In February 2005, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted unanimously to mandate African and African American history for high school students. Finally, the District stopped telling the community to “Wait!” – a directive Martin Luther King, Jr. declared as piercingly familiar to the ear of Black people and almost always meaning “Never.”
Reactions to the mandate ranged from surprise and elation to indignation. However, the affirmative vote was long overdue.
Some were insulted by the mandatory course, and others disagreed with the District's implementation method, preferring an integration of the Africana story in world and American history in lieu of a separate course. But the time had come to put something substantive in place – even though it may require refinement over time.
The fact that there was still a strong outcry from the Black community for an African American history course 37 years after a massive protest in Philadelphia is indicative of the permanence of racial inequality, and a District promise unfulfilled. And the insistence for such a mandatory course will probably only subside once Black people cease being marginalized.
Prior to the 2005 mandate, the ways in which the District addressed infusing Black history throughout the curriculum were ineffective and often tokenistic, despite a 1968 school board directive that African American history be integrated into the curriculum.
Some have questioned the relevance of a required African American history course.
But a 2001 national survey of White people's racial perceptions by the Washington Post, the Kaiser Foundation and Harvard University shows the urgent need to teach African and African American history. The Post reported finding that “large numbers of White Americans incorrectly believe that Blacks are as well off as Whites in terms of their jobs, schooling, income and healthcare.” These misperceptions represent “formidable obstacles to any government effort to equalize the social and economic standing of the races,” the Post reported.
Given students' lack of exposure to African and African American history, false perceptions are not surprising. So it is important to rectify the inaccuracies that often result in students buying into myths and stereotypes about Blacks, thereby perpetuating prejudice and racism.
For decades the District curriculum has portrayed Black people as entering the historical world stage as slaves and as impediments in history, rather than contributors to it. By correcting this false notion and providing a broader historical lens for students to view themselves and each other, everyone benefits.
African Americans hail from a rich African legacy, but this is often overlooked. Before being captured and transported to the shores of America as a cheap source of labor, Africans had already navigated the oceans as captains of their own ships. Long before colonization, Africa had a developed civilization. However, Africans' achievements were denigrated despite their contributions, because when Europeans colonized Africa, they also colonized the interpretation of history. These are the roots of racism that permeate society and make teaching the African and African American experience to students so important.
There is a need to be responsible and comprehensive in the retelling of history. Other groups' substantial contributions should not be overlooked. However, efforts to be inclusive should not stall or minimize the current directive to institute African and African American history as a high school requirement.
Perhaps a more integrated curriculum could have been created and instituted years ago, if a more integrated group had been pressuring the District for its implementation.
However, Philadelphia's oppressed groups are still very divided by skin color, and progress on inclusion will continue to occur in a piecemeal fashion until solid coalitions are built.