Music like Marcus Foster

Marcus Albert Foster (March 31, 1923 – November 6, 1973) was an American educator who gained a national reputation for educational excellence while serving as principal of Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1966-1969) as Associate Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia (1969-1970), and as the first black Superintendent of a large city school district when he was appointed Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California in 1970. Foster was assassinated in 1973 by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

Foster was born in Athens, Georgia, later attending public schools in Philadelphia, graduating from South Philadelphia High School. His mother Alice fostered Marcus's mastery of Standard English by highlighting its importance as the dominant syntax. Subsequently, as a young man he was both exceptionally scholastic and rebellious, opting to frequent the Club Ziger where one had to "smoke a stogie and drink a lot of wine to get in." Furthermore, as a member of the Trojans, a neighborhood men's club, his comrade Frye noted Foster "could hold his hands up". This broad range of youth experience aided Foster throughout his life, affording him a disposition to connect with and inspire students of myriad backgrounds while drawing together disparate groups advocating for alternative, at times oppositional, visions of social reform. He graduated from Cheyney State College in 1947 and earned the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from the University of Pennsylvania.