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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Gail Kearns, Publicist |
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Activist Educator and Former All-American Sprinter John Telford (Detroit, Michigan, September 20, 2009) – Inner-city teacher and retired suburban school superintendent John Telford has long been called a lightning rod for controversy. A 74-year-old native Detroiter who outran Olympic champions in his youth, Dr. Telford is one of America’s most fervent fighters for the right of impoverished black and brown teenagers to get a full and fair education. In January 2010, Harmonie Park Press, a 60-year-old company that is launching a new series of titles from emerging Michigan writers, will release Dr. John Telford’s blockbuster, no-holds-barred autobiography, A Life on the RUN – Seeking and Safeguarding Social Justice. World-renowned self-help author Dr. Wayne Dyer calls Dr. Telford’s life story “luminous”—and “in turn, outraged, droll, scandalous, and sexy.” Spencer Haywood, an Olympian and National Basketball Association All-Star of the 1960s and 70s, says: “Coach Telford has led a life of which legends are made.” Telford’s incarceration as a young teen and his expulsion from a Detroit high school were humbling experiences that set the stage for what former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer calls “John’s lifelong championing of the underdog.” Despite illicit romances that ended his first marriage and nearly destroyed his career, Telford was able to tilt at many windmills, right many wrongs, and help save the world—often one youngster at a time. For his aggressive initiatives to ensure racial justice, he was attacked by community bigots when as a deputy superintendent he hired black principals and his home was riddled with bullets at midnight. Telford was later fired from another suburban superintendency for bringing in hundreds of Detroit students against the wishes of white residents. He was also fired from two non-consecutive executive directorships in the Detroit schools by officials whose incompetence, classism, and corruption he exposed in newspaper columns and on his radio show. His young African-American activist wife Gina says: “John doesn’t hesitate to fight the white and the black establishment when they aren’t about kids.” Dr. Telford is a wise, witty, and cautionary voice in the still discomfiting and difficult discourse on racism and classism in America. In his riveting autobiography, he shares rare insights regarding what is right and wrong with American secondary education—especially urban secondary education—and how those pervasive wrongs can be righted. We invite you to consider Dr. Telford for stories or background for a frank assessment of the state of race relations today—with his insider’s perspective that is extremely rare among white men. He offers half-a-century of first-hand insights from the executive offices of school districts in exclusionary suburbs and from the schools and streets of some of our most economically challenged urban neighborhoods. He remains the only top-ranked administrative retiree in America who actually came back to teach in a tough big-city high school. While others continue merely to “talk the talk,” Telford dares and cares enough to “walk the walk.” To learn more about Dr. Telford and his book, visit www.ALifeontheRUN.com. To request a review copy and/or set up an author interview, contact Gail M. Kearns at 805-898-2263 or e-mail gail@topressandbeyond.com. |
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