Modeling strong leadership through vulnerable transparency, SEED leader and former staff member Eric Chapman, head of the Middle School at the Calhoun School in Manhattan, wrote to his staff about Eric Garner and Michael Brown, Jr., and has allowed us to share his words here.

By SEED Co-director Emmy Howe.

A public note to myself on being White and considering the slaughter of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Jr., and Eric Garner.

The SEED Project pays tribute to a second-generation activist, Lillian Roybal Rose, whose father Edward Roybal is one of the (posthumous) recipients of this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

A White House ceremony today will honor Edward Roybal’s accomplishments as a groundbreaking Mexican-American public servant from East Los Angeles who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. When he retired in 1993, his daughter Lucille Roybal-Allard (Lillian’s sister) began her own work as a public servant in Congress where she is still serving, as U.S. Representative for California's 40th Congressional District.