We at Defending the Early Years are deeply saddened as we mourn the loss of Maurice Sykes, founding national advisory board member, who passed away on Saturday, March 29th. Maurice was a fierce advocate for all children and a trailblazing early childhood professional. He worked tirelessly advocating for equitable early learning opportunities for all children and inspired countless early childhood educators and advocates to do the same. We were fortunate to have him speak at two summer institutes where he got to share his passion for centering racial justice in early childhood education and care. Click on the images below to view the recordings.
Below is a brief memorial from DEY ED Denisha Jones
I don’t remember when I first met Maurice Sykes but I do know that we have been friends for almost 20 years. As a UDC early childhood education alumnus, I was familiar with his work at the Early Childhood Leadership Institute, and I suspect we crossed paths more than once during that time. But it wasn’t until Maurice reached out to me in 2020 to contribute to the Child Care Justice book that our friendship grew and deepened. Every time we spoke, not only did I learn so much about being a dedicated advocate for ECEC, but I felt like he allowed me to teach him some things as well. Despite having more experience than me, he always made me feel like an equal and always thanked me for challenging his thinking on topics where we diverged. There were times when I didn’t think I would get that chapter written because Maurice had a vision for how he wanted it to be, and I didn’t think I could deliver. But he refused to give up and modeled his leadership skills, mentoring me to get the job done.
Sadly, we never finalized our plan to host a webinar on the Child Care Justice book. As always, he was on my to-do list until we ran out of time. Despite no longer being able to learn from his brilliance, I will use my memories of the many conversations we had to inspire my desire to remain committed to this field, despite the uncertain future that awaits. Thank you for showing us what a courageous early childhood advocate can be and do. Rest in power, Maurice.
To read more tributes, please visit his online memorial.
Exchange Press has made the articles and videos he created freely accessible to all https://hub.exchangepress.com/author/maurice-sykes/
