockets, but Jones said it's not a quid pro quo.
"I wouldn't be paid for this," he said. "There's no money involved."
Instead, Jones wants to share what he's learned from the stacks of books on the shelves in his office and the civil rights icons that line the walls of Pan-African Studies.
"This isn't a dynamic of white guilt," he said. "It's really a question of the failure of American educational institutions to really teach the true story of American history and how we got to where we are."
To be fair, Jones said a lot of people have an education that's lacking crucial information about the history of blacks in America.
"Most of us don't get that in our K through 12 educations," he said. "Most of us don't get that in our collegiate educations."
But Jones believes if he could get the bosses to see and understand the need for change, society would change.
"My thought is that it could set the stage for them to engage the world in a different way," he said.
The 10-12 week course would cover events making news in Louisville and across the country.
"We're talking about history," he said. "We're talking about politics. We're talking about social structures. We're talking about all of those things."
Jones grew up in Atlanta's Carver Homes housing projects, and by 28, he earned a Ph.D. Jones was also educated as an undergraduate at the United State Navel Academy and Morehouse College. He is also only the second African American to receive a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Kentucky. At UK, Jones specialized in Political Philosophy and Comparative Politics.
He said he wants to challenge company leaders to do more than just write checks to schools and organizations.
"I'm not making an argument that companies should not give and be economically invested," Jones said. "But I am making an argument that there needs to be some historical, political contextualization about America's original story or racial stratification."
Jones said he has 50 slots, but if 100 people show up, he'll make room.
The class will start in early 2020, and Jones said he's flexible on the day and time.
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