Mr. Secretary

Growing up in South Florida in the 1940s, Wilbert Bryant wanted nothing more than to help his disabled mother get enough money to build a house with electricity and running water. At age 8 he picked potatoes in the fields with his four brothers to help earn money for the family. In an era of segregation, the challenges of poverty would shape him into a man who forged a path through an HBCU education, romancing his lovely wife Emily, serving in Vietnam, Korea, Germany and England. Rising through the Army to the rank of colonel, mentored by Colin Powell, he returned to higher education as Vice President of Students Affairs at a Virginia HBCU. His daughter's heartbreaking murder thrust his family onto the national stage with news stories in every major national newspaper, articles in People Magazine and an interview on Oprah Winfrey's show. Becoming Virginia's Secretary of Education, he managed a $17-billion biannual budget, the largest in Virginia's state government. In the White House's Rose Garden, Wil defended Virginia's own education policy against the No Child Left Behind initiative. Starting his serious education at an HBCU, Wil ended his career strengthening HBCUs in George W. Bush's White House.