Toward A New Freedom School

• In Event: African American Institution-building

Abstract

Having just returned from Havana, I marveled at their free educational system. Within that educational system is the amalgamation of diverse cultures including some emphasis even in the art school ISSA--which I visited--on Yoruba culture, keeping in mind 40% of Cubans claim African ancestry. My question then is: how can we better connect African-American students with their ancestral cultural heritage in this post-Obama era, which transitioned into the new populist Trump era! I propose to show that the Freedom Schools of the 60's popularized by thirty Mississippi Freedom Schools Summer of 1964 which educated over 3500 students are much needed to better connect black youth with their heritage and also remind them of the need for continued activism. Using statistics from the Schott Foundation, the NAEP, and research as seen in award-winning books as Deborah Menkart, et. a. Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching, and the book Beyond Heroes and Holidays and think tanks and organizations as Teaching for Change, Rethinking Schools, and the former National Coalition of Education Activists, I will outline a curriculum for new Freedom Schools and discuss sample lesson plans. This new school will seek to help students command more agency and to develop a critical analysis of American history and activist strategies for change.

Author

• Dr. Margaret Bernice Smith Bristow, Bryant and Stratton College