Let's Do Better

It's Time to Reform

Black History Education

Can you believe that...

About 80% of this country's 3.7 million teachers are white. Black teachers only make up 12% of the remaining 20%.

39% of teachers say their state offers little or no support for teaching about slavery.

Text from a 21st Century geography book by McGraw Hill describes the Slave Trade as:

"The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations."

64% of teachers use "owners" rather than "enslavers"

Based on a 2017 survey by Southern Poverty Law Center.

92%

of high school students don't know that the Civil War was fought over slavery?

Based on a 2017 survey by Southern Poverty Law Center.

Our children...

need to know the truth about America's past so they can create a better future.

This sanitized history taught - in our schools, and culture - is the fog that keeps us from finding the path to true justice for All.

How To:

Demand Education Reform Locally

Artwork by Corey Presha

Step 1

Contact your local school Principal.

Inquire about your child's local curriculum:

How old are the books that they are using?

When is the last time the school's curriculum received an Audit? What were the results? (Avg every 7 years)

How is Black History / Slavery taught in your school?

Step 2

If dissatisfied with above answers, gather several parents to create a Petition (Template Petition Here) demanding your local School Board to conduct a culturally responsive curriculum audit AND commit to removing any harmful, outdated, or inaccurate resources immediately and replace them with culturally responsive resources.

What is Creative Responsive Education?

Culturally responsive education (closely related to the terms culturally relevant and culturally sustaining education) refers to the combination of teaching, pedagogy, curriculum, theories, attitudes, practices, and instructional materials that center students culture, identities, and contexts throughout educational systems. Some key principles of culturally responsive education (CRE) include:

Validating students' experiences and values

Disrupting power dynamics that privilege dominant groups

Empowering students

NYU CRE Scorecard Audit: NYU Metro Center designed this tool to help parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools English Language Arts curriula are (or are not) culturally responsive.

Step 3

Review Audit + pressure School Board to follow through on their commitment.

Step 4

Get involved in the local School Board. The #1 way to make sure change is happening is to get into positions of power within the School Board to hold officials accountable and act.

Demand Education Reform

Sign this petition to demand the Brooklyn Public Education Board to "Do Better" by forcing all public schools to conduct a culturally responsive audit on all resources used in their curriculums AND commit to replacing all outdated/inaccurate resources with up to date and culturally relevant material.

Educate Test Yourself

We've pulled together some of the most pivotal books on Black history to help begin or simply reinforce your journey to learning the truth. We are including a select # of books from this reading list with two products that we collaborated on with our friends at Lichen NY.
All proceeds will be donated to The Carter Center for K-12 black history education.

A Special thank you to Everest Isles, Blackstock + Weber and Eric Emanuel for donating over 1,200 books for this project.

Tier 1

10 Books Included

$350.00

Tier 2

5 Books Included

$250.00

Tier 3

3 Books Included

$150.00

"Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Until all are taught."