The number of black children in the U.S. has skyrocketed in the last few decades, but it’s not only black children who are facing the pressure to succeed in school.
Dark skinned children are being forced into the labor market, and their numbers are soaring, too.
Here are five of the darkest skinned students at the top of the list.
1.
Mandy Moore, 6, black daughter of a teacher and a social worker at a middle school in Alabama.
Moore graduated from high school in 2015 with a 3.9 GPA.
Her father, a teacher at the middle school, also taught her to be a hard worker and a student-athlete.
“He was really hard on me, even though I was always very self-centered and a little bit lazy,” she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“I really felt like he was putting a lot of pressure on me.”
She is now working as a social workers assistant.
2.
Adriana Lee, 6 years old, black girl who is studying at a high school and working in sales for a company in Houston.
Lee was born black, but her mother is white and her father is white.
She has been teaching high school English for three years and is also a student athlete.
Lee said she was the one who taught her how to speak English and how to work on her communication skills.
3.
Alyssa Jackson, 7, black teen from North Carolina.
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has a program called Black Youth Project 100, which helps kids of color.
Jackson, a sophomore, is the first black student to complete the program, which offers free tutoring for the first six months of high school.
It has helped her with a lot and it’s helped her get a job, said Jackson, who has been attending the program since the summer.
4.
Darryl Jones, 7 years old white kid from Florida who graduated from middle school.
Darryl was also a first-grader in the same school, but his parents are black and his older sister is white, according to the Miami Herald.
His mother is a teacher.
He is a football player and he is a team captain, said Jones, who is black.
5.
Elijah Smith, 9, black son of a police officer and a school resource officer.
Smith is a first grader at a Florida school.
His father is a police department officer.
He is an honor roll student and is on track to be the first African American officer to become a police captain.
When he is not doing schoolwork or working, Smith can be found with his brother and sister, who are both white, on the streets.