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Youngest student in Spelman College history launches plan for social change

A DeKalb County teenager, who became the youngest student in Spelman College history at 14 years old, has come up with a plan for social action in the wake of police brutality protests across the country.

Sydney Wilson and her family believe the protests are necessary but they do not think they will fix the problem.

Wilson was sparked to action when she saw fellow Atlanta University Center classmates roughed up by police during weekend protests.

“The time has come for us to force the safety, justice and dignity we deserve,” Wilson told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes.

WIlson has been a standout student all of her life. By the time she hit second grade, she knew she was different than other students in her class. Many of them teased her for being too smart.

“I just stayed on my path,” Wilson said in a 2019 interview. “I didn’t really feel like I needed to be popular ... because, I mean, I like myself.”

Wilson’s parents knew they had to do something different, so they enrolled her in Wilson Academy in Lithonia. That’s where she started taking high school classes at age 10.

Now she’s championing change with her family as a rising sophomore in college.

“In order to find a solution, we must first understand why this is happening. The reason that officers of the law, or private citizens who are acting like they are officers of the law, continue to murder us is because we can offer no consequence,” her father, Byron Wilson, said.

Byron Wilson says he wants today’s protesters to follow up with action like people did in the civil rights era -- including economic action and boycotts.

“In the short term we demand justice and in the long term we demand reform, but we must be specific if we are to hold our nation accountable,” Wilson added.

Sydney and her family laid out specific ways to combat the problem economically, politically and systematically.

You can visit their website here.