Black History Matters in the Classroom

Hotep (An Afrikan word for Peace)!!!

Take notes!!!!!!!

”Won’t it be wonderful when black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.”

-Maya Angelou

“My job as a historian is to dislodge misconceptions, not to entertain my students and not to make people feel comfortable. That's what good history does."

-Nancy Isenberg (Professor of American history at Louisiana State University)

Teaching history is my passion, particularly Black history. In this commentary, I will use Afrikan history and Black history interchangeably. Unfortunately, there are still debates brewing in the world on whether or not to call the history of Afrikan people Black history or Afrikan history. I often use both terms. But whichever Afrikan history or Black history term we use, white supremacy and systematic racism have continued to distort the factual contributions Black people made to human civilizations. Many racist lies about Black people are made into "truths" in the western world’s institutions of learning. When we as human beings complete our matriculation through Europeanized educational institutions, many of us leave the classroom indoctrinated to believe that whiteness is superior. But blackness is inculcated as inferior. Unfortunately, these lessons in whiteness have circulated in school systems for centuries making the lives of Black people not matter in the United States and in the world. And in many schools in America, the history of Europeans still exist as the only legitimate history in the millennium. However, New Jersey’s Amistad educational law challenges racist fabrications about Black people and Afrikan history in the classroom. It forces educators to eliminate racial inferiority myths about Black people. But most importantly, the Amistad Law mandates that Black history be included in social studies, and subject area curricula, to give students a more realistic picture of the development of humanity. Personally, it has given me more freedom to teach Afrikan history in the classroom to help my students know that Black people made great contributions to the human world.

The Amistad law (A1301) is a educational law that requires all public schools to include Black history in all social studies classes. This bill was created by two former New Jersey State Afrikan American Democratic Assemblymen named William D. Payne and Craig A. Stanley in 2002 (https://www.nj.gov/education/amistad/about/)

The two former lawmakers named the Amistad Law after a rebellion aboard a European Spaniard slave ship named the Amistad. The revolt was led by a Mende born Afrikan named Sengbe Pieh (His European slave name was Joseph Cinque') in 1839. Pieh and the Afrikans ended up in America. With the help of American abolitionists, Pieh and the Africans sued for their liberation in the US Supreme Court. Pieh and the Afrikans won their case. They eventually retuned to their freedom In Afrika.

The revolutionary Amistad law in New Jersey is on the cutting edge of progressive education. It is the first education law of its kind in America.

In all New Jersey public schools, the Amistad law forces social studies curricula to teach the horrific history of the enslavement of Black people, the outrageousness of colonialization in Afrika, and the hideous system of apartheid. But the law also eliminates social studies teachers beginning the history of Black people only under racial oppression.

Although many New Jersey schools are struggling to mandate their curricula to the Amistad Law, Newark, NJ’s public school district is the first major educational system in the state to adhere to the law for the 2020 -2021 school year.

Prior to the Amistad law, teaching and incorporating Black history into world and American history curricula, was a struggle as a teacher. Many supervisors, and the school system itself, did not see the value in teaching Black history in social studies.

Throughout my matriculation in public schools, from the 1970s to the 1980s as a youngster, almost all the teachers did very little to educate me on Black history; especially, when it came to social studies lessons on ancient Kemet (Egypt). As far a they were concerned, Kemet was not Black. Kemet was not in Afrika.

But many teachers reflected the white supremacist thinking of the time. Systematic racism did not allow Kemet to be a Black civilization.

For example, In a New York Times Article titled, IDEAS & TRENDS; Africa's Claim to Egypt's History Grows More Insistent, writer Felicity Barringer captures the racist thinking of many white people concerning the audacity to teach Black history and the Afrikanity of Kemet in a classroom. She wrote on February 4, 1990, “the poster that hung in a Washington classroom, ''Great Kings and Queens of Africa,'' was a work of pride. All the figures were in heroic poses and all were black. Like Queen Nandi of the Zulus, the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaton and even Cleopatra had the broad features and dark skin tints indicating origins in Central Africa. The poster's message, that ancient North African civilization, including that of the Egyptians, is part of a uniquely black heritage, is gaining a significant following among American blacks. Television programs on black-oriented stations and some teachers at largely black colleges assert that blacks are the rightful heirs of the proud legacy of Egyptian accomplishment - the engineering that produced the pyramids, the development of medicine and elegant speculation on the origins of the universe. The message is disturbing and sometimes infuriating to mainstream classical scholars and Egyptologists, who feel the archeological evidence shows that ancient Egypt and North Africa were a yeasty multiracial world that defies the categories of 20th-century America. But recently the revisionists have found ammunition in the work of Martin Bernal, a Cornell University government professor. With the publication of his book, ''Black Athena: The Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization,'' by Rutgers University Press in 1987, he brought the theories of the black role in the birth of Western civilization from a largely black audience to a white one. The second volume of the projected three-volume work is due soon. Using evidence from the linguistic to the archeological to the mythological, Dr. Bernal argues that while the exact racial composition of ancient Egypt cannot be known, ''Egyptian civilization was fundamentally African.'' He argues that Greek civilization, revered for 250 years as the cradle of Western thought, owed a large debt to the ideas of Egypt and the Middle East. He also raises the possibility that Greece was originally colonized by Egyptians”

(https://www.nytimes.com/1990/0... ).

Unfortunately, white supremacy and systematic racism are still imbedded in our society. In many parts of Unites States, and the world, Black History is still not accepted as credible history.

Nathan McCall, famed Afrikan American author of “Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America” and retired Emory University professor of journalism, recently wrote in the Washington Post a commentary about Black people’s damaging health due to our constant and protracted struggles against systematic racism. The op-ed piece is called, Black Americans are forced to operate our entire lives in battle mode. It’s
utterly exhausting.

In his article dated on November 23, 2020, McCall retells several racist experiences at Emory University. One of them involved the way the school views the Afrikan American studies department. McCall writes, “the truth was that, at Emory, African American studies were regarded as nonessential, while courses in the school’s well-funded Department of History were considered required learning. Such flawed institutional values, which place a premium on the story of Europeans and their descendants, have negative repercussions, for White Americans in particular. That point was bluntly illustrated in 2013, when Emory’s then-president, James Wagner, published an essay in which he cited the 1787 Three-Fifths Compromise as a good example of how Americans should work together to find common ground. The agreement was a racist political bargain between Northern and Southern politicians that counted each Black enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being. Wagner’s article neglected to mention the dreadful impact of that legislation and while he later apologized, it exposed the school to national embarrassment” (https://www.washingtonpost.com... ).

However in New Jersey, our Amistad lawmakers have helped to pave the way for Black History to be taught in the public school classroom with all credibility.

Amistad provides the support, resources and curriculum guides needed for me as a history teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ to adequately merge lessons in Black History into world and American history.

For example, covering a lesson on Afrika being the cradle of humanity will not be looked at as pseudoscientific history by school supervisors.

Just recently, one of the world’s most respected paleontologist sat down for an interview with the Guardian magazine. Her name is Dr. Meave Leakey. Dr. Leakey’s parents-in-law were Drs. Mary and Louis S. B. Leakey. Dr. Meave Leakey’s husband is Dr. Richard Leakey. Her parents-in-law discovered the world’s oldest human bones in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania, Afrika in 1959. In Dr. Meave Leakey’s interview with The Guardian on November 21, 2020, she says, early palaeontologists didn’t believe that humans could have come from Africa. There was a prejudiced insistence that humans must have originated in Europe. The work to convince the scientific community and the world otherwise was started by my parents-in-law and continued by my husband, myself and my daughter Louise. As I have gone through my career it has become more and more accepted. Definitely Africa is where it all began. The climate and the vegetation were right. And, for me, east Africa is most likely, because if you look at where nonhuman primates are distributed today, they concentrate around the tropics and the equator” (https://amp.theguardian.com/sc... ).

Dr. Meave Leakey’s analysis is powerful. But before Dr. Leakey, there were many in the science community presenting evidence on modern men and women starting in Afrika. In a New York Times article dated on Dec. 2, 2001, the title read, Artifacts in Africa Suggest An Earlier Modern Human. The science writer John Noble Wilford said, “the lineage of the first human ancestors is estimated to have diverged between five million and seven million years ago in Africa from the line leading to apes. Anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, evolved in Africa about 150,000 to 100,000 years ago” https://www.nytimes.com/2001/1... ).

Therefore teaching that Black people helped to develop the world's civilizations and religious communities, such as Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mali, Ghana, Songhai, America, Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam; will not be a questionable foot note in social studies.

To make Amistad culturally responsive in my classroom, I use the ancient Afrikan word of hotep as my attention getter. I intertwine Afrikan centered cultural motifs, such as the word hotep, as my pedagogical classroom strategy to keep my students fully engaged on my high school lessons in history and on me.

But everyday, I meet and greet my history students with hotep! And it works

The word hotep opens the door of curiosity on Black history all by itself in the classroom, particularly with my Afrikan / Afrikan American students.

For example, I teach that the word hotep is an ancient Afrikan word for peace. I teach that hotep is a word written in what Europeans and Arabs calls the hieroglyphics. I point out to my students that the Afrikan name of the hieroglyphics is called the Medu Neter. I teach my students that the Medu Neter is the world's first and oldest system of writing. And the word hotep is the oldest word for peace in human history.

I teach that the origins of hotep came from the ancient Afrikan civilization of Egypt.

However, I teach that the true name of Egypt is not Egypt. I teach my students that Egypt's real Afrikan name is Kemet. I teach that Kemet means the land of the Blacks. And yes, I teach my students that before the Greeks (332 B.C.E), the Romans (30 B.C.E), and the Arabs (640 A.D) invaded Kemet, this civilization was a great Black civilization that once ruled the world for over 3000 years.

I teach that Afrikan / Afrikan American history are the missing pages in world and American history.

My students are amazed about the depth Afrikan culture laid for the foundation of the human world. And Amistad has given me the opportunity to take the liberty to explore the facts of Afrikan history before racial oppressive systems such as slavery, colonialism, segregation, and apartheid came into existence.

Another example of the importance of Black History in the classroom are my lessons that covers the real father of medicine- a Blackman named Imhotep. According to the research on ancient Kemetic history, Imhotep was first person in history to breakdown the circulation of blood in the human body. He is also the builder of world’s first step pyramid located at Saqqara in Kemet. Imhotep is considered in history as the world’s first multi-geniuses.

I teach many more missing lessons in world and American history on Afrikan history.

I examine the world’s first universities in Africa. They were called the mystery schools. They were located in Kemet. I teach that Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras all studied in the mystery schools of Afrika.

I cover history lessons on the great pyramids of Giza. I teach that all the pyramids in Kemet were built before the existence of the Abrahamic faiths (i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam). And that the pyramids were constructed by free labor, not by an enslaved labor force.

The lessons on the contributions Black people made to the world’s religions are also analyzed in my history classes.

I teach that the concept of monotheism, the belief in the oneness of God, started in Kemet thousands of years before Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam. The 10 commandments originated from the 42 laws of Ma’at in Kemet thousands of years before the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an. I teach that the laws Ma’at was the world’s first moral and ethical code system.

But I don’t just educate my students about East Afrikan history, I explained to my students that the western region of Afrika established thriving nation-states, schools, and respected world leaders. All of this history took place while Europeans were experiencing their dark ages.

For example, I teach my students that after the destruction of Kemet, arose the three great West Afrikan empires called Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. They were all dominant forces in the world.

During this time in the history, Black people created a major West Afrikan school called the University of Sankore at Timbuktu. People from all over the world traveled to West Afrika to study at the school in subject areas such as the arts, the humanities, philosophy, mathematics, sciences, Al-Islam, theology, and medicine.

Afrikans conquered Spain for nearly 800 years. Europeans called these Afrikans- Moors. The Afrikan Moors were religious practitioners of the Islamic faith from North Afrika.

According to Black History, the Afrikan presence spread to many lands in the world. Before Christopher Columbus sailed to the “new world in 1492,” Black people left West Afrika to explore what historians call the Americas. I include this history in world and American history as a lesson on the pre-Columbian era in the Americas.

I teach my students constantly that there is so much hidden information about the history of Kemet, the history of West Afrika, the history of Afrika, the history of Black people, the European enslavement of Black people, the Arab enslavement of Black people, the American enslavement of Black people, the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade, and the history of Black people before slavery. However, Amistad makes it all possible for me to include Black history as the missing pages of world and American history in the classroom.

I have spent many years of my professional education career fighting school systems and supervisors to combine Black history into world and American history and social studies curricula. Many times my struggle against the system has almost cost me my teaching license.

As a undergraduate student at Seton Hall, I was inspired by the Afrocentric movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s to become an Afrikan American teacher of history.

Afrocentricity is an Afrikan centered intellectual movement challenging White supremacist and racist notions about Afrika, Afrikan History, Afrikan culture, Afrikan spirituality, Black people, World History, Caribbean History, western religions, and American History. Some of Its leaders consists of the following scholars: Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. John Henrick Clarke, Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dr. Jacob Carruthers, Professor Ashra Kwesi, Professor Tony Browder, Dr. Runoko Rashidi, Professor James Smalls, Dr. Naim Akbar, Dr. Lenard Jeffries, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Martin Bernal, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Charshee McIntyre, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Maulana Karenga, and Dr. Molefe Kete Asante.

When I graduated from college in 1993, I vowed to challenge systematic racism in the social studies classroom.

I have been teaching history and Afrikana studies at Weequahic High School for the last 18 years. I have taught history at various schools in the Newark, New Jersey area. However, I have been a teacher of history for 27 years.

But the Amistad law has finally given me the freedom to incorporated history lessons on Afrikan civilizations in World and American history and social studies curricula. I have been released to teach history units on Black people’s contributions to language, science, theology, religion government, architecture, medicine, law, the idea of a nation-state, philosophy, mathematics, democracy, civil rights, human rights, and liberation struggles. This all has been made possible from New Jersey’s Amistad law.

I have become one of the most respected teachers currently at my high school for my long career of teaching Black history in social studies and history education. My students often say to me that they are gracious for a history teacher like me. I am always flattered by their words of gratitude. But most importantly, my students tell me that they are happy to be in a school district that adheres to the Amistad Law. They are happy that the Amistad law exists that allows them to sit in a class to be educated on the facts about American history, world history, Kemetic history, Afrikan history, and the contributions Black people made to all human societies. Everyday, my students are excited about learning history. They say that the subject of social studies is more interesting, particularly my Afrikan / Afrikan American students. From studying history in my social studies classes, many of my Afrikan / Afrikan American students develop a strong sense of Black pride, a purpose for community self determination, and service for humanity in their young consciousness. My students often say to me that the knowing world and American history are good. However, they say that the knowledge of Black history is an equally important corner stone in social studies to help move all human beings forward in human development.

Hotep!!!

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History and Afrikana Studies teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ. He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ. (https://ascac.org/)

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.