Omarosa Manigault

With Black History Month underway, people all over the country are taking the opportunity to celebrate the lives and contributions of courageous African-American leaders — from Frederick Douglass and Madam C.J. Walker, to Martin Luther King Jr. and Clarence Thomas.

There are countless heroes to be honored and stories to be passed on to future generations, but one name in particular holds a special place in my heart and mind this year: Harriet Tubman.

Born into slavery about 1820, Tubman boldly escaped, later explaining that, for her, it was "liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."

But what she did next was even more heroic — she went back to save others. On more than a dozen clandestine missions, she rescued at least 70 slaves from bondage, shuttling them through the famed underground railroad.

Tubman's legacy has been celebrated over the past year after it was announced that she'd become the first African American to be featured on U.S. currency.

Her story has served as an inspiration for Americans of all races and backgrounds, but her decision to help others who had been left behind resonates with me particularly today as I serve in the Trump White House.

I am proud to serve under a president who has made it clear that the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no more, including — and I would argue especially — African Americans.

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Education is the ultimate equalizer in our society. I say that from personal experience.

My mother raised me in a housing project in Youngstown, Ohio, after my father was murdered when I was 7.

I attended the Rayen School, an inner-city public school with a rich history that struggled to survive after the city's manufacturing sector was decimated, the population fled and funding dried up. I was fortunate enough to graduate from Rayan and to attend two historically black colleges, Central State University and Howard University. The educational opportunities I received opened up doors that otherwise would have been closed to me. I have been a successful businesswoman, television personality, professor, military chaplain and now senior aide to the president of the United States.

But many others in the city where I grew up — and in other cities and towns around the country — are not so fortunate, particularly in the African-American community.

For far too many of our youth, the ZIP code they grow up in dictates whether or not they will have access to a quality education. These are the forgotten boys and girls of America, and it is well past time for someone — in the spirit of Harriet Tubman — to go back and lift them up. I am proud to say that the Trump administration is working hard to do exactly that.

Parental choice in education is at the core of the president's plan for urban renewal.

His desire is for every disadvantaged child in the United States to have an opportunity to attend the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of the parents’ choice. He believes this is the great civil rights issue of our time, and African Americans all over the country agree, as does our new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Betsy is one of the country’s greatest advocates for children and families. She can be counted on to empower parents and put the focus where it belongs: on what is best for our students.

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The president has also pledged to ensure funding for historically black colleges and universities and to increase support for trade and vocational education, which will provide African-American students with the skills that lead to better jobs, higher wages and increased prosperity.

For hundreds of years, the fight for equality of opportunity has been at the center of our country's struggle to form a more perfect union. Parental choice in education is the most recent battle in this larger fight, and it is one that we cannot afford to lose.

For the sake of boys and girls all over our country who feel forgotten or left behind, the Trump administration is making every effort to not only celebrate the contributions of black leaders throughout our history, but also to provide opportunities to the African-American leaders of the future. This month especially, that is something to which we should all be committed.

Omarosa Manigault is an assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.

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