Maisha Moses and the Young People’s Project – Special Feature from the Movement History Initiative

Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator

This Women’s History Month, the Movement History Initiative (MHI) is proud to highlight Maisha Moses as the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project (YPP). YPP is one of the organizations that have partnered with MHI’s goal to carry forward the spirit of the organizing tradition. Using math literacy the Young People’s Project, works “to develop the abilities of elementary through high school students to succeed in school and in life, and in doing so involves them in efforts to eliminate institutional obstacles to their success” (Misson, The Young People’s Project)

Maisha Moses

Early Life and Influences:

Maisha’s early childhood was heavily influenced by her parents, veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bob and Janet Jemmott Moses . She was born in Tanzania, where her parents were teaching at a rural school in Samé. She was educated at a very early age and could read before she started school. “Teaching and education was really deep in their spirits and how they moved through the world, and so I really benefited from that.”

(l to r) Bob Moses, Maisha Moses, Janet Moses. “Civic Leadership Spotlight: Cambridge family brings civil rights and math to kids” Cambridge Community Foundation, Dec. 19, 2018

Maisha benefited greatly from their experience as organizers during the Civil Rights Movement. Even after their time with SNCC , her parents remained connected with other organizers, many of whom often visited the family once they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1976. Maisha recalls learning freedom songs and being deeply moved by the energy that was brought into the house by her “extended family.” She would meet influential powerhouses like Ella Baker and see the respect from others that they had for her father, especially when she heard him speak publicly for the first time at Amzie Moore’s funeral.

Maisiah’s Future and the Algebra Project:

While in the 8th grade, Maisha’s father began teaching her and some of her peer’s algebra because it was not offered at the school. This would be the start of the Algebra Project , an organization, whose goal was to use math literacy as an organizing tool to guarantee that every child has a quality education and understanding of complex mathematics that was needed in the coming age of technology.

Maisha says that her father’s approach to mathematics was “powerful and deep enough that they helped me make my own sense of calculus and so I think I was hooked by all of that.”

Attending Harvard University allowed her to continue to volunteer with the growing Algebra Project. She started by helping with the Saturday program facilitated by her father and later began working with her sister and her peers that were in the 8th grade.

Bob Moses and Maisha Moses at Freedom Summer 50th in Jackson, MS.

Her father’s method of teaching math was eye opening. His technique of viewing the classroom as a meeting space, drawn from his experience of organizing in the rural South, felt “very familiar… but at the same time, it was so different from anything else that I have experienced in all my education.”

After graduating in 1991 Maisha and the Algebra Project would become a 501(c)(3). What would she do next? Become an educator? No, she wanted more experience before stepping into that role. Pursue a master’s degree? Not yet, she didn’t have a clear path on what to study. What she did know was that she wanted to find her place and purpose to create systemic change, just as her parents and “extended family” had. “I felt like I had a lot to give, you know, having received so much. I had a sense of that.”

Maisha told her father she wanted to keep working with the Algebra Project. “I didn’t see anything else that was hitting all the buttons for me like the Algebra Project.” So, he sent her to a junior high school in Oakland, California to help support teachers and implement the curriculum he had developed. She stayed in Oakland until 1997, helping shape the program to fit the school and its environment.

Maisha and the Young People’s Project (YPP)

While Maisha was in Oakland, her father and brothers were in Jackson, Mississippi establishing what would be the start of the Young People’s Project. Working with a group of students from Brinkley Middle School in an abandoned science classroom, they would play the flagway game and continue expanding their knowledge of mathematics.

Children at Brinkley YPP

Omo Facilitating Shelby

As the Moses brothers and students at Brinkley began laying the foundation for the YPP, Bob Moses called Maisha from Oakland to have her help establish the budding organization. She was tasked with developing a training program for the middle and high school students that would serve as math literacy workers. Years later, Bob Moses’s insight and Maisha’s leadership proved invaluable as YPP grew out of the classroom at Brinkley Middle and into other institutions of education. Omo Moses wrote in his memoir “White Peril: A Family Memoir,” that Maisha’s involvement in the early stages of YPP “created space for the spirit of love to flourish” calling her YPP’s mother.

The Young People’s Project Today

Today Maisha serves as the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project. For thirty years the organization has stayed true to its original cause of giving young people the space to organize and teach themselves and one another through mathematics. In 2005, support from the National Science Foundation made it possible to open a second office in Boston, with expansion into high schools in Chicago and Michigan soon after.. While maintaining close ties to the Algebra Project, YPP has also partnered with the Education Testing Service and, in 2015, extended its impact internationally by bringing the Flagway Tournament to Dublin, Ireland. Grounded in its tradition of grassroots organizing, the organization also helped inspire “Finding Our Folk” (FOF), a student-led response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the government’s failure to respond effectively.

Maisha Moses at Flagway

The Young People’s Project offers two signature programs: the Flagway Tournament and Math Playground . Flagway , a fast-paced, team-based math game, allows students to decode number patterns and race their solutions, building fluency, strategy, and pride. In 2025, YPP hosted its 9th National Flagway Tournament at the University of San Francisco, bringing together seven teams and about 200 students, educators, and families. Math Playground extends this work to broader audiences, creating interactive spaces where math becomes shared and engaging. YPP has facilitated seven Math Playgrounds across three states, reaching hundreds of participants, including more than 350 students and 225 community members. Together, these programs embody YPP’s mission to make math collaborative, empowering, and alive. The 10th Flagway Tournament will be hosted May 16th this year at MIT campus Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The growth of the Young People’s Project and Maisha as a leader and math literacy expert is a testament to the power of the organizing spirit as it has transformed over time. The Young People’s project remains rooted in the belief that young people have the ability to lead their own learning and transform their own communities, just as Maisha has remained rooted within the legacy of her parents’ work. Together they continue to carry the spirit of the movement forward.

And Don’t Forget!

The 10th National Flagway Tournament and Math Playground

May 16, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM | MIT Campus (Cambridge, MA)

The 10th National Flagway Tournament and Math Playground is a dual-format, youth-led celebration of math literacy bringing together students, families, educators, and community partners on the MIT campus during the 2026 Year of Math.

The day begins with the Math Playground—an open, family-friendly arena featuring 25+ interactive math games designed for K–8 learners and led by high school Math Literacy Workers (MLWs). Participants can explore hands-on activities that make math creative, collaborative, and accessible for all ages.

The event culminates in the National Flagway Tournament, a fast-paced, team-based competition built on the Möbius function, where middle school teams are coached by high school MLWs using YPP’s distinctive near-peer leadership model. Students don’t just solve math problems—they strategize, move, collaborate, and lead!

Families, educators, and supporters are invited to attend, observe, participate, and celebrate a public vision of math where leadership, inclusion, and opportunity take center stage.This is a free event!

Register Here!

Watch a preview of the event here!