Students lead U.S. push for fuller Black history education By MIKE CATALINI, Associated Press
Published: April 8, 2021, 5:13pm
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5 Photos Ebele Azikiwe, 12, poses for a photograph in Cherry Hill, N.J., Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Azikiwe testified in October at state Assembly hearing, lending her support to legislation requiring New Jersey s school districts to add diversity to curriculums. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Photo Gallery
TRENTON, N.J. – Ebele Azikiwe was in the sixth grade last year when February came and it was time to learn about Black history again. She was, by then, familiar with the curriculum: Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a discussion on slavery. Just like the year before, she said, and the year before that.
The previous generation of courses focused on cultural awareness. What schools found, according to Maurice Hall the dean of the College of New Jersey s arts and communications school and a social justice scholar was that students still had socioeconomic, cultural and racial blind spots.
Growing up with a majority point of view could mean thinking that the way a particular culture sees the world “is in fact the right way, Hall said.
Connecticut implemented a law in December requiring high schools to offer courses on Black and Latino studies. New Jersey, where learning standards already included some diversity education lessons, last month became the latest state to enact a law requiring school districts to incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion.
Students lead US push for fuller Black history education
MIKE CATALINI, Associated Press
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1of8Ebele Azikiwe, 12, poses for a photograph in Cherry Hill, N.J., Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Azikiwe testified in October at state Assembly hearing, lending her support to legislation requiring New Jersey s school districts to add diversity to curriculums. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law.Matt Rourke/APShow MoreShow Less
2of8Ebele Azikiwe, 12, writes at her desk at home in Cherry Hill, N.J., Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Azikiwe testified in October at a state Assembly hearing, lending her support to legislation requiring New Jersey s school districts to add diversity to curriculums. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law.Matt Rourke/APShow MoreShow Less
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Mike CataliniApril 8, 2021
Ebele Azikiwe, 12, poses for a photograph in Cherry Hill, N.J., Wednesday, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Ebele Azikiwe was in the sixth grade last year when February came and it was time to learn about Black history again. She was, by then, familiar with the curriculum: Rosa Parks, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a discussion on slavery. Just like the year before, she said, and the year before that.
Then came George Floyd’s killing in May, and she wrote to the administration at her school in Cherry Hill, in New Jersey’s Philadelphia suburbs, to ask for more than the same lessons.
Trenton, N.J.
Ebele Azikiwe was in the sixth grade last year when February came and it was time to learn about Black history again. She was, by then, familiar with the curriculum: Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and a discussion on slavery. Just like the year before, she said, and the year before that.
Then came George Floyd’s death in May, and she wrote to the administration at her school in Cherry Hill, in New Jersey’s Philadelphia suburbs, to ask for more than the same lessons.
“We learned about slavery, but did we go into the roots of slavery?” Ebele said in an interview. “You learned about how they had to sail across, but did you learn about how they felt being tied down on those boats?”