Have you ever sat in a staff meeting where the tension was so thick you can cut it with a knife, where you were not sure if a comment would spark an all-out race riot amongst teachers? Well, three years ago I sat in...
Tag - Black History
“Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” While many Americans are waiting with baited breath for July 4, today Black people around the...
Teaching in Philly is hard. Five billion dollars are necessary to complete all outstanding repairs in our buildings. Teachers reach into their own pockets for classroom supplies, playing the roles of librarian, counselor, and...
Almost every December 31, at 7:00 p.m., my family joins the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) to honor our ancestors who awaited in breathtaking suspense for Lincoln’s promise of an Emancipation Proclamation. This...
I Started This School Year Talking About My History So My Students Could Discover Their Own Identity
I started this year with only two things on my mind: 1) helping my students develop positive racial identities and 2) building a community within a community. Last year, because of the events that happened in Charlottesville...
On June 19, 1865, two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing (only) some of the enslaved, Union Major General Gordon Granger, rode into Galveston, Texas and announced: The people of Texas are informed...
In 1967, Black students in Philadelphia staged a protest demanding Black History classes in their high schools and more Black teachers. It would take Philadelphia almost 40 years to implement Black History courses in all its high...
“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class-it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.” A multitude of hidden figures silently loom in our shadows, yet those...