While some folks are lamenting that Philly did not become Amazon City II, I, for one, am not (apparently, neither is Will Bunch from the Inquirer). To see that a coalition of businessmen and political leaders came together to...
Author - Sharif El-Mekki
In the 1860s, Black Codes, including vagrancy and loitering laws, were established to prevent black people, particularly black men, from coming together. These Black Codes were used to vilify and cement a distinct and racial...
I was recently in Hartford, Connecticut, at the invitation of Mama Gwen Samuel, an activist who works on behalf and with the community. I wasn’t prepared for what I was to encounter; callousness of Black bourgeois, disregard...
The #SchoolToActivismPipeline is real. When Nasiha Thompson-King was given a temporary reprieve and allowed to continue playing basketball for Mastery Charter last February, mere days after a referee would not allow her to enter...
Sharif El-Mekki doesn’t often roll up his pant leg to reveal the scars on his lower leg where the gangrene set in and almost forced doctors to amputate his lower leg. He doesn’t talk about the 12 excruciatingly painful...
I often describe myself as both an activist and a teacher. Why? Because I firmly believe that a quality education is a basic human right that has been historically and currently denied to so many students of color. And the things...
There are six Black male teachers in our school. They represent twelve percent of our classroom teachers. That sounds like only a few (and it is) but in a city where Black men represent four percent of classroom teachers, it...
As a new teacher and career changer, I owe so much to the coaching prowess of Mrs. Yvonne Savior. That’s right, even her name was Savior, and it was her guidance and support that helped me have the impact I sought with my...
This is our school community’s thirteenth year serving students as a turnaround neighborhood charter school. Our turnaround school, used to be the second most dangerous school in the city, if not the state. I attended Shoemaker...
MANY MEN. ONE CHARGE. SUIT UP. Wear something that shows you value our kids. SHOW UP. On the first day of school, join a community of Black men to welcome our students to a new year and a future of great possibilities through...