The cover of a text provided to teach African American history in Philadelphia, "Lessons in Africana Studies", Office of Curriculum and Instruction, 2005.
In 2005 the School District of Philadelphia made African American history a required course for graduation in Philadelphia, a major triumph for the students who demonstrated nearly forty years prior.
Melvin Garrison, a member of the School District’s African American history office that helped implement the 2005 mandate, November 30th, 2018.
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"The School Reform Commission, a panel that sets policy . . . voted five to zero in February to make the course mandatory in all fifty-three high schools [in Philadelphia]", "Philadelphia Mandates Black History for Graduation", June 25th, 2005, The New York Times.
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The School District provides teachers with curriculum, but in most schools the course relies primarily on analyzing primary sources.
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"I say this in all honesty: All curricula (and pedagogical philosophies) work in the abstract. It’s the application of those curricula that can be problematic for stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, administrators, et al). As long as a teacher has the ability to make African American History interesting and relevant for the 21st century student, then the current curriculum is fine"- Larry Perry, a teacher of African American history at Parkway Center City High School in Philadelphia.
The course has had a positive effect on students across the city.
“We’re known as gangsters, drug dealers, and killers...I feel better now because I know a little bit more about how we lived before we got here” -An African American Student in Philadelphia discussing his experience with the course, "Philadelphia Mandates Black History for Graduation", June 25th, 2005, The New York Times. |
Dr. Molefi Asante discussing the importance of African American history for African Americans, “Molefi Kete Asante- Afrocentric Education", April 12th, 2016.
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Based on data published by the School District, it can be extrapolated that over 100,000 students in Philadelphia have taken a black history course since the 2005 mandate.
I thought I was prepared [to teach African American history], but I was not. I had taught a course on the history of Philadelphia, of which African American history was integral. I am so glad, though, that I offered to teach the course. The learning curve was steep, but teaching African American history has changed the way I view our city and country--both in the past and today.
- Amy Cohen, a former teacher of African American history at Masterman High School in Philadelphia
I have seen black students leaving more proud. I have seen others leave more enlightened. I have had some students completely shut down.
- Elizabeth Wesley, a teacher of African American history at Central High School in Philadelphia
"I think that the students have been shown things that were relevant for them today. That is, I am pretty certain that I was able to bring something to life that was evident from an abstract standpoint but not necessarily in application. It’s one thing to know that the Civil Rights Movement was difficult. But it’s something altogether different to see and hear the visceral images and videos of mobs of intolerant White Americans attacking children for wanting to attend school, hanged and burned Black bodies, and the attacks of police dogs and water cannons on unarmed, peaceful protestors.
-Larry Perry, a teacher of African American history at Parkway Center City High School in Philadelphia
The study of history requires learning about the identities of groups of people. History not only indicates where people have been, what they have been, where they are, and what they are; history also provides a blueprint for where they still must go and what they still must be. K-12 Black history is as important as ever as we enter a new political era that might be contentious about those principles. As was the case in the early twentieth century and the 1960s, Black history is needed to allow society to comprehend Blackness through the record of Black agency and advancement in the context of systemic notions of White supremacy and racism. Our teaching should center on how Black history improves our understanding of contemporary circumstances, and how it can stimulate us to improve our democracy.
- LaGarret King, “The Status of Black History in U.S. Schools and Society”, National Council for the Social Studies