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Math to Explore, Understand, & Respond to Social Injustice

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Math to Explore, Understand, & Respond to Social Injustice

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I found this book as I was making an ELA-related purchase on Corwin's site, and it looks like the lessons provided support HRL.

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BlackExcellence.com is a platform to shed light on noteworthy stories and achievements in the black community in the U.S. and around the world. It features inspirational, helpful, and thought provoking pieces in business, entertainment, community, politics, lifestyle, and more.

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Black Excellence Is Not Just a Hashtag. It’s an Economic Lifeline

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Black Excellence Is Not Just a Hashtag. It’s an Economic Lifeline

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"People often bemoan the stereotype of Black public figures falling into the sports and entertainment categories...who says we can’t build our presence in other professions around this foothold? Your favourite artist has a legal team. Your favourite athlete has a medical team. We all have a part to play in reversing the effects of racism, but I would argue that no industry has had a greater influence on race politics than entertainment. The unique advantage that we have in the arts is the focus on our story; in this space, our economic activity is tied to the social needs of our community."

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Black Excellence Is an Economic Lifeline

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For Black people, our position in the economy is preventing us from building momentum against the effects of racism.

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"Black excellence is more than a catchy hashtag or words written across the front of a hooded sweatshirt. Black excellence is, in fact, our ancestors' wildest dreams. It is what we as people of African descent strive for each and every day. It is the lifeblood of what keeps us going when it seems our humanity is being questioned."

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by Ndeh "Will" Anyu

Why is Black excellence so important?

Recently my girlfriend and I attended a game night, with eight other couples. The purpose of this event was geared toward building larger networks of friends within the Philadelphia area. As the night began we decided it would be only appropriate to go around the room and introduce ourselves and give a brief description about what we currently do, our educational backgrounds and our reasoning for joining the group. As everyone went around the room sharing their stories, there were a few commonalities. (1) Half of us attended and/or worked at HBCUs and the other half attended and/or worked at PWIs. (2) Slightly over half of the attendees were affiliated with historically Black Fraternities and Sororities. (3) The grand majority of us had been in the Philadelphia area for less than five years. But the one commonality that we all shared was that we were all under 30 years of age and highly educated.

As the night progressed, we spoke about everything from the state of HBCUs and the educational attainment of Black people to real estate and building Black wealth. In fact, the conversations and camaraderie were so vibrant and delightful; I realized this was the first time in over three months since homecoming at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) that I felt this free. Although I currently attend/work in a space that some consider an educational marvel, I often feel forced to subdue my #BlackBoyJoy. In this space, I often find myself questioning my intelligence and suppressing my Blackness. Questions such as, "be cautious of how you speak" or "think about how you present yourself," often raddle throughout my mind. As a result, I have found myself at times taking a back seat to conversations in which ignorance and stupidity are spread about people of color within this space. But more specifically, Black people and those who attend(ed) HBCUs.

But, at this liberating event, I reconnected with the true ideology of what makes Black people so magnificent. As I listened to my new friends speak, I remembered the beautiful conversations we had back at NCCU about Black liberation. I recalled, the times I would travel to Howard University (HU) or North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University (NCAT) and witness oceans of Black bodies learning and engaging about how to transform our nation. I remembered reading literature on Booker T. Washington and learning about how he escaped slavery and founded Tuskegee University. I recollected attending the 2015 HBCU All-Stars conference and witnessing Black students representing their institutions proudly and unapologetically. But most of all, I remembered a younger me leaving NCCU to take on the University of Pennsylvania.

Currently, I assist a close colleague of mine with running a program called Black Men United (BMU) on my campus. I often witness these young men sadden by the lack of Black representation among faculty, administrators and fellow students here at the institution. In fact, when these conversations come up, I often think to myself, "Wow, I never realized how lucky I was as an undergraduate student at an HBCU." I recall taking advantage of engaging with Black professors or Black administrators. But most of all, being able to walk out of my dorm and see hundreds of Black men and women all striving for their educational attainment.

Later on, that night, as the event came to an end, I thought to myself, "In this room we have, doctors, engineers, educators and future trailblazers." My fellow comrades represented the epitome of Black excellence. In their aspirations and dreams, I saw the reasoning behind the creation of HBCU. I witnessed the dreams that Martin, Mary McLeod, Toni, Alice and so many other African-American trailblazers fought for. In fact, through their aspiration, I understood the importance of Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams, both HBCU alums who sought the highest governmental seats in their respective states.

Black excellence is more than a catchy hashtag or words written across the front of a hooded sweatshirt. Black excellence is, in fact, our ancestor's wildest dreams. It is what we as people of African descent strive for each and every day. It is the lifeblood of what keeps us going when it seems our humanity is being questioned. Black excellence is me and every other Black person working towards the advancement of our people.

Attending this event ensured me that my voice matters, that my intellect is wanted, that my sacrifices are worth it. But most of all, it reminded me that in order for the next generation to have a path to follow, we must continuously work towards the dreams and aspirations we have been told we can not accomplish.
Ndeh "Will" Anyu is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania and the assistant director for Operations and Programs at Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

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historically black fraternities and sororities

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Black excellence is more than a catchy hashtag or words written across the front of a hooded sweatshirt. Black excellence is, in fact, our ancestor's wildest dreams. It is what we as people of African descent strive for each and every day.

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(1898) ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, “THE ATTITUDE OF THE AMERICAN MIND TOWARD THE NEGRO INTELLECT”

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(1898) ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, “THE ATTITUDE OF THE AMERICAN MIND TOWARD THE NEGRO INTELLECT”

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An excerpt from this speech is shared on page 14 of Cultivating Genius. I wanted to read the speech in its entirety.

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Alexander Crummell's remarkable career spanned much of the 19th Century. Before the Civil War Crummell had established his credentials as an abolitionist, educator and lecturer in England as well as the United States. In the 1850s he was a member of the faculty of Liberia College. After the war he served as a priest in the Episcopal Church and founded St. Luke's Church in Washington, D.C. He was also on the faculty of Howard University. In 1897, at the age of 78 he founded the American Negro Academy, an organization of black intellectuals who through speeches and writings sought to repudiate the "scientific racism" of the day which purportedly described black inferiority. On December 28, 1897, Crummell presented the annual address to the Academy. His speech entitled "The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the Negro Intellect," appears below.
For the first time in the history of this nation the colored people of America have undertaken the difficult task, of stimulating and fostering the genius of their race as a distinct and definite purpose. Other and many gatherings have been made, during our own two and a half centuries' residence on this continent, for educational purposes; but ours is the first which endeavors to rise up to the plane of culture. For my own part I have no misgivings either with respect to the legitimacy, the timeliness, or the prospective success of our venture.

The race in the brief period of a generation, has been so fruitful in intellectual product, that the time has come for a coalescence of powers, and for reciprocity alike in effort and appreciation. I congratulate you, therefore, on this your first anniversary. To me it is, I confess, a matter of rejoicing that we have, as a people, reached a point where we have a class of men who will come together for purposes, so pure, so elevating, so beneficent, as the cultivation of mind, with the view of meeting the uses and the needs of our benighted people. I feel that if this meeting were the end of this Academy; if I could see that it would die this very day, I would nevertheless, cry out "All hail!" even if I had to join in with the salutation "farewell forever!"

For, first of all, you have done, during the year, that which was never done so completely before, a work which has already told upon the American mind; and next you have awakened in the Race an ambition which, in some form, is sure to reproduce both mental and artistic organization in the future. The cultured classes of our country have never interested themselves to stimulate the desires or aspirations of the mind of our race. They have left us terribly alone. Such stimulation, must, therefore, in the very nature of things, come from ourselves. Let us state here a simple, personal incident, which will well serve to illustrate a history. I entered, sometime ago, the parlor of a distinguished southern clergyman. A kinsman was standing at his mantel, writing. The clergyman spoke to his relative "Cousin, let me introduce to you the Rev. C., a clergyman of our Church." His cousin turned and looked down at me; but as soon as he saw my black face, he turned away with disgust, and paid no more attention to me than if I were a dog. Now, this porcine gentleman, would have been perfectly courteous, if I had gone into this parlor as a cook, or a waiter, or a bootblack. But my profession, as a clergyman, suggested the idea of letters and cultivation; and the contemptible snob at once forgot his manners, and put aside the common decency of his class.

Now, in this, you can see the attitude of the American mind toward the Negro intellect. A reference to this attitude seems necessary, if we would take in, properly, the present condition of Negro culture. It presents a most singular phenomenon. Here was a people laden with the spoils of the centuries, bringing with them into this new land the culture of great empires; and, withal, claiming the exalted name and grand heritage of Christians. By their own voluntary act they placed right beside them a large population of another race of people, seized as captives, and brought to their plantations from a distant continent. This other race was an unlettered, unenlightened, and a pagan people. What was the attitude taken by this master race toward their benighted bondsmen? It was not simply that of indifference or neglect. There was nothing negative about it. They began, at the first, a systematic ignoring of the fact of intellect in this abased people. They undertook the process of darkening their minds. "Put out the light, and then, put out the light!" was their cry for centuries. Paganizing themselves, they sought a deeper paganizing of their serfs than the original paganism that these had brought from Africa. There was no legal artifice conceivable which was not resorted to, to blindfold their souls from the light of letters; and the church, in not a few cases, was the prime offender.

Then the legislatures of the several states enacted laws and Statutes, closing the pages of every book printed to the eyes of Negroes; barring the doors of every school room against them! And this was the systematized method of the intellect of the South, to stamp out the brains of the Negro! It was done, too, with the knowledge that the Negro had brain power. There was then, no denial that the Negro had intellect. That denial was an after thought. Besides, legislatures never pass laws forbidding the education of pigs, dogs, and horses. They pass such laws against the intellect of men. However, there was then, at the very beginning of the slave trade, everywhere, in Europe, the glintings forth of talent in great Negro geniuses, in Spain, and Portugal, in France and Holland and England; and Phillis Wheatley and Banneker and Chavis and Peters, were in evidence on American soil. It is manifest, therefore, that the objective point in all this legislation was INTELLECT, the intellect of the Negro! It was an effort to becloud and stamp out the intellect of the Negro!

The first phase of this attitude reached over from about 1700 to 1820: and as the result, almost Egyptian darkness fell upon the mind of the race, throughout the whole land. Following came a more infamous policy. It was the denial of intellectuality in the Negro; the assertion that he was not a human being, that he did not belong to the human race. This covered the period from 1820 to 1835, when Gliddon and Nott and others, published their so called physiological work, to prove that the Negro was of a different species from the white man. A distinguished illustration of this ignoble sentiment can be given. In the year 1833 or 4 the speaker was an errand boy in the Anti slavery office in New York City. On a certain occasion he heard a conversation between the Secretary and two eminent lawyers from Boston, Samuel E. Sewell and David Lee Child. They had been to Washington on some legal business. While at the Capitol they happened to dine in the company of the great John C. Calhoun, then senator from South Carolina. It was a period of great ferment upon the question of Slavery, States' Rights, and Nullification; and consequently the Negro was the topic of conversation at the table. One of the utterances of Mr. Calhoun was to this effect "That if he could find a Negro who knew the Greek syntax, he would then believe that the Negro was a human being and should be treated as a man." Just think of the crude asininity of even a great man! Mr. Calhoun went to "Yale" to study the Greek Syntax, and graduated there. His son went to Yale to study the Greek syntax, and graduated there. His grandson, in recent years, went to Yale, to learn the Greek Syntax, and graduated there. School and Colleges were necessary for the Calhouns, and all other white men to learn the Greek syntax. And yet this great man knew that there was not a school, nor a college in which a black boy could learn his A, B, C's. He knew that the law in all the Southern States forbade Negro instruction under the severest penalties. How then was the Negro to learn the Greek Syntax? How then was he to evidence to Mr. Calhoun his human nature? Why, it is manifest that Mr. Calhoun expected the Greek syntax to grow in Negro brains, by spontaneous generation! Mr. Calhoun was then, as much as any other American, an exponent of the nation's mind upon his point.

Antagonistic as they were upon other subjects, upon the, rejection of the Negro intellect they were a unit. And this, measurably, is the attitude of the American mind today: measurably, I say, for thanks to the Almighty, it is not universally so. There has always been a school of philanthropists in this land who have always recognized mind in the Negro; and while recognizing the limitations which individual capacity demanded, claimed that for the RACE, there was no such thing possible for its elevation save the widest, largest, highest, improvement. Such were our friends and patrons in New England in New York, Pennsylvania, a few among the Scotch Presbyterians and the "Friends" in grand old North Carolina; a great company among the Congregationalists of the East, nobly represented down to the present, by the "American Missionary Society," which tolerates no stint for the Negro intellect in its grand solicitudes. But these were exceptional. Down to the year 1825, I know of no Academy or College which would open its doors to a Negro. In the South it was a matter of absolute legal disability. In the North, it was the ostracism of universal caste sentiment. The theological schools of the land, and of all names, shut their doors against the black man. An eminent friend of mine, the noble, fervent, gentlemanly Rev. Theodore S. Wright, then a Presbyterian licentiate, was taking private lessons in theology, at Princeton; and for this offense was kicked out of one of its halls. In the year 1832 Miss Prudence Crandall opened a private school for the
education of colored girls; and it set the whole State of Connecticut in a flame. Miss Crandall was mobbed, and the school was broken up. The year following, the trustees of Canaan Academy in New Hampshire opened its doors to Negro youths; and this act set the people of that state on fire. The farmers of the region assembled with 90 yoke of oxen, dragged the Academy into a swamp, and a few weeks afterward drove the black youths from the town. These instances will suffice. They evidence the general statement, i.e. that the American mind has refused to foster and to cultivate the Negro intellect. Join to this a kindred fact, of which there is the fullest evidence. Impelled, at times, by pity, a modicum of schooling and training has been given the Negro; but even this, almost universally, with reluctance, with cold criticism, with microscopic scrutiny, with icy reservation, and at times, with ludicrous limitations.

Cheapness characterizes almost all the dominations of the American people to the Negro: Cheapness, in all the past, has been the regimen provided for the Negro in every line of his intellectual, as well as his lower life. And so, cheapness is to be the rule in the future, as well for his higher, as for his lower life: cheap wages and cheap food, cheap and rotten huts; cheap and dilapidated schools; cheap and stinted weeks of schooling; cheap meeting houses for worship; cheap and ignorant ministers; cheap theological training; and now, cheap learning, culture and civilization! Noble exceptions are found in the grand literary circles in which Mr. Howells moves manifest in his generous editing of our own Paul Dunbar's poems. But this generosity is not general, even in the world of American letters. You can easily see this in the attempt, now a days, to side track the Negro intellect, and to place it under limitations never laid upon any other class. The elevation of the Negro has been a moot question for a generation past. But even to day what do we find the general reliance of the American mind in determining this question? Almost universally the resort is to material agencies! The ordinary, and sometimes the extraordinary American is unable to see that the struggle of a degraded people for elevation is, in its very nature, a warfare, and that its main weapon is the cultivated and scientific mind.

Ask the great men of the land how this Negro problem is to be solved, and then listen to the answers that come from divers classes of our white fellow citizens. The merchants and traders of our great cities tell us "The Negro must be taught to work;" and they will pour out their moneys by thousands to train him to toil. The clergy in large numbers, cry out "Industrialism is the only hope of the Negro;" for this is the bed rock, in their opinion, of Negro evangelization! "Send him to Manual Labor Schools," cries out another set of philanthropists. "Hic haec, hoc," is going to prove the ruin of the Negro" says the Rev. Steele, an erudite Southern Savan. "You must begin at the bottom with the Negro," says another eminent author reached the bottom. Says the Honorable George T. Barnes, of Georgia "The kind of education the Negro should receive should not be very refined nor classical, but adapted to his present condition:" As though there is to be no future for the Negro. And so you see that even now, late in the 19th century, in this land of learning and science, the creed is "Thus far and no farther", i.e. for the American black man. One would suppose from the universal demand for the mere industrialism for this race of ours, that the Negro had been going daily to dinner parties, eating terrapin and indulging in champagne; and returning home at night, sleeping on beds of eiderdown; breakfasting in the morning in his bed, and then having his valet to clothe him daily in purple and fine linen all these 250 years of his sojourn in this land. And then, just now, the American people, tired of all this Negro luxury, was calling him, for the first time, to blister his hands with the hoe, and to learn to supply his needs by sweatful toil in the cotton fields.

Listen a moment, to the wisdom of a great theologian, and withal as great philanthropist, the Rev. Dr. Wayland, of Philadelphia. Speaking, not long since, of the "Higher Education" of the colored people of the South, he said "that this subject concerned about 8,000,000 of our fellow citizens, among whom are probably 1,500,000 voters. The education suited to these people is that which should be suited to white people under the same circumstances. These people are bearing the impress which was left on them by two centuries of slavery and several centuries of barbarism. This education must begin at the bottom. It must first of all produce the power of self support to assist them to better their condition. It should teach them good citizenship and should build them up morally. It should be, first, a good English education. They should be imbued with the knowledge of the Bible. They should have an industrial education. An industrial education leads to self support and to the elevation of their condition. Industry is itself largely an education, intellectually and morally, and, above all, an education of character. Thus we should make these people self dependent. This education will do away with pupils being taught Latin and Greek, while they do not know the rudiments of English."

Just notice the cautious, restrictive, limiting nature of this advice! Observe the lack of largeness, freedom and generosity in it. Dr. Wayland, I am sure, has never specialized just such a regimen for the poor Italians, Hungarians or Irish, who swarm, in lowly degradation, in immigrant ships to our shores. No! for them he wants, all Americans want, the widest, largest culture of the land; the instant opening, not simply of the common schools; and then an easy passage to the bar, the legislature, and even the judgeships of the nation. And they oft times get there. But how different the policy with the Negro. He must have "an education which begins at the bottom." "He should have an industrial education," &c. His education must, first of all, produce the power of self support, &c. Now, all this thought of Dr. Wayland is all true. But, my friends, it is all false, too; and for the simple reason that it is only half truth. Dr. Wayland seems unable to rise above the plane of burden bearing for the Negro. He seems unable to gauge the idea of the Negro becoming a thinker. He seems to forget that a race of thoughtless toilers are destined to be forever a race of senseless boys; for only beings who think are men. How pitiable it is to see a great good man be fuddled by a half truth. For to allege "Industrialism" to be the grand agency in the elevation of a race of already degraded laborers, is as much a mere platitude as to say, "they must eat and drink and sleep;" for man cannot live without these habits. But they never civilize man; and civilization is the objective point in the movement for Negro elevation. Labor, just like eating and drinking, is one of the inevitabilities of life; one of its positive necessities. And the Negro has had it for centuries; but it has never given him manhood. It does not now, in wide areas of population, lift him up to moral and social elevation. Hence the need of a new factor in his life. The Negro needs light: light thrown in upon all the circumstances of his life. The light of civilization.

Dr. Wayland fails to see two or three important things in this Negro problem: (a) That the Negro has no need to go to a manual labor school. * He has been for two hundred years and more, the greatest laborer in the land. He is a laborer now: and he must always be a laborer, or he must die. But: (b) Unfortunately for the Negro, he has been so wretchedly ignorant that he has never known the value of his sweat and toil. He has been forced into being an unthinking labor machine. And this he is, to a large degree, to day under freedom. (c) Now the great need of the Negro, in our day and time, is intelligent impatience at the exploitation of his labor, on the one hand; on the other hand courage to demand a larger share of the wealth which his toil creates for others. It is not a mere negative proposition that settles this question.

It is not that the Negro does not need the hoe, the plane, the plough, and the anvil. It is the positive affirmation that the negro needs the light of cultivation; needs it to be thrown in upon all his toil, upon his whole life and its environments. What he needs is CIVILIZATION. He needs the increase of his higher wants, of his mental and spiritual needs. This, mere animal labor has never given him, and never can give him. But it will come to him, as an individual, and as a class, just in proportion as the higher culture comes to his leaders and teachers, and so gets into his schools, academies and colleges; and then enters his pulpits; and so filters down into his families and his homes; and the Negro learns that he is no longer to be a serf, but that he is to bare his strong brawny arm as a laborer; not to make the white man a Croesus, but to make himself a man. He is always to be a laborer; but now, in these days of freedom and the schools, he is to be a laborer with intelligence, enlightenment and manly ambitions. But, when his culture fits him for something more than a field hand or a mechanic, he is to have an open door set wide before him! And that culture, according to his capacity, he must claim as his rightful heritage, as a man: not stinted training, not a caste education, not a Negro curriculum. The Negro Race in this land must repudiate this absurd notion which is stealing on the American mind. The Race must declare that it is not to be put into a single groove; and for the simple reason (1) that man was made by his Maker to traverse the whole circle of existence, above as well as below; and that universality is the kernel of all true civilization, of all race elevation. And (2) that the Negro mind, imprisoned for nigh three hundred years" needs breadth and freedom, largeness, altitude, and elasticity; not stint nor rigidity, nor contractedness. But the "Gradgrinds" are in evidence on all sides, telling us that the colleges and scholarships given us since emancipation, are all a mistake; and that the whole system must be reversed.

The conviction is widespread that the Negro has no business in the higher walks of scholarship; that, for instance, Prof. Scarborough has no right to labor in philology; Professor Kelly Miller in mathematics; Professor Du Bois, in history; Dr. Bowen, in theology; Professor Turner, in science; nor Mr. Tanner in art. There is no repugnance to the Negro buffoon, and the Negro scullion; but so soon as the Negro stands forth as an intellectual being, this toad of American prejudice, as at the touch of Ithuriel's spear, starts up a devil! It is this attitude, this repellant, this forbidding attitude of the American mind, which forces the Negro in this land, to both recognize and to foster the talent and capacity of his own race, and to strive to put that capacity and talent to use for the race. I have detailed the dark and dreadful attempt to stamp that intellect out of existence. It is not only a past, it is also, modified indeed, a present fact; and out of it springs the need of just such an organization as the Negro Academy.

Now, gentlemen and friends, seeing that the American mind in the general, revolts from Negro genius, the Negro himself is duty bound to see to the cultivation and the fostering of his own race capacity. This is the chief purpose of this Academy. Our special mission is the encouragement of the genius and talent in our own race. Wherever we see great Negro ability it is our office to light upon it not tardily, not hesitatingly; but warmly, ungrudgingly, enthusiastically, for the honor of our race, and for the stimulating self sacrifice in upbuilding the race. Fortunately for us, as a people, this year has given us more than ordinary opportunity for such recognition. Never before, in American history, has there been such a large discovery of talent and genius among us.

Early in the year there was published by one of our members, a volume of papers and addresses, of more than usual excellence. You know gentlemen, that, not seldom, we have books and pamphlets from the press which, like most of our newspapers, are beneath the dignity of criticism. In language, in style, in grammar and in thought they are often crude and ignorant and vulgar. Not so with "Talks for the Times" by Prof. Crogman, of Clark University. It is a book with largess of high and noble common sense; pure and classical in style; with a large fund of devoted racialism; and replete everywhere with elevated thoughts. Almost simultaneously with the publication of Professor Crogman's book, came the thoughtful and spicy narrative of Rev. Matthew Anderson of Philadelphia. The title of this volume is "Presbyterianism: its relation to the Negro: but the title cannot serve as a revelation of the racy and spirited story of events in the career of its author. The book abounds with stirring incidents, strong remonstrance, clear and lucid argument, powerful reasonings, the keenest satire; while, withal, it sets forth the wide needs of the Race, and gives one of the strongest vindications of its character and its capacity.

Soon after this came the first publication of our Academy. And you all know the deep interest excited by the two papers, the first issue of this Society. They have attracted interest and inquiry where the mere declamatory effusions, or, the so called eloquent harangues of aimless talkers and political wire pullers would fall like snowflakes upon the waters. The papers of Prof. Kelly Miller and Prof. Du Bois have reached the circles of scholars and thinkers in this country. So consummate was the handling of Hoffman's "Race Traits and Tendencies" by Prof. Miller, that we may say that it was the most scientific defense of the Negro ever made in this country by a man of our own blood: accurate, pointed, painstaking, and I claim conclusive. The treatise of Prof. Du Bois upon the "Conservation of Race," separated itself, in tone and coloring, from the ordinary effusions of literary work in this land. It rose to the dignity of philosophical insight and deep historical inference. He gave us, in a most lucid and original method, and in a condensed form, the long settled conclusions of Ethnologists and Anthropologists upon the question of Race. This treatise moreover, furnished but a limited measure of our indebtedness to his pen and brain.

Only a brief time before our assembly last year, Prof. Du Bois had given a large contribution to the literature of the nation as well as to the genius of the race. At that time he had published a work which will, without doubt, stand permanently, as authority upon its special theme. "The Suppression of the Slave Trade" is, without doubt, the one unique and special authority upon that subject, in print. It is difficult to conceive the possible creation of a similar work, so accurate and painstaking, so full of research, so orderly in historical statement, so rational in its conclusions. h is the simple truth, and at the same time the highest praise, the statement of one Review, that "Prof. Du Bois has exhausted his subject." This work is a step forward in the literature of the Race, and a stimulant to studious and aspiring minds among us.

One further reference, that is, to the realm of Art. The year '97 will henceforth be worthy of note in our history. As a race, we have, this year, reached a high point in intellectual growth and expression. In poetry and painting, as well as in letters and thought, the Negro has made, this year, a character. On my return home in October, I met an eminent scientific gentleman; and one of the first remarks he made to me was "Well, Dr. Crummell, we Americans have been well taken down in Paris, this year. Why," he said, "the prize in painting was taken by a colored young man, a Mr. Tanner from America. Do you know him?" The reference was to Mr. Tanner's "Raising of Lazarus," a painting purchased by the French Government, for the famous Luxembourg Gallery. This is an exceptional honor, rarely bestowed upon any American Artist. Well may we all be proud of this, and with this we may join the idea that Tanner, instead of having a hoe in his hand, or digging in a trench, as the faddists on industrialism would fain persuade us, has found his right place at the easel with artists.

Not less distinguished in the world of letters is the brilliant career of our poet friend and co laborer, Mr. Paul Dunbar. It was my great privilege last summer to witness his triumph, on more than one occasion, in that grand metropolis of Letters and Literature, the city of London; as well as to hear of the high value set upon his work, by some of the first scholars and literati of England. Mr. Dunbar has had his poems republished in London by Chapman & Co.; and now has as high a reputation abroad as he has here in America, where his luminous genius has broken down the bars, and with himself, raised the intellectual character of his race in the world's consideration.

These cheering occurrences, these demonstrations of capacity, give us the greatest encouragement in the large work which is before this Academy. Let us enter upon that work, this year, with high hopes, with large purposes, and with calm and earnest persistence. I trust that we shall bear in remembrance that the work we have undertaken is our special function; that it is a work which calls for cool thought, for laborious and tireless painstaking, and for clear discrimination; that it promises nowhere wide popularity, or, exuberant eclat; that very much of its ardent work is to be carried on in the shade; that none of its desired results will spring from spontaneity; that its most prominent features are the demands of duty to a needy people; and that its noblest rewards will be the satisfaction which will spring from having answered a great responsibility, and having met the higher needs of a benighted and struggling Race.

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(1898) Alexander Crummell, "The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the Negro Intellect" *

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Image Ownership: Public Domain Alexander Crummell's remarkable career spanned much of the 19th Century. Before the Civil War Crummell had established his credentials as an abolitionist, educator and lecturer in England as well as the United States. In the 1850s he was a member of ...

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Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies

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Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies

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Elizabeth McHenry's 2002 work is mentioned on page 20 of Cultivating Genius.

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Over the past decade the popularity of black writers including E. Lynn Harris and Terry McMillan has been hailed as an indication that an active African American reading public has come into being. Yet this is not a new trend; there is a vibrant history of African American literacy, literary associations, and book clubs. Forgotten Readers reveals that neglected past, looking at the reading practices of free blacks in the antebellum north and among African Americans following the Civil War. It places the black upper and middle classes within American literary history, illustrating how they used reading and literary conversation as a means to assert their civic identities and intervene in the political and literary cultures of the United States from which they were otherwise excluded.

Forgotten Readers expands our definition of literacy and urges us to think of literature as broadly as it was conceived of in the nineteenth century. Elizabeth McHenry delves into archival sources, including the records of past literary societies and the unpublished writings of their members. She examines particular literary associations, including the Saturday Nighters of Washington, D.C., whose members included Jean Toomer and Georgia Douglas Johnson. She shows how black literary societies developed, their relationship to the black press, and the ways that African American women's clubs-which flourished during the 1890s-encouraged literary activity. In an epilogue, McHenry connects this rich tradition of African American interest in books, reading, and literary conversation to contemporary literary phenomena such as Oprah Winfrey's book club.

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Over the past decade the popularity of black writers including E. Lynn Harris and Terry McMillan has been hailed as an indication that an active African American reading public has come into being. Yet this is not a new trend; there is a vibrant history of African American literacy, literary associations, and book clubs.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2009 TED Talk is mentioned on page 21. Teachers at LMS added this speech to the LA curriculum a few years ago as a way to facilitate discussion about stereotypes, reading choice, and author responsibility. It is a must-watch/must-listen!

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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From Candy Girls to Cyber Sista-Cipher: Narrating Black Females' Color-Consciousness and Counterstories in "and" out "of School"

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From Candy Girls to Cyber Sista-Cipher: Narrating Black Females' Color-Consciousness and Counterstories in "and" out "of School"

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In this article, Carmen Kynard provides a window into a present-day "hush harbor," a site where a group of black women build generative virtual spaces for counterstories that fight institutional racism. Hidden in plain view, these intentional communities have historically allowed African American participants to share and create knowledge and find their voices in hostile environments, which, in the case of this study, involve an academic institution. Kynard also discusses the need for critical scholar/student alliances that interrogate taken-for-granted institutional practices that invalidate out-of-school literacies. The article parallels the instructional practices that disenfranchise black students with research agendas that claim to alleviate inequity while really perpetuating it.

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From Candy Girls to Cyber Sista-Cipher: Narrating Black Females' Color-Consciousness and Counterstories In and Out of School by Carmen Kynard

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"For Cooper, liberal arts education provided the tools needed to live an examined life worth living rather than only earning a living."

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Anna Julia Cooper's best-known written work, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, was published in 1892. This collection of essays and speeches, described by Mary Helen Washington as an "unparalleled articulation of black feminist thought" and by Beverley Guy-Sheftall as the first book length Black feminist text, emphasizes the import of a woman's voice and her unique contributions while at the same time highlighting the racialization of gender and the sexualization of race. Cooper takes an intersectional approach to examining the interlocking systems of race, gender, and class oppression-explicitly articulating how Black women are simultaneously impacted by racism (the race problem) and sexism (the woman question) and yet she is either an unknown or unacknowledged (by white women, white men, or Black men) factor in examining or eliminating these systems of oppression. For these reasons, Cooper argues, Black women have a unique epistemological standpoint from which to observe society and its oppressive systems as well as a unique ethical contribution to make in confronting and correcting these oppressive systems. Other central themes in Voice include the importance of education and intellectual development; the necessity of respecting difference and the special contribution that each racial group makes for human progress; an economic, materialist, and existential conceptualization of value or worth; and a theory of truth. Thus, this seminal text has philosophical import not only for feminist philosophy, standpoint theory, and epistemology, but also for Critical Philosophy of Race and African American philosophy.

Anna Julia Cooper's Voice was published less than 30 years after the 1865 13 th Amendment to the Constitution which declared: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Select major works that come before Cooper's Voice include Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge (1838); Religious Experience and the Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel (1849); Narrative of SojournerTruth (1850) and the "Ain't I a Woman" remarks attributed to Sojourner Truth (from the 1851 Women's convention in Akron, OH); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom (1855); and Martin Delany's The Origins of Races and Color (1879).

Significantly, Cooper's Voice is published before Booker T. Washington's famous "Atlanta Address" (1895), his autobiographical works The Story of My Life and Work (1896) and Up From Slavery (1901), as well as Washington's historic two-volume The Story of the Negro (1909). It is also published ahead of W.E.B. Du Bois's well-known "The Conservation of Races" (1897) speech, the publication of The Souls of Black Folk (composed of essays and speeches written by Du Bois between 1897 and 1903), and Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (1920) which not only borrows the language of Cooper's book title, but also relies on Cooper's astute insights on race and gender. As Mary Helen Washington and Joy James have noted, Du Bois quoted a passage from Cooper's "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race," in his essay "The Damnation of Women" from Darkwater, however; he truncates Cooper's full argument in his selective quotations and he fails to acknowledge her as the source of the quote.

Cooper's scholarly contributions beyond A Voice from the South include her translation of the classic French text Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne in 1917 and, of course, her dissertation- L'attitude de la France à l'égard l'esclavage pendant la revolution (later translated by Frances Richardson Keller Slavery and the French Revolutionists) which she defended in Paris, France at the Sorbonne in 1925. Cooper became the fourth African American woman in the US to earn a Ph.D. and accomplishes this feat the same year as Alain Locke publishes two seminal writings. Locke, having earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1918, on the topic "The Problem of Classification in Theory of Value" goes on to publish "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro" and then the book length version The New Negro: An Interpretation in 1925. There are several newspaper articles announcing Cooper's achievement, but the event itself, and perhaps more importantly the scholarly contributions made by Cooper in her thesis, seems to slip into oblivion. Cooper's project examines the ways in which attitudes about race and the institution of slavery in France and San Dominique impacted conceptualizations of rights and freedom in the contexts of the French and Haitian Revolutions (and the Age of Reason and Revolution more generally). This work by Cooper is quite significant insofar as the Haitian Revolution is too often overlooked in relation to the American and French Revolutions, and furthermore, there was a United States military occupation of Haiti at the time she wrote it (1914-1935). Cooper's dissertation offers an insightful and yet underappreciated analysis of the Haitian Revolution that could be paired well with, for example, C.L.R. James's The Black Jacobins.

In addition to these better-known major scholarly writings, Cooper went on to write and publish other essays and critical commentaries over several decades-including a memoir about earning her doctorate from the Sorbonne titled The Third Step and a memoir about the Grimké family titled The Early Years in Washington: Reminiscences of Life with the Grimkés (both memoirs published about the middle of the twentieth century). Intentionally placing Cooper's scholarship and activism front and center in recognizing her philosophical import goes against commentaries that cast aside Cooper's theoretical contributions to focus almost exclusively on her biography and personal life. As Lewis Gordon has noted in Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (2000), too often we find a close examination of the ideas and theories of Black intellectuals absent because interpretations of their biographies and experiences have been preferred focal points. Vivian M. May takes this a step further in Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction (2007) where she notes a disturbing tendency among many writers to focus on Black women intellectuals' lives rather than their theories. Consequently, Black women's arguments and theoretical contributions have frequently been under-engaged or even dismissed altogether because so much attention is concentrated on their life stories. Indeed, the bulk of this encyclopedia entry focuses on Cooper's scholarship, activism, and philosophical contributions in order to resist this troubling trend. A brief biographical and historical background is available at the end of this entry to locate Cooper's theoretical work within a larger socio-historical and biographical context.

Historically, Anna Julia Cooper was directly and indirectly engaged in debates about ideas related to race, gender, progress, leadership, education, justice, and rights in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries with race men like Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, Alexander Crummell, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington as well as activist women such as Maria W. Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Frances Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell. These debates transpired not only through speeches and writings (including public essays and private letters), but also at major meetings like the Hampton Conference (1892), the Chicago World's Fair (1893), and the Pan African Conference (1900)-to give only a few examples.

In the early African American philosophical canon, activist-intellectuals like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Alain Locke, and W.E.B. Du Bois tend to be the more readily recognized philosophical figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States than Anna Julia Cooper and other Black women scholars and activists from this era who are largely overlooked. The canonization of Black men of this period is evidenced by book-length scholarly publications produced throughout the 1990s such as Leonard Harris's The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond (1991); Howard Brotz's African American Social and Political Thought, 1850-1920 (1992); Howard McGary and Bill Lawson's Between Slavery and Freedom: Philosophy and American Slavery (1993); and Howard McGary's Race and Social Justice (1999). Certainly, the works of prominent philosophers who write about this tradition have made it possible even to describe an area of philosophy called "African American Philosophy." Unfortunately these early contributions to African American philosophical discourse frequently ignored the philosophical contributions of African American women including Cooper. Fortunately there is at least one exception to this exclusive focus on men, specifically Joy James's Transcending the Talented Tenth (1996) in which Anna Julia Cooper figures prominently beside W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. James notes the ways in which Cooper argued for a bottom up rather than a top down approach to leadership and standard of measurement for liberation. Rather than focusing on Black intellectual male elites, Cooper asserted that we must pay attention to the conditions of working class and poor Black women. This position offers an ethics of the oppressed consistent with many Black feminist philosophies and also comparable with Continental figures like Jean-Paul Sartre who makes similar claims decades later.

Attention to Cooper in the philosophical literature increases as we move into the twenty-first century. For example, when it comes to anthologizing Cooper's scholarship her writings have been featured in over thirty anthologies, including philosophy anthologies such as James A. Montmarquet and William H. Hardy's Reflections: An Anthology of African American Philosophy (2000); Leonard Harris, Scott L. Pratt, and Ann S. Waters's American Philosophies: An Anthology (2001); and Tommy Lott's African American Philosophy: Selected Readings (2002). More recently, Cooper has earned an important place in articles focusing specifically on African American women's philosophical traditions in special issues of journals. Hypatia, Special Issue on Women in the American Philosophical Tradition, Volume 19, Number 2, Spring 2004 (Edited by Dorothy Rogers and Therese B. Dykeman) is one example. This issue includes two articles on Cooper. The first by Cathryn Bailey examines Cooper's philosophy of education (for Cooper, liberal arts education provided the tools needed to live an examined life worth living rather than only earning a living) along with Cooper's constructions of Black womanhood against prevailing notions that Black women were not true women. And the second by Vivan M. May emphasizes Cooper's intersectional approaches to liberation and the epistemological significance of Cooper writing herself into typically exclusionary intellectual traditions.

Philosophia Africana: Analysis of Philosophy and Issues in African and the Black Diaspora, Special Issue: Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 12, Number 1, March 2009 (Edited by Kathryn T. Gines and Ronald R. Sundstrom) is a special issue devoted entirely to Cooper. The featured articles connect Cooper's feminist philosophy with her social and political writings; virtue and care ethics in Cooper's writings; romantic conceptions of human nature and flourishing; Cooper's legacy as a public intellectual; and her philosophy of social justice that informs her philosophy of education. Likewise African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 2, Spring 2009 (Edited by Shirley Moody-Turner) traces the trajectory of Cooper studies from A Voice from the South and beyond. Articles here take up Cooper's contributions to social theorizing and ethical social relations, race and gender domination, critiques of racial representation, social and economic oppression, radical approaches to education, and community advocacy.

In addition to Gines, Sundstrom, and Bailey above, prominent philosophers like Lewis Gordon have also highlighted Cooper's philosophical import, including her contributions to existentialism, Black feminist philosophy, and theories of worth, in two important texts. In Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (2000) Gordon presents Cooper as a nineteenth century figure exploring questions of problematic existence and suffering within black intellectual existential productions. Cooper engaged ontological questions of being-from liberation and humanization to revolution and freedom. With this in mind, Gordon examines the existential dimensions of Cooper's A Voice from the South, placing it beside texts like W.E.B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk, Ralph Ellison's Going into the Territory, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, and Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark.

In An Introduction to Africana Philosophy- Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy (2008), Gordon asserts that Cooper, "is without question the most sophisticated thinker on what is known today as black feminist thought from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century" (Gordon 2008, 71). More specifically, Gordon explains how Cooper's A Voice from the South "articulated the argument that continues to resonate in black feminist thought, namely, that black women must become agents of their own future, and that much of the health of their community rests on their shoulders because of the burdens they are forced to carry. This argument is advanced through her theory of worth, which she issues in response to racist arguments against the value of black people." Cooper's theory of worth, described by Gordon as "an efficiency theory of worth" is especially evident in her essay "What Are We Worth?" (Gordon 2008, 71). Gordon places Cooper's philosophical insights here in conversation with Marx ("Cooper, like Marx, was in fact working with a model of alienation that did not require the category of oppression, although subjugation and correlates with slavery were hallmarks of their thought") and Nietzsche (both explored the relationship between worth and health-those benefiting from absence of adversity are less healthy than those facing and overcoming adversity).

There is not yet a book length analysis written by a philosopher that focuses on Cooper's philosophical import and contributions, however; one could certainly argue that Vivian M. May's Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction (2007) offers the most comprehensive analysis of Cooper's writings to date. Going against critical readings and (mis)interpretations of Cooper as an elitist who subscribed to Western ethnocentrism and Victorian constructions of the "Cult of True Womanhood," May challenges Cooper's readers and critics to engage in a more nuanced analysis of her writings and activism. For example, May emphasizes Cooper's activism (which is often marginalized and/or erased altogether in the secondary literature) in a way that demonstrates how Cooper's lived experience and scholarship were quite anti-elitist. According to May, "Perhaps, then, the challenge lies in developing flexible interpretative strategies able to attend to Cooper's different vocal registers or resonances without silencing them, and more expansive notions of political action or of counter-publics able to recognize a broader range of activities as, in fact, activist" (50). Additionally, in response to Stephanie Athey's framing of Cooper as problematically relying on eugenic language and ideology, May presents a counter-argument reading Cooper as contributing to an early materialist Black feminist analysis of Black women's oppression (55). Contra claims that Cooper sought to imitate whiteness or Western ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism, May underscores Cooper's contention that "imitation is the worst of suicide" and adds, "Cooper argued that what African Americans needed most was 'deliverance' from normative whiteness" (61). May also emphatically rejects dismissals of Cooper as a woman invested in the oppressive habitus of "True Womanhood," offering an alternate reading of Cooper as one who manipulates and strategically redeploys, rather than fully accepts or embraces, the tenets of True Womanhood.

The historical neglect of Cooper's scholarship by philosophers requires an extensive overview of Cooper's scholarly writings. This section reintroduces A Voice from the South in order to advance Cooper's place, not only in African American philosophy and Critical Philosophy of Race, but also in Feminist and Social and Political Philosophy. Voice is organized into two parts. The first part, "The Colored Woman's Office", includes: "Our Raison d'Être" (1892); "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race" (1892); "The Higher Education of Women" (1890-1891); "Woman Versus the Indian" (1891-1892); and "The Status of Women in America"(1892). The second part, "Race and Culture" features: "Has America a Race Problem: If So, How Can it Best Be Solved?" (1892); "The Negro as Presented in American Literature" (1892); "What Are We Worth?" (1892); and "The Gain from a Belief" (1892). In this collection of essays, several of which were originally delivered as public speeches, Cooper argues that woman's experience in general and Black woman's experience in particular, places her in a unique position to have a distinctive voice, influence, and contribution to make to her race, to the nation, and to the world more broadly.

"Our Raison d'Être"

In the short but powerful opening statement of A Voice from the South, "Our Raison d'Être" (1892) Cooper explains that while the voice of the Negro (man) of the South has been but a muffled chord, "the one mute and voiceless note has been the sadly expectant Black woman..." (cited in The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper, hereafter VAJC, p. 51). Using the analogy of a courtroom trial, Cooper explains that the plaintiff's and defendant's attorneys:

...have analyzed and dissected, theorized and synthesized with sublime ignorance or pathetic misapprehension of counsel from the black client. One important witness has not yet been heard from. The summing up of evidence deposed, and the charge to the jury have been made-but no word from the Black Woman. (VAJC, 51)

Cooper underscores how the Black [male] client, the muffled voice, has at least been consulted, even if only with "ignorance" and "misapprehension." But the "one important witness," i.e. the Black woman, has been rendered mute and voiceless. Cooper asserts that the white man cannot speak to Black men's experiences and furthermore, that Black men cannot speak to Black women's experiences. She elaborates on this position in "Womanhood, A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race."

"Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race"

In "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race" (1886) Cooper astutely addresses intersecting issues of race, gender, and society-including intra-group racial politics, intra-group gender politics, and the professed ideals of American society. Her observations speak directly to debates in early African American philosophy and political thought around leadership, representation, and competing philosophies of race (for example between Frederick Douglass's assimilationism and Martin Delany's separatism). Concerning intra-group racial politics, Cooper asserts: "The Late Martin Delany, who was an unadulterated black man, used to say when honors fell upon him, that when he entered the council of kings the black race entered with him; meaning, I suppose, that there was no discounting his race identity and attributing his achievements to some admixture of Saxon blood" (VAJC 63). As a Black woman whose father is thought to have been her mother's white master, Cooper pushes back on two fronts. Not only can Delany not represent the whole simply by virtue of his "pure" Black blood (unmixed with Saxon blood), but also because "no man can represent the race" (VAJC 63). It is in this context that Cooper made the now famous declaration that "Only the BLACK WOMAN can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me " (VAJC, 63). Here she problematizes intra-group race and gender politics (specifically Black male patriarchy) by insisting on the significance of the BLACK WOMAN in general and laying claim to her particular significance as a Black woman to the progress of the race-this despite the admixture of Saxon blood, which in her case had been violently imposed by the legacy of slavery and the systematic sexual exploitation of Black women.

This analysis also provides a different background against which we can read Cooper's description of the "colored girls" of the South as: "that large, bright, fatally beautiful class that stand shivering like delicate plantlets before the fury of tempestuous elements, so full of promise, yet so sure of destruction; often without a father to whom they dare apply the loving term, often without a stronger brother to espouse their cause and defend their honor..." (VAJC 60). This passage not only underscores the danger that Black girls and women faced in terms of sexual exploitation it also challenges some claims made by Alexander Crummell in a speech given three years earlier titled "The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs" (1883). Crummell makes a clear distinction between the colored people (whom he describes as those who were more educated and had better material conditions) and the negro population (whom he describes as intellectual starvelings). Crummell attributes the affluence of colored people to "the kindness and generosity of their white kindred-white fathers and relatives (1883, 212). Cooper is making the case that "colored" people don't always have a "father to whom they dare apply the loving term" or the kindness and generosity that having white kindred in selective instances might have entailed. She also makes many references to the ways in which white men protected "English womanhood" and the perceived lack of protection of Black women by Black men. When Cooper asserts that snares and traps are set for the "unprotected, untrained colored girl of the South," this is a reference to the sexual exploitation of Black girls and women (VAJC, 64).

Cooper emphasizes the honor of Black women, the idea that they should occupy the role of mother or a family role ("Woman, Mother,-your responsibility is one that might make the angels tremble...The training of children..." [VAJC, 59]), and their responsibility for the moral education of Black youth and the regeneration of the race ("...the regeneration...the retraining of the race...must be the black woman" [VAJC, 62]). On this basis, some have argued that Cooper upholds American ideals of womanhood and attempts to assimilate Black women to the characteristics often assigned to their white female counterparts. Other examples of these ideals include Cooper's claim that "the hope of our country...rests...on the home life and the influence of good women in those homes" (VAJC, 55). And furthermore, that the responsibility of woman and mother is to train children (VAJC, 55). Cooper asserts: "...the position of woman in society determines the vital elements of its regeneration and progress. Now that this is so on a priori grounds all must admit. And this is not because woman is better or stronger or wiser than man, but...because it is she who must first form the man by directing the earliest impulses of his character" (VAJC 59). These ideas about women's role in society, and/or civilization are comparable to those expressed by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Martin Delany.

Macaulay states, "'You may judge a nation's rank in the scale of civilization from the way they treat their women'" (VAJC, 55). Likewise Ralph Waldo Emerson claims in "American Civilization":

Right position of woman in the State is another index [of civilization]. Poverty and industry with a healthy mind read very easily the laws of humanity, and love them: places the sexes in right relations of mutual respect, and a severe morality gives that essential charm to woman which educates all that is delicate, poetic, and self-sacrificing, breeds courtesy and learning, conversation and wit, in her rough mate; so that I have thought it a sufficient definition of civilization to say, it is the influence of good women. (Emerson 1862)

And in The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Martin Delany declares, "No people are ever elevated above the condition of their females; hence, the condition of the mother determines the condition of the child. To know the position of a people, it is only necessary to know the condition of their females; and despite themselves, they cannot rise above their level" (Delany 1862, Chapter 24, Delany's emphasis).

In addition to questions about gender, Cooper also interrogates ideals about civilization and society. Some take Cooper's representation of American society as an exemplar to be problematic, especially when she looks down on other societies to justify this idealized standard. For example, she disparages the lifestyles of those in Turkey describing them as "the vilest of the vile, unprogressive, unambitious, and inconceivably low...[Turkey is an] effete and immobile civilization" (VAJC, 54). At times she glorifies American society and contrasts it with others. America is described as fresh, vigorous, progressive, elevating and inspiring, "the European bud and the American flower of civilization" (VAJC, 54). She acknowledges we have not yet reached our ideal American civilization, but assures her audience that "America is the arena in which the next triumph of civilization is to be won" (VAJC, 54). Cooper, however, does not completely romanticize the American experience. Although she describes America as the "flower of modern civilization" she quickly notes that every person in America is not able to fully experience this "floral" aspect of American life. Cooper is very aware that the Black experience in America is quite contrary to that of their white counterparts. But she is hopeful, perhaps over-optimistic, about improving the status and experience of Blacks in America, stating, "our satisfaction in American institutions rests not in the fruition we now enjoy, but it springs rather from the possibilities and promise that are inherent in the system, though as yet, perhaps, far in the future" (VAJC, 54). Some might read this as Cooper's attempt to hold America up to its professed ideals.

"The Higher Education of Women"

In the essay "The Higher Education of Women" (1890-1891) Cooper provides a feminist argument for educating women. She examines the sentiments against the education of women in the early 1800s and provides a counter argument by referencing the positive impact that education has had in the lives of women who were able to attend colleges and pursue B. A. degrees as well as the positive impact on the world more broadly. According to Cooper, higher education among women "...has given symmetry and completeness to the world's agencies" (VAJC, 76). Thus, one of the objectives of giving women access to higher education is to better equip them to influence humanity and to contribute to the questions, problems and debates on the world stage. Cooper argues, "the feminine factor can have its proper effect only through women's development and education so that she may fitly and intelligently stamp her force on the forces of her day..." (VAJC, 78).

Cooper not only discusses the education of women in general, she is also acutely aware of the importance of education in the lives of Black women and girls in particular. We are again reminded of the double damnation of Black women, here in the area of education. While there were constraints on educational opportunities for Black people more generally, she brings attention to an attitude of resistance from Black men concerning academic development among women. Cooper admits, "It seems hardly a gracious thing to say, but it strikes me as true, that while our men seem thoroughly abreast of the times in almost every other subject, when they strike the woman question they drop back into sixteenth century logic" (VAJC, 85). She notes that while Black men were aware of issues such as racial uplift, they largely ignored the problems specific to (Black) women, i.e. the other "half" of the race that they were supposedly uplifting. This antiquated attitude is not limited to the higher education of adult women, but also applied to young girls. Cooper exclaims, "[G]ive the girls a chance!... Let our girls feel that we expect more from them than that they merely look pretty and appear well in society. Teach them that there is a race with special needs which they and only they can help; that the world needs and is already asking for their trained, efficient forces" (VAJC, 86-87).

In "The Higher Education of Women" we see Cooper's commitment to the idea that women (and girls) have a voice that must be heard, they have an influence and contribution that must be made to the race and to all of humanity. The attainment of higher education by women has produced well-equipped and thoughtful women "whom the world has long awaited for in pain and anguish till there should be added...the complement of that masculine influence which has dominated it for fourteen centuries" (VAJC, 73). Cooper expounds on her theories about the unique mission and influence of women, namely "to put in the tender and sympathetic cord in nature's grand symphony, and counteract, or better, harmonize the diapason of mere strength and might" (VAJC, 75). Cooper acknowledges that with the (negative) influence of men, some women may strike a "false note" or parrot "cold conceits"-however, Cooper insists that "her heart is aglow with sympathy and loving kindness, and she cannot be true to her real self without giving out these elements into the forces of the world" (VAJC, 75).

"Woman Versus the Indian"

In "Woman Versus the Indian" Cooper situates her philosophy of rights intersectionally-calling for the natural inherent rights of all people, or "the rights of humanity" but also specifying groups typically denied these rights such as Blacks, women, Indians (or Native Americans), and the poor. Just as she is critical of Black men for their sexism, Cooper is equally critical of white women's racism, particularly the racism expressed by white women's organizations that claimed to be tackling the oppression of all women. She challenges the tendency in the (white) woman's movement to fight for (white) women's rights at the expense of, or instead of, others' rights. Taking a strong stand against all forms of oppression in "Woman Versus the Indian" (1891-1892) she declares:

Woman should not even by inference, or for the sake of argument, seem to disparage what is weak. For woman's cause is the cause of the weak; and when all the weak shall have received their due consideration, then woman will have her 'rights,' and the Indian will have his rights, and the Negro will have his rights, and all the strong will have learned at last to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly .... (VAJC, 105)

In this essay, Cooper is responding in part to an essay by Ann Shaw with the same title. Shaw's essay, as the title suggests, places the issue of women's rights against the rights of American Indians. It is noteworthy that Cooper rejects exclusionary reasoning (by inference or by argument) stating, "All prejudices, whether of race, sect, or sex, class pride, and caste distinctions are the belittling inheritance and badge of snobs and prigs" (VAJC, 105). Cooper's disdain for such thinking is thoroughly communicated. She adds, "The philosophic mind sees that its own 'rights' are the rights of humanity" (VAJC, 105). Cooper is denouncing oppression against all persons, "The white woman does not need to sue the Indian, or the Negro, or any other race or class who have been crushed under the iron heel of Anglo Saxon power and selfishness" (VAJC, 108).

For Cooper, it is necessary to reject and speak out against all forms of oppression. She petitions:

It is not the intelligent woman versus the ignorant woman; nor the white woman versus the black, the brown, and the red-it is not even the cause of woman versus man...[W]oman's strongest vindication for speaking is that the world needs to hear her voice...when race, color, sex, condition, are realized to be accidents, not the substance of life...then woman's lesson is taught and woman's lesson is won-not the white woman not the black woman nor the red woman, but the cause of every man or woman who has writhed silently under a mighty wrong. (VAJC, 108)

She pleads the cause of every man and woman who is wronged, rejecting oppression against the ignorant, various races, and women.

"The Status of Woman in America"

In "The Status of Woman in America" (1892), Cooper demonstrates continued awareness of issues facing Black women in America and she advocates their political involvement and empowerment. Cooper discusses the U.S. economy and the condition of women during the woman's era of the late nineteenth century, (VAJC, 11). She brings to the forefront the dilemma of the Black woman, the fact that "She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem and is as yet an unknown or an unacknowledged factor in both" (VAJC, 112).

Cooper emphasizes the dedication of educated and uneducated Black women to the survival of the race. Both have demonstrated their commitment to the race in concrete ways, for example, by leaving their husbands for committing "race disloyalty" in their voting choices during Reconstruction (VAJC, 133 and 115). She states, "It is notorious that ignorant black women in the South have actually left their husband's homes...for what was understood by the wife to be race disloyalty, or 'voting away' as she expresses it, the privileges of herself and her little ones" (VAJC, 115). Cooper makes many references here to Black men, the role they played in politics, and how they were "absorbed in the immediate needs of their own political interests" (VAJC, 113). She also mentions the perception that the "Democratic Negro is a traitor and a time server" (VAJC, 115). She adds, "...there are not many men...who would dare face a wife quivering in every fiber with the consciousness that her husband is a coward who could be paid to desert her deepest and dearest interests" (VAJC, 115).

In this essay, Cooper makes no attempt to gloss over the sexist challenges faced by Black women. She states that Black women are "hampered and shamed by a less liberal sentiment and a more conservative attitude on the part of those for whose opinion she cares most [i.e. Black men]" (VAJC, 113). She adds, "As far as my experience goes the average man of our race is less frequently ready to admit the actual need among the sturdier forces of the world for women's help or influence" (VAJC, 113). Cooper asserts that women have significant contributions to make to social, economic, and national issues ("Great social and economic questions await her influence" [VAJC, 113]). They can shed light on the management of school systems, public institutions, prison systems, and mental institutions (VAJC, 113). Cooper understood that the status of women and their role in the progress of the race was changing. She recalls that fifty years before her time a woman's activity was limited to "a clearly cut 'sphere', including primarily the kitchen and the nursery... [But] the woman of today finds herself in the presence of responsibilities which ramify through the profoundest and most varied interests of her country and race" (VAJC, 116).

This can be read in contrast to some of the gender roles that Cooper outlined in the "Womanhood" essay. In the "Status" essay we see Cooper take up a stronger more encompassing notion of Black female agency that more readily embraces new opportunities and possibilities for Black women outside of the domestic sphere. She is speaking here of the vital roles that women must play outside of the home in order to see progress for the Black race. What she has in mind here goes beyond the traditional standards of white womanhood.

"Has America a Race Problem? If So, How Can it Best Be Solved?"

In "Has America a Race Problem? If So, How Can it Best Be Solved?" (1892) Cooper argues that progressive peace is achieved through fair conflict and difference, anticipating later work by Audre Lorde. According to Cooper, "All through God's universe we see eternal harmony and symmetry as the unvarying result of the equilibrium of opposing forces" (VAJC, 121). Operating at the forefront of this analysis is racial conflict. What Cooper has in mind is not the obliteration of one race by another, but the progress that is achievable when we embrace difference and change. Cooper endorses multiculturalism and racial diversity for the purpose of progress and argues that isolation hinders the development of racial groups rather than making them stronger. Here Cooper is responding to various positions about interactions, or even admixture, between races. Like Crummell before her and Du Bois after her, Cooper was convinced that every race had a particular purpose and message to contribute toward human progress. Du Bois has been credited with making this claim in "Conservation of Races" from The Souls of Black Folk, but this idea had been prevalent for years before the 1897 "Conservation of Races" speech.

Robert Bernasconi has traced this idea back to the philosophy of Johann Gottfried von Herder who wrote Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humankind (1784). Herder (against Immanuel Kant) actually "rejected the division of humanity into races and insisted that a division into peoples is more appropriate" (Bernasconi 2000, 23). Herder argued that each group of peoples has a unique and important contribution to make to civilization. Going against prevailing 18 th century ideas about civilization and race, Herder asserted that the Negro is a human and not an animal. He adds, "You should not oppress him, nor murder him, nor steal from him: for he is a human being just as you are..." (Bernasconi 2000, 26).

This provides greater insight into not only Du Bois's claim that "manifestly some of the great races of today-particularly the Negro race-have not as yet given to civilization the full spiritual message which they are capable of giving (Du Bois 1897, quoted from Du Bois 1903, 26), but also Cooper's claim (five years before Du Bois) that "Each race has its badge, its exponent, its message, branded in its forehead by the great Master's hand which is its own peculiar keynote, and its contribution to the harmony of the nations" (VAJC, 122). For Cooper, the delivery of each message requires contact and conflict, but not brutal repression and racial domination. Cooper is clear that prejudice and race domination only leads to immobility and death. Implicit in her argument is a rejection of the complete assimilation (or even amalgamation) of one race into another. (This is also a theme that is taken up later by Du Bois.) Cooper constantly reiterates the point that race differences are intended to encourage races to sharpen or improve one another through equilibrium, conflict, and harmony, not through domination and hierarchy, or even assimilation. We see the significance of God even in Cooper's philosophy of history as it relates to conflict and progress when she explains, "the God of battles is in the conflicts of history. The evolution of civilization is in His care, eternal progress His delight" (VAJC, 129).

"The Negro As Presented in American Literature"

In "The Negro As Presented in American Literature" (1892) Cooper shows that standpoint theory does not have to devolve into unending relativism when we take into account the possibility of an inauthentic standpoint. She expresses her outrage at pseudo-intellectuals who disingenuously take up the "Negro question" to analyze race, bringing with them their prejudices, antipathies, and a rejection of any candid and careful study. She explains that with "flippant indifference" many "aspire to enlighten the world with dissertations on the racial traits of the Negro" (VAJC, 140). This is the case, not only for dissertations on race, but also for art and literature that seeks to portray a distorted image of the Negro. Cooper asserts, "it is an insult to humanity and a sin against God to publish any such sweeping generalizations of a race on such meager and superficial information. We meet at every turn-this obtrusive and offensive vulgarity, this gratuitous sizing up of the Negro and conclusively writing down his equation, sometimes even among his ardent friends and bravest defenders" (VAJC, 147).

Cooper calls into question the standpoint from which such dissertations are written and argues that the Negro has the right to identify the shortcomings of such analyses. The issues raised by Cooper here concern not only the standpoint from which these materials are produced, but also the inauthenticity of the product itself. This inauthenticity leads to a mass production of images that "portray colored persons only as bootblacks and hotel waiters, grinning from ear to ear and bowing and curtseying for the extra tips" (VAJC, 149). As a result of this false yet dominating image, many have not seen, "and therefore cannot be convinced that there exists a quiet, self-respecting, dignified class, ...of cultivated tastes and habits..." among Negroes, (VAJC, 149). Even more impressive than Cooper's ability to advance issues of standpoint theory and authenticity, is her insight about the producers of these controling negative images. Cooper asserts that rather than producing an accurate picture of the Black man, these portraits only reveal the consciousness (or subconsciousness) of the white man producing the images. According to Cooper, the authentic image of the Negro has not yet been produced. She assets, "an authentic portrait, at once aesthetic and true to life, presenting the Black man as a free American citizen, not just the humble slave of Uncle Tom's Cabin-but the man, divinely struggling and aspiring yet tragically warped and distorted by the adverse winds of circumstance, has not yet been painted...that canvass awaits the brush of the colored man himself" (VAJC, 158).

"What Are We Worth?"

In "What Are We Worth?" Cooper provides a theoretical rendering of race prejudice, grounding it in sentiment and/or ideas. Cooper's starting point for these reflections is a quote from Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe) in which he asks, if Africa and Africans where to sink into the ocean "how much poorer would the world be?" and then posits that in the end "not a poem, not an invention, not a piece of art would be missed from the world"-suggesting that none of the above have been contributed to the world by Africa or Africans. From this starting point Cooper goes on to describe sentiment as "ephemeral", "shifting", and "unreliable", and furthermore that "color prejudice or race prejudice is mere sentiment governed by the association of ideas" (VAJC, 162). Cooper surmises that when she hears expressions of dislike of the Negro for being "weak" such sentiments are an example of narrow-mindedness that is not worth engaging. She states, "Now this dislike it is useless to inveigh against and folly to rail at" (VAJC, 162).

Presenting race prejudice as sentiment governed by the association of ideas, Cooper explains that it is "impervious to reason" and "cannot be annihilated by rhetoric" (VAJC, 163). Thus, rather than approach the question of the worth of Africans from the standpoint of sentiment, Cooper raises the existential and phenomenological question of the value of human persons, particularly persons of African descent in the American context. She then shifts her analysis of worth to market value, examining the notion of worth as determined by the value of material, labor, and in the case of persons, the vital importance of education ("Education, then, is the safest and richest investment possible to man" [VAJC, 168]).

Cooper offers an array of statistics on Black schools (including early childhood developments, colleges, and universities), teachers, ministers, and other professionals (e.g. doctors and lawyers) to make the case for the "unassisted effort of the colored people for self-development" (VAJC, 169). She also provides statistics on the high mortality rates, the economic disempowerment of share cropping systems, and the limited housing opportunities among Black Americans. Cooper describes the white labor unions of the North as tyrannical insofar as their working conditions are far more preferable to those of Black men working for fifty cents per day in the fields and "the pinched and down-trodden colored women bending over wash-tubs and ironing boards-with children to feed and house rent to pay, wood to buy, soap and starch to furnish-lugging home weekly great baskets of clothes for families who pay them for a month's laundrying barely enough to purchase a substantial pair of shoes" (VAJC, 173). Cooper critiques labor unions when she describes "foreigners" and "immigrant laborers, who cannot even speak English" threatening to "cut off the nerve and paralyze the progress of an industry that gives work to an American-born citizen" (VAJC, 173-174).

Returning to the education question, Cooper is clear that she supports both classical education and trade education based on what is most appropriate for the individual student. On the one hand, she notes, "I want nothing I may say to be construed into an attack on classical training or on art development and culture. I believe in allowing every longing of the human soul to attain its utmost reach" (VAJC, 175). On the other hand, she is clear that, "The power of appreciation is the measure of an individual's aptitudes; and if a boy hates Greek and Latin and spends all his time whittling out steamboats, it is rather foolish to try to force him into the classics" (VAJC, 175).

As if rebutting the opening suggestion by Beecher that Africans have not contributed poetry, inventions, or art-Cooper highlights the poetic contributions of Phillis Wheatley, the inventions of successful Black farmers, the heroism of Black soldiers, and the artistic work of sculptor Mary Edmonia Lewis. Coming full circle back to her description of race prejudice as sentiment Cooper concludes: "Short sighted idiosyncrasies are but transient phenomena. It is futile to combat them, and unphilosophical to be depressed by them...Our only care need be the intrinsic worth of our contributions...and if we contribute a positive value in those things the world prizes, no amount of negrophobia can ultimately prevent its recognition" (VAJC, 187).

"The Gain from a Belief"

In "The Gain from a Belief" Cooper takes on English and French progressivism and positivism of the 19 th century (Mill, Comte, and others) using these figures' organic metaphors and visions of cultural development to explore the debates about racial uplift, the so-called Negro problem, liberalism, cosmopolitanism, and universal brotherhood. She presents the reader with a philosophical antagonist-a solitary figure with a cold, intellectual eye, pallid check, and harrowed brow. He represents "Speculative unbelief, curiously and sneeringly watching the humdrum, common-place, bread-and-butter toil of unspeculative belief" (VAJC, 188). This thinker-with his speculative unbelief, skepticism, positivism, and agnosticism, is juxtaposed with "struggling, working, believing humanity" that holds unscientific faith. Confronting the imagined philosophical figure Cooper states, "Sir...Your philosophy, I presume, lifts you above the toils and anxieties, the ambitions and aspirations of the common herd. Pardon me, but do you not feel called to devote those superior powers of yours to the uplifting of your less favored brotheren?" (VAJC, 188).

Cooper goes on to describe various philosophical positions concerning positivism, agnosticism, and skepticism looking at the works of Pascal, Ritcher, Hume, Comte, Huxley, Mill, Spencer, Lewes, and Ingersoll. Against these philosophies, Cooper makes the case for the import of heroism, devotion, and sacrifice inspired by feeling, faith, and belief. She clarifies her position of faith noting, "I do not mean by faith the holding of correct views and unimpeachable opinions on mooted questions; nor to I understand it to be the ability to forge cast-iron formulas and dub them TRUTH...To me, faith means treating the truth as true " (VAJC, 193). These points are directed toward the possibilities and various beliefs concerning racial uplift.

Cooper asserts, "Life must be more than dilettante speculation" (VAJC, 194). Rather than talking as a spectator, you ought to lead, finance, and live what you believe. Taking up some of the racial debates of that time, Cooper argues that one's actions should follow from one's beliefs. If you believe that "...the Negro race in America has a veritable destiny in His [God's] eternal purposes"... then time should not be wasted on "discussing the 'Negro Problem' amid the clouds of your fine Havana, ensconced in your friend's well-cushioned arm-chair and with your patent leather boot-tips elevated to the opposite mantle" (VAJC, 194). If you believe that "God hath made one blood of all nations of the earth; and that interests which specialize and contract broad, liberal, cosmopolitan idea of universal brotherhood and equality are narrow and pernicious, then treat that truth as true" (VAJC, 194). Cooper asks philosophers and thinkers to be consistent in applying their positions and expressing their beliefs. She advises, "Don't inveigh against lines of longitude drawn by others when at the same time you are applying your genius to devising lines of latitude which are neither race lines, nor character lines, nor intelligence lines-but certain social-appearance circlets assorting your 'universal brotherhood' by shapes of noses and texture of hair" (VAJC, 194). Cooper continues, "If you object to imaginary lines-don't draw them! Leave only the real lines of nature and character" (VAJC, 195). She concludes by returning to the import of the power of belief, "If thou believest, all things are possible; and as thou believest, so be it to thee" (VAJC, 196).

Cooper's dissertation provides insights and analyses pertinent to social and political philosophy, critical philosophy of race, as well as critical interpretations of French Enlightenment. Like Voice, this text by Cooper warrants an extensive overview because it has remained almost wholly overlooked by philosophers. In L'attitude de la France à l'égard de l'esclavage pendant la revolution, Cooper succeeds in resituating racial oppression, colonialism, and slavery as issues central to rather than tangential to the French and Haitian Revolutions. Her topic was motivated by several observations including comments from French President Poincaré-which to her seemed significant to France's attitude about racial equality, as well as the erection of a monument in Dakar, "A la Gloire de l Armée Noirse" (VAJC, 324). Additionally, Cooper was researching "the Franco Japanese Treaty of 1896-The Naturalization of France: a) for Japanese, b) Hindus, c) Negroes, and of course the discussions of the National Assemblies during the French Revolution; the writings and speeches of and about La Société des Amis des Noir-l'Abbe Gregoire and others" (VAJC, 324).

To these interests and influences, Cooper adds her avid reading of Le Monde Noir (or La Revue du Monde Noir) and contributions from thinkers such as Franz Boas, Jean Finot, Author de Gobineau, along with discourses from Alphanse de Lamartine and his drama Toussaint L'Ouverture. La Revue du Monde Noir, launched in October 1931, was conceptualized at the Clamart salon (located in the Paris apartment of Jane and Paulette Nardal) and managed by the Nardal sisters along with Léo Sajous, Clara Shepard, and Louis-Jean Finot. An original issue of La Revue du Monde Noir is in Cooper's archived papers at Howard University's Moorland-Springarn Center. Priced at 7 francs 50 or 30 cents U.S., the issue contains such contributions as "Race Equality" by Louis-Jean Finot, "The Creole Race" by Maître Jean-Louis, a poem by Claude McKay, and "A Negro Woman speaks at Cambridge and Geneva" by Paulette Nardal.

The introduction to Cooper's thesis outlines the origins of the institution of "Negro slave trade," which was "founded on the abuse of power...and maintained by violence" (SFHR, 31). Cooper discusses the impact of the slave trade on mortality rates of the enslaved (e.g. through the middle passage) along with the ways in which slavery and colonialism underdeveloped the continent of Africa while enriching the Spanish, Portuguese, Iberian peoples, the United States, England and France-among others. She highlights the harms of slavery for both the slavers and the enslaved while also underscoring the prominent role of slavery in the colonial system. In France in particular she asserts, "the colonists, the rich merchants, had too much to gain from the shameful traffic in slaves to be willing even to consider the possibility of suppressing slavery. Since the time of Colbert, too many French ports had been developed and enriched by the trade" (SFHR, 37). The struggle against slavery and the opposing interests of the colonists against the Blacks would have been one-sided in the interest of the colonist, Cooper asserts, if not for the establishment of the Friends of the Blacks by Brissot, Sièyes, and Condorcet in 1787, (SFHR, 37).

Against this background, in the first chapter of the thesis Cooper details the prosperity of the French colonies, especially Santo Domingo, on the eve of the Revolution ("The Social Conditions of the French-American Colonies; the Class Structure"). She describes the various classes including the "petite blancs" (lower middle class whites), "mulatto class" (sometimes rather well educated and extremely desirous of affirming their equality with whites), "colored men" (a term used by the petit blancs that included both those with a mixture of the white race and the black race, as well as the pure Negro natives of Africa or the colonies), and "freed men" (who were generally poor and who were almost as jealous of the mulattos as of the whites), (SFHR, 44-45).

From here Cooper details the geography of Santo Domingo and the conflicts (including slave revolts and the violence of the colonial and slave systems) that contributed to the white colonists of Santo Domingo approaching the National Assembly of France. Disturbed about the influence of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, the colonists established an adversarial group called the Massiac Club, which claimed the right to be represented in the National Assembly. The unexpected result was the increased visibility of the colonial problem for the public, which actually strengthened the position of the Friends of the Blacks concerning the problem of human liberty and equality between the races, (SFHR, 48-49). Cooper states, "Thus the Friends of the Blacks profited from the admission of the deputies of Santo Domingo to draw attention toward the great problem of equality of the races, and to the concurrent problem of the suppression of slavery" (SFHR, 53). Another outcome of this debate was the question of the principle of colonial representation-the idea that the colonies are a part of the national territory of France, not just lands to be exploited, (SFHR, 56).

In Chapter Two, Cooper describes the formation of "The American Colonists"-a committee of colored men organized by "the elder Raimond, Jacques and Vincent Ogé" (SFHR, 59). They sought the admission of a deputy to represent them in the Constituent Assembly and demanded "the absolute equality of colored men and free Negroes with white colonists" (SFHR, 60). This reopened debates about the problem of equality of the races in the colonies and raised "A graver question, that of the abolition of the trade and slavery" (SFHR, 60). In addition to considering the "fate of the blacks" there are also the other events of the Revolution in France including Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and the height of the reign of terror, (SFHR, 61). Cooper asserts, "It is certain that if the whites had adopted a more conciliatory attitude toward the free mulattos many disasters could have been avoided" (SFHR, 63). But the colonist joined forces with the Massiac Club to prevent the emancipation of slaves and to establish a force in the colonies that could resist any legislation against slavery. The result was, in part, the establishment of a Colonial Committee that would centralize colonial questions in the hands of a few and remove them from the Friends of the Blacks, (SFHR, 65). Cooper is clear that financial concerns outweighed ideals about freedom and racial equality. She argues that the establishment of this Colonial Committee was indicative of the necessity to "slow down a revolutionary moment menacing the whole of the West Indies" coupled with a desire to protect the financial interests and national wealth of France insofar as "trade with Santo Domingo represented two thirds of the total trade of France" (SFHR, 66).

The Friends of the Blacks were "prepared to sacrifice everything for the success of their cause," and the Massaic Club colonialists "were just as dedicated to their detestable cause" (SFHR, 71). Barnave presented a decree (March 1790), which contained the principle that the colonies were to provide their own constitution, thereby ending arbitrary administration. The colonists then demanded independence, but "Without making any distinction between the whites and the colored men, without even mentioning one or the other, they contented themselves in the famous Article IV, with conferring civil rights upon 'all property owners of twenty-five years of age,' who possessed real estate, or lacking such property, had been domiciled in and had contributed to the parish for two years" (SFHR, 71). Cooper notes that the ambiguity of the article allowed landholding mulattoes to hope that these civil rights applied to them "without assuring them any benefit" (SFHR, 72). Furthermore, colored men in Paris were alarmed by the silence of the decree on their particular rights. Just as mulattos were seeking the same rights as whites, Blacks would go on to claim the same rights as mulattos. The result of the decree was resistance and insurrection. "In spite of all of these measures," Cooper notes, "it was in vain that the Constituent Assembly and its Colonial Committee had hoped to save the colonies from danger of insurrections," (SFHR, 77). The decree of May 15, 1791 which accorded political rights to mulattoes born of free parents and recognizing them as active citizens was a defeat for the colonists, yet they refused to comply with it (SFHR, 80). The white colonists revolted, the decree was retracted (though not altogether annulled), and the Friends of the Blacks and the Jacobin Club were brought closer together.

In the third chapter Cooper documents the various Civil Commissions sent to Santo Domingo along with the resulting reports and decrees that followed with those visits. White colonists continued to act in open opposition to any semblance of political equality (which they feared might also lead to social equality) for mulattoes (SFHR, 88). She notes, "...April 4 th a new National Law annulled the Constitutional Decree of September 24 th, 1791, conferred upon colored men and free Negroes equal political rights with whites, and ordered a new election, more in accord with principles of equality, of the colonial and parochial assemblies which had been reinvigorated by then to enforce the new Law the [a]ssembly provided for the appointment of three new Civil Commissioners having dictatorial powers and supported by a sufficient military force" (SFHR, 88).

In time the Commissioners "let the blacks do as they wished," emancipation was proclaimed in the West and in the South, "Negroes everywhere refused to work, and economic conditions worsened to the extent that insubordination increased" (SFHR, 95-97). In examining the correspondence of this particular period, Cooper notes the descriptions of insurrections and loss of property, and the seemingly secondary attention to the question of slavery. She asserts, "Thus we find one more argument in support of the idea, which inevitably grows stronger as one reads so many convincing documents, that the question of the emancipation of the slaves had only been considered and embraced by a few enthusiasts, idealists like Brissot and his friends...who had only seen a problem to be resolved by humanity and theory where in fact a thorough practical preparation was necessary" (SFHR, 98).

Cooper also outlines the events leading up to the rise in power of Toussaint Louverture (whom she describes as "a grand figure" "intelligent and capable" and "endowed with a strong personality that towered over those of his companions" (SFHR, 101). A leader able to "see and foresee," Louverture sent Sonthoax back to France followed by Hédouville and Raimond. In a campaign against Rigaurd for power, Louverture facilitated massacres of mulattoes in the North and eventually "made himself master of all the Spanish territory" (SFHR, 106). Expecting a strong response from France and Napoleon, Louverture forced Blacks back to work to increase the prosperity of the island and "permitted no revolt, finishing off insurrectionists swiftly..." (SFHR, 108). In the end, Louverture would be sent to France where he died on April 7, 1803. Napoleon went on to reestablish slavery and slave trade in the French colonies. Cooper observes, "In truth, it seems that Napoleon never gave more than absent minded thoughts to the obviously complicated problem presented by that too distant island" (SFHR, 111). A new "war of extermination" broke out against the "last vestiges of the white race at Santo Domingo" (SFHR, 111). Louverture's successor Dessallines declared the island independent and restored the Indian name of Haiti "so that there would no longer be reminders of the European occupation" (SFHR, 111).

In her conclusion, Cooper reflects on the various factors that complicated the entire situation from the economic conditions in revolutionary France to the issue of slavery and the problem of race-a problem that was not simply Black and white, but also involved "the intermediate mulatto," and finally, a political problem, (SFHR, 114). Cooper describes the political problem in this way, "The change in regime was not accepted in these distant countries as it should have been, because it was not understood. The majority of the colonists remained royalists. And so did the blacks. A war of parties was added to the war of races" (SFHR, 114).

The Ethics of the Negro Question

In "The Ethics of the Negro Question" (1902) Cooper confronts the hypocrisy of Christianity in America. According to Cooper, the Negro "stands in the United States of America today as the passive and silent rebuke to the Nation's Christianity, the great gulf between its professions and its practices, furnishing the chief ethical element in its politics, ...[and pointing the finger at so-called] ideals of civilization" (VAJC, 206). This sentiment is reiterated in "The Negro in American Literature" where Cooper asserts that the color caste in this country is a "scathing rebuke to weak-eyed Christians who cannot read the golden rule across the color line" (VAJC, 145).

Cooper recounts the harsh circumstances under which the Negro is uprooted and transplanted to this "Christian" nation, reduced to chattel and beasts of burden for the purpose of producing wealth for white men and the economy of the nation (VAJC, 207). Like Frederick Douglass and others, Cooper underscores this nation's failure to adhere to the declaration that "all men are created equal" from the beginning. Her use of language and imagery are worth quoting at length. She asserts:

Professing a religion of sublime altruism, a political faith in the inalienable rights of man as man, these jugglers with reason and conscience were at the same moment stealing heathen from their far away homes, forcing them with lash and gun to unrequited toil, making it a penal offense to teach them to read the word of God,-nay, more, were even begetting and breeding mongrels of their own flesh among these helpless creatures and pocketing the guilty increase, the price of their own blood in unholy dollars and cents. (VAJC, 207)

Cooper not only highlights the discontinuity between religion, faith, reason, and conscience on the one hand and the atrocities of slavery on the other, she also exposes the white male slave owner as a rapist who fathers children by Black female slaves and then exploits the labor of those children who must assume the slave status of their mothers. This is a constant point of emphasis by Cooper not only because of its prevalence during and after slavery, but also because of her own her lived experience. Added to all of this is the problem of lynching-adeptly described by Ida B. Wells-Barnett as "Our National Crime".

"My Racial Philosophy" (Survey Question)

Cooper wrote "My Racial Philosophy" (1930) in response to a survey distributed by Charles S. Johnson to Black college graduates. In 1927 Johnson became chair of a newly formed social science department at Fisk University. Other prominent members of the department faculty at that time included now famed social scientists Robert E. Park and E. Franklin Frazier. The formation of this department at Fisk was made possible by a $200,000 contribution from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial-for whom Spelman College, the renowned historically Black college for women in Atlanta, GA is also named (Gasman 1999, 6). By 1930, Johnson was collecting data from this survey taken by Cooper and numerous others, and by 1946 Johnson had become the sixth president, though the first Black president, of Fisk.

The question to which Cooper was replying in Johnson's 1930 survey is (question # 65): "Have you a 'racial philosophy' that can be briefly stated?" Cooper begins her two-page reply by emphasizing the fact that race and gender prejudice is often overlapping, particularly for Black women. The analysis of race and gender intersectionality dominates Cooper's philosophy, not only here, but throughout A Voice from the South. Here she asserts, "the whips and stings of prejudice, whether of color or sex, find me neither too calloused to suffer, nor too ignorant to know what is due me" (VAJC, 236). Cooper adds that one would be mistaken to "imagine that oppression goes only with color" and explains, "When I encounter brutality I need not always charge it to my race" (VAJC, 236). Even more significant in Cooper's racial philosophy is the correlation she draws between prejudice, civilization, and our responsibility in the formation of our civilization. Cooper claims that the brutality of prejudice is "chargeable to the imperfections in the civilization...for which as a teacher and a trained thinker I take my share in responsibility" (VAJC, 236).

Anna Julia Cooper was born into slavery as Annie Hayward in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 10, likely in 1858 (though some sources date her birth in 1859) before the Civil War. Cooper describes her mother Hannah Haywood as "the finest woman" she had ever known who despite being "untutored" was still able to "read her bible and write a little." Cooper presumes that her father was her mother's master, adding that her mother "was always too modest and shamefaced ever to mention him." With this one sentence Cooper captures both the plights of enslaved Black women of that time-being untutored and sexually exploited; as well as the significant triumphs-learning to read and write against the odds (and in many cases against the law).

At the young age of nine, barely removed from slavery, Cooper (then Annie Haywood) begins school at Saint Augustine Normal School in Raleigh, North Carolina where she continued her education for about fourteen years. During this time she also worked as a tutor and teacher. Cooper completed studies at what became Saint Augustine's Normal Collegiate School in 1877 and then married George Cooper. The newlyweds continued to study and teach at Saint Augustine's, but George Cooper, who went on to become an Episcopal priest, died two short years later. In a letter seeking admission to Oberlin College in Ohio, Cooper lists the content of her previous studies including English; Latin: Cesar (seven books), Virgil's Aeneid (six books), Sallust's Cataline and Jugurtha, a few orations of Cicero; Greek: White's first lessons, Goodwin's Greek Reader-including selections from Xenophon, Plato, Herodotus, and Thucydides, the Iliad; along with Algebra and Geometry. It is obvious that her education was deeply rooted in the history of Western philosophy and the classics. Cooper gains admission and leaves Saint Augustine's for Oberlin College in 1881 where she goes on to earn a B.A. in mathematics in 1884 and then an M.A. for college teaching in 1887.

Although Cooper's affinity for the Western philosophical canon, languages, and advanced mathematics at times resulted in her being misread as elitist, it must be noted that these academic and scholarly achievements are complemented by her lifetime commitment to education, activism, and community service. The depth of this commitment is evidenced by her work as a tutor in North Carolina in her youth, and later as a teacher at Saint Augustine's College and Wilberforce College where she taught mathematics, literature, and modern languages. Cooper would have many more years of teaching and administrative experience at M Street High School in Washington D.C., where she was appointed principal from January 2, 1902 to June 30, 1906. After a controversy at M Street High School, Cooper left Washington D.C. to teach for several years at Lincoln University in Missouri. The controversy centered on claims about the immorality of the teachers and misconduct among students. It has been speculated that these charges were raised because some were disgruntled by Cooper's commitment to teaching classical texts and languages-an approach often associated with Du Bois's educational philosophy rather than Washington's emphasis on vocational training. But Louise Daniele Hutchinson has made the case that Percy M. Hughes, the white director of Washington High Schools at the time, played a role in this controversy insofar as he brought the charges against Cooper. Despite public support for Cooper, the brouhaha ultimately resulted in her not being reappointed as principal of M Street High School in 1906. Cooper did eventually return to teach at M Street from 1910 to 1930, before teaching at Frelinghuysen University where she held the office of the president from 1930 to 1941.

In addition to these educational and administrative contributions, Cooper also did work at a War Camp in Indianapolis, supervised a playground in West Virginia, supervised the Colored Settlement House in Washington D.C., and helped to facilitate the opening of the first YWCA chapter for Black women in Washington, D.C. She was also very active in the racial and gender uplift movement, including the Negro Women's Club Movement-playing a leadership role in the Washington Colored Woman's League which eventually became a part of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Cooper was a speaker at the Hampton Conference in 1892, a speaker at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and she co-founded the Colored Women's League in 1894 in Washington, D.C. She helped organize and also addressed the Pan African Conference in London in 1900 (which later became the Pan African Congress) before touring Europe with her foster daughter Lula Love (visiting the Paris Exposition, Oberammergau, Munich, and several cities in Italy). Furthermore, Shirley Moody-Turner has noted that Cooper was active in the Hampton Folklore Society (working as an interim editor for the Southern Workman) and the Washington Negro Folklore Society (as a founder and corresponding secretary). Some have claimed that Cooper was the only female member of the American Negro Academy (though others have argued that she was not an official member).

In 1925, at the age of 66, Cooper earned a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne in Paris, France becoming the fourth Black American woman to earn a Ph.D. The first three black women to earn the Ph.D. in the U.S. include Sadie T.M. Alexander (University of Pennsylvania), Georgianna Rosa Simpson (University of Chicago), and Eva B. Dykes (Radcliff College) and each did so in 1921. Cooper recalls the Herculean effort required to complete her exams and thesis for the doctorate in The Third Step. She took courses at La Guilde Internationale, Paris in French Literature, History, and Phonetics during the summer months in 1911, 1912, and 1913. After starting her doctoral studies at Columbia University in New York in the summer of 1914, Cooper would then take guardianship of five children (her great-nieces and nephews) and in 1916 she purchased a five-bedroom home in which to raise them. By 1917 she earned thirty-two credits and was certified in French, Latin, and Greek at Columbia. However, Cooper could not meet the one-year residential requirements as she was still working at M Street High School in Washington, D.C. She later decided to transfer her credits from Columbia to the University of Paris in France. In December of 1923 Cooper came down with influenza and asked for a sick leave from her teaching obligations. By February 1924 she selected her thesis topic, but then learned that she had only sixty days to return to her teaching post or be "dropped" from her position at M Street High School. Cooper returned to her teaching position on the sixtieth day and continued to do research and writing on the thesis at the Library of Congress on evenings and weekends. She defended her thesis on March 23, 1925 and received her diplôme de Docteur ès lettres de la Faculté de Paris on December 29, 1925 in a ceremony supported by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Howard University.

Cooper continued teaching at M Street High School until 1930. She also taught at Frelinghuysen University, holding the office of the president from 1930 to 1941. Over the decades various magazines and newspapers published several of her commentaries on the state of the race. Cooper lived to be 105 years old, residing in Washington D.C. until her death on February 27, 1964. Memorial services were held in Raleigh, North Carolina where she is buried. The cemetery gravestone reads:

Anna J. Cooper, Ph.D. 1859-1964
Educator, Author, Poet and
School Administrator
Early Advocate of Equal Rights
For Blacks And Women
A Graduate Of St. Augustine's College
Erected 1979.

Primary Literature: Works by Anna Julia Cooper

A Voice From the South, Xenia, Ohio: The Aldine Printing Company, 1892.

A Voice from the South, with an Introduction, Mary Helen Washington (ed.), New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper (VAJC), Charles Lemert and Esme Bhan (eds.), Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998.

"The Ethics of the Negro Question," in The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper, Charles Lemert and Esme Bhan (eds.), Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998, pp. 206-215.

"Discussion of the Same Subject [The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women of the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation]," in The World's Congress of Representative Women, May Wright Sewall (ed.), Chicago: Rand McNally, 1894, pp. 711-715.

"Paper by Mrs. Anna J. Cooper," Southern Workman, 23 (7) (July 1894): 131-33.

"Colored Women as Wage Earners," Southern Workman, 28 (August 1899): 295-298.

Slavery and the French Revolutionists, 1788-1805 (translation of Cooper's doctoral thesis,L'attitude de la France à l'égard de l'esclavage pendant la révolution), Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1988.

Slavery and the French and Haitian Revolutionists:L'attitude de la France à l'égard de l'esclavage pendant la revolution, edited and translated by Frances Richardson Keller, reprinted Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

"The American Negro Academy," Southern Workman, 27 (2) (February 1898): 35-36.

Other Primary Literature Cited

Crummell, Alexander, 1883, "The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs," in Destiny and Race: Selected Writings, 1840-1898, Wilson Jeremiah Moses (ed.), Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.

Delany, Martin, 1852, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Amherst: Humanity Books, 2004,available online at Project Gutenberg.

Du Bois, W.E.B., 1897, "The Conservation of Races," Occasional Papers 2, American Negro Academy,available online; reprinted in Du Bois 1903; reprinted in D. Lewis (ed.),W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader, New York: Holt, 1995.

Du Bois, W.E.B., 1903, The Souls of Black Folk, reprinted in Blight and Williams (eds.), Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Emerson, Ralph W., 1862, "American Civilization," in The Atlantic Monthly, IX/54 (April): 502-511.

Anthologies

Freedman, E. B., (ed.), 2007, The Essential Feminist Reader, New York: Modern University.

Harris, Leonard, Pratt, Scott L., and Waters, Ann S., (eds.), 2002, American Philosophies: An Anthology, Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Lengermann, P. M., and Niebrugge-Brantley, J., (eds.), 2007, The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930: A Text Reader, Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press.

Lott, Tommy L., (ed.), 2002, African-American Philosophy: Selected Readings, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Montmarquet, James A. and Hardy, William H., (eds.), 2000, Reflections: An Anthology of African American Philosophy, Belmont, California: Wadsworth Thompson Learning.

Maffly-Kipp, L. F., and Lofton, K., (eds.), 2010, Women's Work: An Anthology of African-American Women's Historical Writings From Antebellum America to the Harlem Renaissance, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scott, Lee and Hord, Fred L., (eds.), 1995, I am Because We Are: Readings in Black Philosophy, Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press.

Waters, Kristin, and Conaway, Carol B., (eds.), 2007, Black Women's Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds, Burlington, Vermont: University of Vermont Press and Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England.

Journal Special Issues

Hypatia, Special Issue on Women in the American Philosophical Tradition, Volume 19, Number 2, Spring 2004 (Edited by Dorothy Rogers and Therese B. Dykeman)

May, Vivian M., "Thinking from the Margins, Acting at the Intersections: Anna Julia Cooper's A Voice from the South" in Hypatia, Volume 19, Number 2, Spring 2004.

Bailey, Catherine. "Anna Julia Cooper: 'Dedicated in the Name of My Slave Mother to the Education of Colored Working People'" in Hypatia, Volume 19, Number 2, Spring 2004.

Philosophia Africana: Analysis of Philosophy and Issues in African and the Black Diaspora, Special Issue: Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 12, Number 1, March 2009 (Edited by Kathryn T. Gines and Ronald R. Sundstrom)

May, Vivian M., "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance: Why African Americans must 'reverse the picture of the lordly man slaying the lion ... [and] turn painter.'" in Philosophia Africana, Volume 12:1, March 2009.

Bailey, Catherine, "The Virtue and Care Ethics of Anna Julia Cooper" in Philosophia Africana, Volume 12:1, March 2009.

Johnson, Karen "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Social Justice in Education" in Philosophia Africana, Volume 12:1, March 2009.

White, Carol "One and All: Anna Julia Cooper's Romantic Feminist Vision" in Philosophia Africana, Volume 12:1, March 2009.

Cusick, Carolyn "Anna Julia Cooper, Worth, and Public Intellectuals" in Philosophia Africana, Volume 12:1, March 2009.

African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009 (Edited by Shirley Moody Turner).

Moody Turner, Shirley, 2009, "Preface: Anna Julia Cooper: A Voice Beyond the South", African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly, 2009, "Black Feminist Studies: The Case of Anna Julia Cooper", African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

May, Vivian M., 2009, "Writing the Self into Being: Anna Julia Cooper's Textual Politics" African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

Moody-Turner, Shirley and Stewart, James, 2009, "Gendering African Studies: Insights from Anna Julia Cooper" African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

Johnson, Karen A., 2009, "In Service for the Common Good" African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

Moody-Turner, Shirley. "A Voice Beyond the South: Resituating the Locus of Cultural Representation in the Later Writings of Anna Julia Cooper", African American Review: Special Section on Anna Julia Cooper, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2009.

Secondary Literature

Alexander, E., 1995, "'We Must Be about Our Father's Business': Anna Julia Cooper and the In-Corporation of the Nineteenth-Century African-American Woman Intellectual", Signs, 20 (2): 336-356.

Aldridge, Derrick, 2007, "Of Victorianism, Civilizationism, and Progressivism: The Educational Ideas of Anna Julia Cooper and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1892-1940", History of Education Quarterly, 47 (4) (November 2007): 416-446.

Alridge, D. P., 2008, The Educational Thought of W.E.B. DuBois: An Intellectual History, New York: Teachers College Press.

Anderson, N. S., and Kharem, H., (eds.)., 2009, Education as Freedom: African American Educational Thought and Activism, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.

Andrews, W. L., (ed.)., 2006, The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature: An Anthology, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.

Baham, Eva, 1997, "Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, a stream cannot rise higher than its source: The vanguard as the panacea for the plight of black America", PhD dissertation, Purdue University, 1997.

Baker-Fletcher, Karen, 1994, A Singing Something: Anna Julia Cooper and the Foundations of Womanist Theology, New York: Crossroads.

Bernasconi, Robert, 2000. The Idea of Race, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company

Bonnick, Lemah, 2007, "In the Service of Neglected People: Anna Julia Cooper, Ontology, and Education", Philosophical Studies in Education, 38: 179-198.

Boyd, A. E., (ed.)., 2009, Wielding the Pen: Writings on Authorship by American Women of the Nineteenth Century, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Browne, Errol Tsekani, 2008, "Anna Julia Cooper and Black Women's Intellectual Tradition: Race, Gender and Nation in the Making of a Modern Race Woman, 1892-1925", PhD dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.

Carby, Hazel, 1987, Reconstruction Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist, New York: Oxford University Press.

Chateauvert, Melinda, 1990, "The Third Step: Anna Julia Cooper and Black Education in the District of Columbia, 1910-1960", in Black Women in United States History, The Twentieth Century, Volume 5, Hine, Darlene Clark, (ed.), Brooklyn: Carlson, pages 261-276.

Evans, Stephanie, 2007, Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History, Gainesville: University of Florida Press.

Evans, Stephanie Y., 2009, "African American Women Scholars and International Research: Dr. Anna Julia Cooper's Legacy of Study Abroad", Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 18: 77-100.

Finlay, B., 2007, Before the Second Wave: Gender in the Sociological Tradition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Gabel, Leona C., 1982, From Slavery to the Sorbonne and Beyond: The Life and Writings of Anna J. Cooper, Northampton, MA: Smith College.

Gasman, Marybeth, 1999. "The Presidency of Charles S. Johnson at Fisk University as a Model for Collaboration between Philanthropy and Black Higher Education, 1946-1956," in Research Reports from the Rockefeller Archive Center, Spring 1999.

Gates, H. L., and Jarrett, G. A., (eds.)., 2007, The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gautier, A., 2006, African American Women's Writings in the Woman's Building Library, Libraries and Culture, 41 (1): 55-81.

Giddings, Paula, 1984/1996, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, New York: W. Marrow.

Giles, M. S., 2004, Special Focus: Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, 1858-1964: Teacher, Scholar, and Timeless Womanist, The Journal of Negro Education, 75 (4): 621-634.

Gillman, S. K., and Weinbaum, A. E., (eds.), 2007, Next to the Color Line: Gender, Sexuality, and W.E.B. Du Bois, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Glass, K. L., 2005, "Tending to the Roots: Anna Julia Cooper's Sociopolitical Thought and Activism", Meridians, 6 (1): 23-55.

Glass, K. L., 2006, Courting Communities: Black Female Nationalism and "Syncre-Nationalism" in the Nineteenth-Century North, New York: Routledge.

Gordon, Jane, 2007, "Failures of Language and Laughter: Anna Julia Cooper and Contemporary Problems of Humanistic Pedagogy", Philosophical Studies in Education, 38: 163-178.

Gordon, Lewis R., 2008, An Introduction to Africana Philosophy, (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy), New York: Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, Lewis, 2008a, "Anna Julia Cooper and the Problem of Value", in An Introduction to Africana Philosophy, (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy), New York: Cambridge University Press, pages 69-73.

Harrison, B. C., 2002, "Diasporadas: Black Women and the Fine Art of Activism", Meridians, 2 (2): 163-184.

Hutchinson, Louise Daniel, 1981, Anna Julia Cooper: A Voice from the South, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

James, Joy, 1996, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals, New York: Routledge.

Johnson, Karen, 2000, Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Lives, Educational Philosophies and Social Activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Burroughs, New York: Garland Publishers.

Keller, F. R., 1999, "An Educational Controversy: Anna Julia Cooper's Vision of Resolution", NWSA Journal, 11 (3): 49-67.

Lemert, C. C., 2007, Thinking the Unthinkable: The Riddles of Classical Social Theories, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

May, Vivian M., 2007, Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction, New York: Routledge.

May, V. M., 2008, "'It Is Never A Question of the Slaves': Anna Julia Cooper's Challenge to History's Silences in Her 1925 Sorbonne Thesis", Callaloo, 31 (3): 903-918.

Rogers, E. E., 2005, "Afritics from Margin to Center: Theorizing the Politics of African American Women as Political Leaders", Journal of Black Studies, 35 (6): 701-714.

Simeon-Jones, K., 2010, Literary and Sociopolitical Writings of the Black Diaspora in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.

Staton-taiwo, S. L., 2004, "The Effect of Cooper's A Voice From the South in WEB Du Bois' Souls and Black Flame Trilogy", Philosophia Africana, 7 (2): 59-80.

Upton, J. N., and Maples, R. L., 2002, "Multiculturalism: Toward a New Understanding of Nationality", in Bailey, A., (ed.), Community, Diversity, and Difference: Implications for Peace, New York: Rodopi, pages 117-131.

Vogel, T., 2004, Rewriting White: Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Nineteenth-Century America, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Warren-Christian, Christiane, 2003, "Anna Julia Cooper: Feminist and Scholar", PhD dissertation, Drew University.

Washington, M. H., 1987, "Anna Julia Cooper: The Black Feminist Voice of the 1980s", Legacy, 4 (2): 3-15.

Weiss, P. A., 2009, Canon Fodder: Historical Women Political Thinkers, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Archives

Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (Washington, D.C.), Anna Julia Cooper Collection

Oberlin College, Anna Julia Cooper Alumni File. RG 28, Box 206, Oberlin College Archives

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Anna Julia Cooper's best-known written work, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, was published in 1892.

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This lesson introduces students to the life, goals, and achievements of Ella Baker. It also includes a ten-minute excerpt from Joanne Grant's Fundi, a film about Ella Baker.

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Introduction

This lesson introduces students to the life and times of civil rights activist Ella Baker (1903-1986). Baker put her theory that "strong people don't need strong leaders" into action when she encouraged college students to create an autonomous organization free of established civil rights groups. The result was the founding of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. Baker also played a key role in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which sought to integrate the all-white state delegation at the 1964 National Democratic Convention. Baker has been called a "midwife" and "mother" of the civil rights movement. More fitting perhaps is the word "mentor," which captures her belief in "group centered leadership."

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to demonstrate a broad understanding of the growth of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and the role of Black women in the movement.

Students will be able to differentiate between different types of leadership styles.

Students will be able to chronologically locate key civil rights individuals, organizations, and events.

Essential Questions

What makes a good leader?

What are the relationships between inequality and social injustice, and equality and justice?

How do ideas of gender influence group and individual relationships?

Materials

Warm Up Activity: Quotation Analysis and Class Discussion

1. Write on the board the following quotation: "Strong people don't need strong leaders."

2. Ask students to think about what the quotation means to them.

3. Have students discuss the quotation with each other. (Alternatively, have the students provide written responses to the question.)

1. Open up the class discussion by asking students to share their answers to the question: "What does this statement reveal about the speaker?"

2. At the end of the discussion, explain that they will be studying the author of the quotation, Ella Baker.

Main Activity: Jigsaw on Ella Baker

1. Show a clip from the film Fundi (11:31 min.), also located at the top of this lesson plan. Note: Fundi is an African word honoring a person who is a skilled or expert teacher.

2. Divide the students into 4-person jigsaw groups.

1. Have the groups go to Click and read the essay " Women in the Civil Rights Movement " in the chapter Women & Social Movements.

2. When the students have finished reading the essay, have them click Ella Baker's name (which appears at the beginning of the 6 th paragraph).

3. This will take them to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

4. Have them click on "About" and then "Who Was Ella Baker?"

5. Have all students read this essay.

3. Assign each student in the group to one segment of the essay. The segments are:

1. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

2. Joining the Struggle Against Jim Crow

3. The Audacity to Dream Big

4. Have one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment in an expert group.

1. Have the expert groups discuss what they have learned from their reading of the essay segment and from the Click essay.

2. Give the students time to discuss the main points of their segment and to prepare the information they will share with their jigsaw group.

5. Have the students return to their jigsaw groups.

1. Have each student present their segment to the group.

2. Other students in the group should ask questions for clarification.

6. Complete the jigsaw exercise by having students fill in a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) Worksheet (PDF).

Discuss other research opportunities for this important civil rights leader.

Extension Activity: Document Analysis

1. Hand out Document Analysis Worksheet (PDF).

2. Hand out Baker's 1960 speech "Bigger than a Hamburger" (PDF).

Ask for a volunteer to read the entire speech or for volunteers to read sections to the class.

3. Have the students complete their Document Analysis Worksheet after the presentation.

4. Begin a discussion about Baker and her speech by having students share their responses to the section "Document Information." These can be written on the board.

5. Ask them to discuss the differences between "first class" and "second class" citizenship.

6. Ask them to consider what Baker meant by "group centered leadership."

7. Ask them to consider why Baker thought student autonomy was important.

Common Core Anchor Standards
Reading
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10
Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Speaking and Listening
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1
Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

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This lesson introduces students to the life and times of civil rights activist Ella Baker (1903-1986). Baker put her theory that "strong people don't need strong leaders" into action when she encouraged college students to create an autonomous organization free of established civil rights groups.

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W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of Black Education

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W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of Black Education

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In the decades after Emancipation, African Americans continued to work for the betterment of their communities. Education, which had been denied to so many during the era of slavery, was seen as a pathway to full citizenship and true freedom.

Many schools were established in former slaves states specifically for the education of African American men and women. Among the educational institutions founded after the Civil War were colleges of the Atlanta University Center: Atlanta University - 1865 and Clark College - 1869 (now Clark Atlanta University), Morehouse College - 1867, Morris Brown College - 1881, Spelman College - 1881, and seminaries that would later be the foundation for the Interdenominational Theologial Center.

W.E.B. Du Bois was an important figure in the development of African-American education and the philosophy of the 20th century freedom movement. A Fisk Univeristy and Harvard educated historian and sociologist, Du Bois joined the faculty of Atlanta University in 1897. He distinguished himself and the programs at AU by conducting rigorous sociological studies, hosted conferences, and published extensively about the impact of slavery and class on the oppression of black people. While at Atlanta University, Du Bois penned his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folks, which laid bare the impact of slavery and race on American society. He also founded and edited the journal, Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture.

Du Bois did much to earn his reputation as a leading educator, and a radical spokesperson for African-Americans. Du Bois opposed the "Atlanta Compromise," articulated in a speech given in 1895 by Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute. This compromise traded the good behavior of Southern blacks for basic educational and economic freedoms from whites. DuBois felt strongly that blacks should be fighting for equal rights, not compromise.

Du Bois may be best known for the concept of the "talented tenth." He believed that full citizenship and equal rights for African Americans would be brought about through the efforts of an intellectual elite; for this reason, he was an advocate of a broad liberal arts education at the college level. This was in direct opposition to Washington's emphasis on industrial education.

Du Bois was a founder of the Niagara Movement, a collective of civil rights activists who drew up a statement of principles opposed to the Atlanta Compromise. Also he was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and edited its journal, Crisis, for many years.

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W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of Black Education

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In this 150th anniversary year of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary year of the March on Washington, interest in black political activity during the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement is at a high point. What may not be included in these celebrations is the constant struggle, and triumphs, of African-Americans in the intervening years.

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Ten Lessons from Black Literary Societies

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Ten Lessons from Black Literary Societies

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These lessons are described on pages 32-35. As teachers think about each lesson, they can reflect on the following question: How do the ten lessons from literary societies compare with pedagogy in your classroom?

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Ten Lessons From Black Literary Societies.pdf

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We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like "rent," "feeding a wife," "satisfying a man."

But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with...

By Gwendolyn Brooks

Relationships

Social Commentaries

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Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, though she spent most of her life on Chicago's south side, whose Bronzeville neighborhood she memorialized in her poetry. She received the Pulitzer Prize - the first African American so honored - for Annie Allen in 1950.

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Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on May 1, 1950, for Annie Allen making her the first African American to receive the Pulitzer.

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Gwendolyn Brooks: The Early Work and the Problem of “Reaching Everyone in the World.”

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Gwendolyn Brooks: The Early Work and the Problem of “Reaching Everyone in the World.”

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"Brooks [faced] a new wave of criticism during the late 1960s, when the Black Arts Movement got underway, and poets like LeRoi Jones and Don Lee were changing their names to Immamu Amiri Baraka and Mwalimu Haki R. Madhubuti. Her style was taken to task as 'mandarin' and 'indebted as much to T.S. Eliot as to Langston Hughes'" (OGBRC p.213).

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On October 12, 1990, I heard Gwendolyn Brooks read her poems at the Los Angeles poetry venue, Beyond Baroque, in Venice, California. Her presence and her voice had a powerful effect on me, and I wrote a poem about it almost immediately afterward. I thought well enough of the poem to send it to her, and was promptly rewarded with a warm thank you note from Chicago, signed simply, "Gwen."

It was significant to me that Brooks' reading took place here, on the Pacific coast within the geologic region known for its seismic and volcanic activity as the "Ring of Fire." Also significant was the fact that the reading happened to occur on Columbus Day, the date that opened an era of revised cartography, as well as the inception of the brutal slave trade that brought Gwendolyn Brooks' forebears to this continent.
On Hearing Gwendolyn Brooks
[Columbus Day, 1990]

Her voice contains a zoo of purrs and growls,
Of croons and grunts and hisses, yawps and howls.

Or maybe, it's the sound of human being
A truth volcano, patient, hearing, seeing;
Above all, elemental, like a speaking

Lava, abrasive, fluent, hotly creaking,
That rolls relentless toward a blue-eyed ocean.

The darkened soil, swept up in locomotion,
Enlarges narrow, pallid shores-its call,
A black and boiling, comprehending drawl.

Thus she, by just a whisper, or perhaps
A gasp, can smolder landscapes, widen maps.

In May 1950, at age 32, Brooks became the first black author to win a Pulitzer Prize. She received the news by telephone, while sitting with her little son in a dark house with no electricity, because she was too poor to pay the bill. She had already published one poetry collection with Harper & Row ( A Street in Bronzeville), received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and been recognized as one of Mademoiselle magazine's"Ten Young Women of the Year."

Brooks had been writing and publishing poems since she was a child. In her teens, she attended Chicago's integrated high schools and subsequently completed a two-year program at Wilson College. When asked during a 1967 interview with noted Illinois historian, Paul Angle, if, in light of her own experience, she believed "a person can be taught to write," Brooks responded:

There are certain hard specifics that can be taught. Sonnet rules. Guards against free verse imperilings. Iambic pentameter. When I was twenty-three, I joined a poetry-writing group organized and led by Inez Cunningham Stark, of whom you may have heard. Dead now, she was a familiar art figure here [in Chicago] for decades. At the time, she was a reader for the magazine Poetry. She came to the Southside Community Art Center and taught us many things about modern poetry. That was an aspect of her effort that helped me the most. At that time, I was subscribing too obediently to the older poets (CWGB p.19).

Brooks began to alter and expand her approach to the "hard specifics" and cultivated a uniquely imaginative, complex, and controlled poetics. She achieved the success she wanted when, at age 27, she published two poems in the November, 1944, issue of Poetry, a goal she'd been working towards since she was fourteen.

Six years later, after winning the Pulitzer for her second book, Annie Allen, Brooks wrote in the journal, Phylon (Issue XI, 1950), "The Negro poet's most urgent duty, at present, is to polish his technique, his way of presenting his truths and his beauties, that these may be more insinuating and, therefore, more overwhelming" (CWGB p. 38).

Praising Annie Allen,Phyllis McGinley wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "[ Annie Allen]is a tender, talented, lyrical little book, uneven, young, and fresh as poetry itself...[with] sophistication of thought and phrase." Stanley Kunitz wrote in Poetry, "The work of this young Chicago poet never fails to be warmly and generously human" (URIB p.75).

All of this brought down on Brooks a new wave of criticism during the late 1960s, when the Black Arts Movement got underway, and poets like LeRoi Jones and Don Lee were changing their names to Immamu Amiri Baraka and Mwalimu Haki R. Madhubuti. Her style was taken to task as "mandarin" and "indebted as much to T.S. Eliot as to Langston Hughes" (OGBRC p.213).

Of Brooks' pre-Sixties work, Haki R. Madhubuti wrote, "She attracted those 'negro' blacks who didn't believe that one is legitimate unless one is sanctioned by whites first" (OGBRC p.84). Of Annie Allen, Madhubuti wrote, "...important? Yes. Read by Blacks? No. Annie Allen more so than A Street in Bronzeville seems to have been written for whites" (URIB p.77). In a critical assessment of Annie Allen, Houston A. Baker wrote, "What one seems to have is 'white' style and 'black' content-two warring ideals in one dark body" (OGBRC p.213).

A few years later, in her autobiography, Report from Part One (published by Broadside in 1973), Brooks wrote:

There is indeed a new black today. He is different from any the world has known. He's a tall-walker. Almost firm. By many of his own brothers he is not understood. And he is understood by no white. Not the wise white; not the schooled white; not the kind white. Your least prerequisite toward an understanding of the new black is an exceptional Doctorate which can be conferred only upon those with the proper properties of bitter birth and intrinsic sorrow. I know this is infuriating,especially to those professional Negro-understanders, some of them very kind, with special portfolio, special savvy. But I cannot say anything other, because nothing other is the truth (OGBRC p.81).

I suppose I qualify as one of the wise, schooled, kind whites Brooks mentions, but I'm far from infuriated by her remarks. I believe she's right about the need for that "exceptional Doctorate" in "bitter birth and intrinsic sorrow" if one wishes to claim a true understanding of the black American experience. That said, do I really need Brooks' so-called "white style" in order to appreciate and grasp Annie Allen's clearly black content? I'm not sure. If "white style" means inclusion, perhaps I do need it. Brooks explained that, before 1967, she "liked the sound of the word 'universal'" and "thought in terms of reaching everyone in the world" with her poetry. In the same 1986 interview with Kevin Bezner, Brooks noted that the young black poets she met in the Sixties showed her "that there was a lot that blacks had to say to each other," but that some were writing "for blacks" instead of "to blacks," which "really threw it all off kilter as far as I was concerned" (CWGB p.120).

When I mention a "revised cartography" and the power to "widen maps," one poem in particular comes to mind. "Beverly Hills, Chicago," which appears as numeral VIIIin a subdivision of Annie Allen called "The Womanhood," takes the renowned Los Angeles epicenter of wealth and celebrity and relocates it to Chicago.

Being from Los Angeles, I'm quite familiar with the literal Beverly Hills and its aura of unattainability. Some might argue that Brooks' poem is more about economic disparity than racism, but the two go hand-in-hand historically.

In Brooks' poem, when she allows us to join her in the interior closeness of her car and gaze from its windows with her, she also lets us inhabit her thoughts. As we tour the ordered serenity and pine-scented streets of one of Chicago's affluent white neighborhoods, she begins to reflect, "We say ourselves fortunate to be driving by today. // That we may look at them..."

When asked about the poem by Kevin Bezner, Brooks related,

That comes out of my own life. My husband and I, being very poor, used to go out on Sundays, driving. We always had some little piece of car. We would drive out into the suburbs and look at those beautiful houses and say one day we would have a mansion also. We'd see the people there. We had some ridiculous idea that they were some kind of super population (CWGB p.118).

Brooks' Beverly Hills is undoubtedly the North Shore of Chicago, an area known to Southside Chicagoans as "The Gold Coast." Gold becomes a motif in the poem, as Brooks notes the way "These people walk their golden gardens" and "flow sweetly into their houses...touched by that everlasting gold." She's quick to add, "Not that anybody is saying that these people have no trouble. / Merely that it is trouble with a gold-flecked beautiful banner."

I detect, approvingly, a seething constraint in Brooks' tone. It reminds me of Mark Antony's sarcastic insistence that "Brutus is an honourable man." Brooks repeatedly refers to "these people" while assuring, "Nobody hates these people. / At least nobody driving by in this car. / It is only natural, however, that it should occur to us / How much more fortunate they are than we are." And again, she's quick to add, "Nobody is saying that these people do not ultimately cease to be. And / Sometimes their passings are even more painful than ours. / It is just that so often they live till their hair is white." The telling image of how the stress of poverty shortens life is echoed in the epigraph, which comes from a poem by E.M.Price: "and the people live till they have white hair."

In the final quatrain, as we exit the exorbitantly fortunate neighborhood of "Beverly Hills, Chicago," Brooks abandons her sarcasm. The poem closes with muted bitterness and acceptance:

We do not want them to have less,
But it is only natural that we should think we have not enough.
We drive on, we drive on.
When we speak to each other our voices are a little gruff.

Those who "drive on" understand that resentment must always be swallowed. It's a way to survive. It's also a life shortener. Resentment withheld is taken out on loved ones, in this case, with gruff voices. "We drive on, we drive on" has the sound of a call-and-response chant from the cotton fields or the chain gang. It could also be the chorus of an anthem for the urban daily grind, "the living all to be made again in the sweatingest physical manner." Slavery is not altogether a condition of the past. In addition, "We drive on, we drive on" seems to look ahead to the protest songs and marches of Dr. King's era and the Civil Rights movement that had not yet begun when this poem was written.

In structure, "Beverly Hills, Chicago," consists of eight quatrains arranged with end-rhymes at the second and fourth lines of each stanza. As the quatrain included above illustrates, the lines are non-metrical and irregular in length, de-emphasizing the rhymes, but maintaining the consistency of the pattern. This is especially true in the third stanza, when the rhyme for "gold" is almost inaudible:

When they flow sweetly into their houses
With softness and slowness touched by that everlasting gold,
We know what they go to. To tea. But that does not mean
They will throw some little black dots into some water and add
..........Sugar and the juice of the cheapest lemons that are sold

Objections by young black poets to Brooks' "white style" may have been unintentionally nourished early on by well-meaning white critics who compared her poetry to Donne, Dickinson, Whitman, and even Ogden Nash. While a case can be made for certain aspects of Donne, Dickinson, and Whitman, the Nash comparison is mystifying, until one notices a similar technique in Nash of rhyming at the end of haphazardly measured lines. Nash, however, does it for humorous effect, as in "Lines Indited with All the Depravity of Poverty":

One way to be very happy is to be very rich
For then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the
..........flitch.
And yet at the same time
People don't mind if you only tip them a dime,
Because it's very funny
But somehow if you're rich enough you can get away with
..........spending water like money

I'm one of those who watch for rhymes, and another poem in whose rhyming caught my interest is "I love those little booths at Benvenuti's." It is placed immediately preceding "Beverly Hills, Chicago," as numeral VII in Annie Allen Annie Allen's "The Womanhood," and it seems to me the two poems should be read as a pair.

"I love those little booths..." takes us to Bronzeville, Chicago's Southside neighborhood at the opposite end of the city from the "Gold Coast." Benvenuti's is a Bronzeville café where white "tourists" from the northern suburbs come, expecting to be entertained and amused by the antics of the "colored" locals:

They get to Benvenuti's. There are booths
To hide in while observing tropical truths
About this-dusky folk, so clamorous!
So colorfully incorrect,
So amorous,
So flatly brave!
Boothed-in, one can detect,
Dissect.
One knows and scarcely knows what to expect.

The white visitors' expectations are not met. They wait and wait, selecting all manner of "colorful" tunes on the nickelodeon, hoping to stir the locals into some sort of wildness, only to find that "The colored people will not 'clown.'" The citizens of Bronzeville turn out to be maddeningly normal, thwarting the whites' curiosity:

The colored people arrive, sit firmly down,
Eat their Express Spaghetti, their T-bone steak,
Handling their steel and crockery with no clatter,
Laugh punily, rise, go firmly out the door.

The first stanza sets me up for a poem of showy rhymes and wordplay, then drops all pattern and form, falls into free verse, and leaves me with a prim quatrain of blank verse. It's as if Brooks has slyly led me on by promising a poem of raucously entertaining rhymes, which she stubbornly does not deliver. Hah! Am I like the white folks at Benvenuti's, I wonder, expecting a show? It strikes me as worth considering.

When Kevin Bezner pointed out a scene in Native Son, Richard Wright's novel about Southside Chicago, in which "the white girl and her Communist friend make Bigger Thomas take them to a small, black café to see how black people live" (CWGB p.117), Brooks commented:

That used to be a very popular sport for whites, to go to black cafés and watch the natives perform. In preparation to write this poem, my husband and I went to Benvenuti's, which is no longer in existence, but used to be notorious. It was very quiet that evening and the whites didn't get a show at all. They didn't get one from my husband and myself. With my poem, I wrote down exactly what I was looking at (CWGB p.118).

Later on, Brooks was criticized for her distant, journalistic tone in this and many of her early poems. She often defined poetry as "life distilled" (URIB p.84) and used to think of herself as a reporter, taking notes from both sides of her corner window in Chicago's Southside. That was the period in her career mentioned above, when Brooks "liked the sound of the word 'universal'" and "thought in terms of reaching everyone in the world." B.J. Bolden noted that, when the poems of Annie Allen were written,"Brooks faced the 1940's dictate to write as though integration were a viable option, and that by attaining the technical skill and craftsmanship of noted white writers, she would be welcomed into the literary mainstream of America" (URIB p.110).

That "1940's dictate" proved to be an illusion that revealed itself over time. In her interview with Paul Angle, Brooks read aloud from Karl Shapiro's 1965 Foreword to Melvin Tolson's Harlem Gallery: "One of the rules of the poetic establishment is that Negroes are not admitted to the polite company of the anthology. Poetry as we know it remains the most lily-white of the arts" (CWGB p.17). The poetry establishment turned out to be the literary version of "Beverly Hills, Chicago."

In November of 1967, Brooks attended Fisk University's Black Writers Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, and came to a decision that transformed her work. In the years that followed, she stated repeatedly and consistently what she explained to Eugenia Collier in 1973: "I've written hundreds and hundreds of sonnets, and I'll probably never write another one, because I don't feel this is a sonnet time. It seems to be a free verse time, because this is a raw, ragged, uneven time-with rhymes, if there are rhymes, incidental and random" (CWGB p. 68).

Brooks was a child of the North, and, even though the poverty and racial injustices of Chicago were severe (and still are in far too many parts of our country), they were a far cry from the rampant bigotry, hatred, and atrocity endured by black Americans in the Deep South. When a new generation of black poets emerged during the Civil Rights era, they understandably wanted nothing to do with the traditions of a society that had oppressed and victimized their people for centuries. As a formalist, myself, I wish it had not become necessary for Brooks to abandon her background in versification, but I get it. The Bard of Bronzeville had to establish, adjust, and re-establish a career that straddled turbulent and evolving cultural and political times. In the end, I believe she wrote for humanity.

In a 1969 essay, "Gwendolyn Brooks: An Appreciation from the White Suburbs," Dan Jaffe wrote:

The history of American literature it has been said is the history of a search for a definition of American. It seems to me that the question of race, as it is called, is at the center of that larger question. Gwen Brooks leads us to a sense of the ghetto and the black man. She leads us also to a sense of the American dilemma, one hopes towards some resolution. She has fashioned a style, developed a virtuosity, that makes it possible for her to grab big chunks of American reality, moments of its hopefulness, portions of its resentments, and give them cohesiveness and shape (OGBRC p.58).

Today's healthy doses of diversity continue to engage us in "the American dilemma," enriching the "narrow, pallid shores" of yesterday's literary establishment. I can't say for sure, but I doubt if today's black activist writers would object to sonnet writing or receiving critical attention from a white establishment magazine like The New Yorker, which recently ran an articleabout the Jamaican poet, Kei Miller. The review quoted a fortuitously apropos passage from Miller's poem series, "The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion," in which a character named Rastaman tells a cartographer, "...draw me a map of what you see then I will draw you a map of what you don't see / and guess me whose map will be bigger than whose? / Guess me whose map will tell the larger truth?"These rhetorical questions come in handy now, as I invoke the awesome "truth volcano" who visited our part of the Pacific Rim nearly three decades ago, showing us, with her "patient, hearing, seeing," formidably American voice, a map of time and place, whose larger truths include Annie Allen's "Beverly Hills, Chicago" and those rotten little booths at Benvenuti's.
I love those little booths at Benvenuti's
They get to Benvenuti's. There are booths
To hide in while observing tropical truths
About this-dusky folk, so clamorous!
So colorfully incorrect,
So amorous,
So flatly brave!
Boothed-in, one can detect,
Dissect.

One knows and scarcely knows what to expect.

What antics, knives, what lurching dirt; what ditty-
Dirty, rich, carmine, hot, not bottled up,
Straining in sexual soprano, cut
And praying in the bass, partial, unpretty.

They sit, sup,
(Whose friends, if not themselves, arrange
To rent in Venice "a very large cabana,
Small palace," and eat ostly what is strange.)
They sit, they settle; presently are met
By the light heat, the lazy upward whine
And lazy croaky downward drawl of "Tanya."
And their interiors sweat.
They lean back in the half-light, stab their stares
At: walls, panels of imitation oak
With would-be marbly look; linoleum squares
Of dusty rose and brown with little white splashes,
White curls; a vendor tidily encased;
Young yellow waiter, lolling and amused;
Some paper napkins in a water glass;
Table, initialed, rubbed, as a desk in school.

They stare, they tire, they feel refused,
Feel overwhelmed by subtle treasons!
Nobody here will take the part of jester.

The absolute stutters, and the rationale
Stoops off in astonishment.
But not gaily
And not with their consent.

They play "They All Say I'm The Biggest Fool"
And "Voo Me On The Vot Nay" and "New Lester
Leaps In" and "For Sentimental Reasons."

But how shall they tell people they have been
Out Bronzeville way? For all the nickels in
Have not bought savagery or defined a "folk."

The colored people will not "clown."

The colored people arrive, sit firmly down,
Eat their Express Spaghetti, their T-bone steak,
Handling their steel and crockery with no clatter,
Laugh punily, rise, go firmly out of the door.
Works Consulted:
Bolden, B.J. Urban Rage in Bronzeville. Social Commentary in the Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, 1945-1960. Chicago: Third World Press, 1999.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. Selected Poems. Harper & Row, 1963.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. Report from Part Two. Chicago: Third World Press, 1996.

Gayles, Gloria Wade, ed. Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks. Jackson: University Press of Mississsippi, 2003.

Monsour, Leslie. The Alarming Beauty of the Sky. Red Hen Press, 2006.

Wright, Stephen Caldwell, ed. On Gwendolyn Brooks. Reliant Contemplation. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2001.

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Gwendolyn Brooks: The Early Work and the Problem of "Reaching Everyone in the World."

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On October 12, 1990, I heard Gwendolyn Brooks read her poems at the Los Angeles poetry venue, Beyond Baroque, in Venice, California. Her presence and her voice had a powerful effect on me, and I wrote a poem about it almost immediately afterward. I thought well enough of the poem to send it to her,...

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Tweets by GholdyM

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Author Interview With Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

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Author Interview With Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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Gholdy Muhammad agreed to answer a few questions about her new book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

By the way, this is the 100th book-related column published in this blog, including 96 interviews with authors and a handful of book reviews and lists of book recommendations by teachers. You can see them all here.
Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is an associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State University. LF: You propose a four-part "equity framework" for literacy instruction including: "1) identity development; 2) skill development; 3) intellectual development; and 4) criticality." Could you describe these elements, particularly "identity development" and "criticality" since it seems that teachers might be more familiar with the middle two? Dr. Gholdy Muhammad:
The historically responsive equity framework is not just for literacy instruction or literacy educators per se but for all teachers across the disciplines. The framework does bring diverse texts and literacies into all content areas in K-12 classrooms. In my research, I take up the ways in which literacy was defined historically within black communities, particularly in black literary societies. And I found that literacy was synonymous with education. Literacy was also defined within the four frames of identity, skills, intellectualism, and criticality, the four-part equity model. In other words, as black people were learning, they were cultivating each of those four areas of their lives. If we compare these four areas to schools today, I find that most educators are teaching skills only, or their state learning standards. Yet, our students need more.

The four-part equity model was derived from examining archives and historical artifacts during the 19th century. I studied black literary societies to understand their literacy practices and learning. I asked questions such as, What types of texts did they read? What were some of their goals for learning? What factors contributed to their personal and academic success? I found that members of literary societies read diverse texts written by diverse authors. They were highly collaborative and believed in the collective responsibility for one another's learning. But importantly, they did not seek to just advance their skills in language, history, math, or science. Instead, they had wider goals for learning, which resulted in the Historically Responsive Model for teaching and learning. Collectively teaching these four goals or standards helps to cultivate students who are socio-conscious beings, who deeply have a strong sense of self and others, and who are academically successful.

Identity is made up of who we say we are, who others say we are, and the people we desire to be. Students are constantly making sense of who they are, and, I argue, classroom instruction needs to be responsive to their identities. Because we are complex beings, we have racial, cultural, gender, environmental, and community identities, to name a few. Not only is it important to teach youths who they are, but educators should also teach students about the identities and cultures of others different from them. When we have true, clear, and complete understandings about people different from us, we are less inclined to hate, show bias, or hold false views of others. When youths have a strong sense of their own histories and identities, it becomes a refuge or a protection. When they don't know themselves, others may tell them, and sometimes that may not be positive. With each lesson or unit plan, teachers should ask, How does our curriculum and instruction help students to learn about themselves or others?

Criticality is the capacity and ability to read, write, think, and speak in ways to understand power and equity in order to understand and promote anti-oppression. I define oppression simply as any wrongdoing, hurt, or harm. This can be racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, or any other oppression. In my work, I discuss the difference between lower case "c" critical, which is just deep and analytical thinking. But Critical with a capital "c" is related to power, equity, and anti-oppression. It is helping youths to be "woke" socio-politically. Criticality calls for teachers to connect their teaching to the human condition and to frame their teaching practices in response to the social and uneven times in which we live. This means helping students understand content from marginalized perspectives. As long as oppression is present, students need spaces to name, interrogate, resist, agitate, and work toward social change. This will support students toward being critical consumers and producers of information. It will also help to build a better humanity for all. With each lesson or unit plan, teachers should ask, How does our curriculum and instruction help us understand power, equity, and anti-oppression?

These four learning standards connect with Gloria Ladson Billings' definition of culturally relevant education as she pushed for academic success (skills and intellect), cultural competence (identity), and socio-political consciousness (criticality) in classrooms. The Historically Responsive Model or the four learning standards I discuss returns the excellence of black educative spaces and uses this history as a blueprint to improve classrooms today. There is not one child who does not need to advance identity development, skill development, intellectualism, or criticality. Collectively teaching and learning toward these four pursuits helps to teach the whole child to be successful for a full and quality life.
LF: You give this four-part framework the name of "Historically Responsive Literacy," connecting it back to 19th century black literacy societies which, I, embarrassingly, had never heard of prior to reading your book. Could you talk about that historical connection? Dr. Gholdy Muhammad:
Actually, many people have not heard of this American history. The author of the prominent book that fully captures the history, Elizabeth McHenry, entitled her book, Forgotten Readers, because our ancestors' stories and histories have been forgotten and left out. I would also add that these histories are not taught in K-12 schools. When I engaged in historical research to better understand these learning spaces, I wanted to know: How can we take the teachings from black historical excellence to advance educational achievement for all youths today? When I study state standards, curriculum programs, state assessments, and teacher evaluations, I don't find that they largely focus on identity and criticality, which is why we don't see this type of teaching in all classrooms. These four critical parts of the system lack culturally responsiveness. Across the nation, we have frameworks, textbooks, and literature that are oftentimes not written by people of color. Nor do these largely represent the fullness of people of color.

I learned that black literary societies were developed by black males in 1828 in the urban Northern cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City. Membership was from 10-100 people. They were also called reading rooms, lyceums, literary institutions, and writing clubs. They met regularly in basements of churches, classrooms, homes, or anywhere where they could be in community with one another. They paid membership fees, and many of their funds went to texts and cultivating their libraries. Often, they would check out a book, read it, and present a short lecture on the content of the book upon returning it. They read across topics of mathematics, science, history, and English. But literacy was central to all their content learning. They did not just come together to read and enjoy literature (like many book clubs today), but they also had goals of using knowledge to benefit other black people and the conditions of society at large.

Black literary societies' members left meticulous records for our learning today. They recorded and published their activities and other writings in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. I use their practices as a roadmap and plan for reimagining and redesigning curriculum and instruction for students. In Cultivating Genius, I give a fuller list of examples showing how I took teachings from history and applied them to today's classrooms, but a few ideas include how:

Libraries were essential to all achievement, so teachers today can cultivate their classroom libraries to include diverse authorship and international texts.

Literacy was the foundation to all disciplinary learning, so teachers today can bring in opportunities for youths to read and study from multimodal texts in different genres.

Learning was highly collaborative, so teachers today can create opportunities where individualism and competition aren't privileged over collectivism.

When we use the theories and teachings of black historic thinkers, we will have different and more advanced schools and classrooms. We have so long prescribed what youths need, all along leaving black history, black excellence, and black frameworks out of the picture. But when we "return" to and look back on history, we can advance in unique and exciting ways. Black Literary Societies are the blueprint.
LF: "Deficit" thinking and perspectives come up several times in your book. Can you talk about what you mean, how they can impact students, and what teachers can do to change those mindsets? Dr. Gholdy Muhammad:
Yes, "deficit thinking" comes up quite often in the book because deficit perspectives and thinking lead to poor and basic instructional practices. Deficit thinking can be viewed in different ways. First, it is any thinking, perspectives, or ideologies that are negative, false, incomplete, or destructive. It can also be defined as capturing someone's story as a single narrative or starting one's story in false, damaging, or incomplete ways. Deficit thinking is a type of oppression and leads to racism or other forms of harm. Sadly, we have a history of misrepresentation of certain groups using ads, literature, and other media. This type of propagation has conditioned the minds and hearts of people to have deficit views. The conditioning is then perpetuated in homes, communities, and schools.

The consequence of deficit thinking creates trauma and harms our young people. We talk a lot about emotional trauma or trauma from childhood but we talk less about the effects of racial trauma in schools for our students. What happens when teachers think less about other people who share the same race or identity of their students? Do teachers think this type of thinking never manifests or makes its way into classrooms? We don't leave our racism, biases, political agendas, or ideologies at home when we enter classroom spaces. When deficit thinking leads to trauma, our students may be affected for the rest of their lives. Our young people may feel like they don't belong; they may feel worthless or that they are not good enough. Their academics and engagement are negatively affected as a result. This can follow them throughout their lives and disrupt their joy.

When I ask teachers to tell me about their black and brown students, sometimes I hear comments such as, they are unmotivated, they can't read, or they have discipline problems. I follow this question by asking if they would introduce their own children in the same way. Oftentimes, parents would not. They would find something positive to say about their own child. This is why I returned to black historical excellence and named the book Cultivating Genius. I am proclaiming that we start our children's stories with genius, especially black children's, because the nation has struggled to get it right with us the most. We must disrupt deficit ways of thinking and being. Our youths are genius. They are not all those things that systemic oppression has created. And young people deserve to be taught by geniuses, those who seek knowledge and deeply love the students in their classes.

To change the mindset, teachers must do their self-work or find another profession. Just as a person has to heal from abuse in order to be whole, happy, and productive, if teachers have deficit perspectives, they must recognize them, name them, and work toward disrupting and dissolving this type of thinking. That may come from proper education, therapy, or exercises that lead toward anti-racism, anti-bias, and anti-oppression.
LF: Can you share summaries of specific lessons that you think might reflect your recommendations for what literacy instruction could look like? Dr. Gholdy Muhammad:
Usually, when I develop lesson or unit plans, I try to connect the learning around the human condition or a social issue. For example, Flint, Mich., has a water crisis with a lack of clean water. This issue became the impetus for a science and math lesson I was working on for students in Atlanta and New York, but it is an issue that can be explored across different content areas. In this math example, the students learned about the percentages of lead content found in water and graphed equations. In the science class, they defined environmental justice and water quality, which was connected to Next Generation Science Standards. I started this lesson by showing a photo essay by real residents of Flint with captions depicting experiences. This led to the discussion of water and our personal use and dependency. We read political cartoons, youth-spoken word poetry, a timeline, a short news article, photographs, and statistical data of lead content. I layered these short, powerful, and engaging texts as a way for my students to access and engage in learning. We read and discussed the texts together, and the students worked collaboratively in groups. We also had textbooks available to support learning. The lesson plan went across multiple days. What I learned is that identity and criticality became great points of entry for students who struggled with math and science skills. They connected the water crisis in Flint to their local communities. One science teacher in New York followed up by testing the lead content in water near their school. Students also learned vocabulary such as Legionnaires' disease, marginalization, and water crisis.

The students benefited from the unit plan and found the lessons engaging. Units like this prepare students for life and teach them not to be passive consumers of information and news. Instead, lessons like this one teach them to interrogate, critique, and agitate toward social change, especially in their own communities.

This historically responsive unit shifted traditional ways of teaching science and math. First, it brought more literacies and texts into these content areas. Students were taught to read the word and the world. Students read from diverse texts and even read poetry in their STEM classroom. The model also restored intellectualism into the learning, and students learned new knowledge in addition to skills. I assessed each learning standard using discussion, collaborative group worksheets, exit slips, and a summative assessment. This lesson plan can even be extended by setting learning goals in English/language arts or social studies classrooms, too. Here is a breakdown of how the lesson fits into the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework outlined in Cultivating Genius:

1.Identity: Students will understand their personal dependency on water.

2. Skill: (Math) Students will learn to examine percentages of lead content found in water. They will also learn how to create equations with two or more variables to represent relations between quantities as well as graph equations on coordinate axes with labels and scales.

Skill: (Science) Students will define environmental justice and name the importance of water quality for humans.

3. Intellect: Students will learn about the water crisis in Flint, Mich.

4. Criticality: Students will learn to consider how the government prioritizes community needs based on socioeconomic status and/or race and understand the media's role in the government's response to a crisis.

More units like this are offered in the book. This is one example, but I have observed the pure genius of teachers designing learning around the model. In doing so, they keep a few questions in mind as they plan:

What issue is most urgent for students' learning? How does this issue connect to the world? How can I connect content-learning skills to this issue?

What multimodal text can layer in my lesson or unit plan to teach this topic/issue? Teachers think about print and nonprint texts.

What creative and engaging exercises will I engage students in to teach this topic/issue?

How can I assess each of the four learning standards?

LF: Is there anything I haven't asked you about that you'd like to share?
Cultivating Genius and the historically responsive model offered in the book is for all teachers K-12 across all discipline areas, even physical and health education. I also use the model to frame my college courses and syllabi at Georgia State University. The four learning standards of identity, skills, intellect, and criticality are areas of growth that EVERY child needs in every class.

I am reminded by many wonderful teachers with whom I work that some of the greatest anti-oppressive leaders and change agents in the world have held a strong sense of self and knowledge of other people (identity), skills, intellect, and criticality. We want to help cultivate students who will not be neutral on oppression or students who would contribute to more oppression in the world. Instead, we want to cultivate young people who, across the course of their lifetimes, will disrupt, disquiet, or unhinge oppression.

This means we must teach beyond sanctioned curriculum and standards such as the Common Core. We must evaluate and interrogate the curriculum we are given to teach. We must hold publishers accountable for the lack of diverse and critical content they produce. We must stop trying to make something culturally responsive when it wasn't designed that way in the first place. We have to stop putting fresh coats of paint on the same debilitating structures of education. We must start fresh with a curriculum that was designed with black and brown youths in mind and written by black and brown people, too. We have a growing population of culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse youths and families. It's time for the course of education to change. Indeed, the genius for this transformation is at hand. We need only to properly respond.

LF: Thank you, Dr. Muhammad!

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Author Interview With Dr. Gholdy Muhammad: 'Cultivating Genius'

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Gholdy Muhammad agreed to answer a few questions about her new book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy . By the way, this is the 100th book-related column published in this blog, including 96 interviews with authors and a handful of book reviews and lists of book recommendations by teachers.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools

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A conversation with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Dena Simmons and Brian Jones about abolitionist teaching and antiracist education.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools

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Bringing a Culturally Responsive Lens to Math Class

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Bringing a Culturally Responsive Lens to Math Class

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A middle school math project gives students a chance to apply the skills they learn in class to an issue they care about.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

A middle school math project gives students a chance to apply the skills they learn in class to an issue they care about.

Richard Levine / Alamy Stock Photo

Contrary to popular belief, math is more than just numbers, algebraic formulas, and ancient algorithms. It can serve as a vehicle to help our students make sense of the world in which we live, but current events and real-world issues have generally been integrated only into subjects such as English, science, and social studies-math has been considered its own little island.

After years of searching for lesson plans and resources that would help me bridge the gap between math and real-world issues, I decided to create my own unit project to do that. I polled my seventh-grade students to find the right topic and created a three-week project that focused on the intersection between law enforcement and communities of color in Boston. Other topics of interest to them included immigration, poverty, homelessness, pollution, and creating more youth jobs in our economy-there are many possibilities for this kind of work.

A 4-Step Process for Connecting Math to Students' Lives

1. Selecting the topic or issue: I started with the idea that the topic would have to be relevant to the racial and cultural composition of my students, and to the communities in which they lived. The best way to select the topic was to ask them what would really matter to them. My students, who were predominantly African American and Latinx, chose the topic of police brutality because it had personally impacted them.

If you try this, choosing the right topic will guarantee a high level of student engagement throughout the project. You can create an interest survey or questionnaire to give your students so they can share in great detail the real-world topics they would like to explore-this might work better than initially asking them to discuss ideas as a whole class, as it takes some pressure off.

Once you've determined the topic, write it up as an open-ended focus question that your students will work toward answering throughout the project. For the topic of police brutality, I worked with my students to come up with the focus question: "Can more diverse police forces prevent instances of racial profiling?"

2. Gathering background information: The next big question for a math teacher is, "What specific data points are needed to effectively answer the focus question?" Since students are going to explore the topic through a mathematical lens, you'll need to consider what quantitative data points they can study in order to draw their own conclusions about the topic.

These data points-statistics, graphical representations, geometric diagrams, or functional relationships, for example-must not only be available for contextualization within the scope of the topic but also accessible to your students so that they can apply the appropriate math skills. My project highlighted national stop and frisk statistics, population data, and demographic data on police officers as data points that would help answer the focus question.

In addition to the quantitative data your students will use in their math work, they need qualitative data-news reports, books, etc.-to more deeply understand the issue they're exploring. In my opinion, gathering this information is the most difficult step of the process because you have to compartmentalize your personal biases, which can influence how your students think about the topic. You need to present the multiple perspectives that people have about the issue so that your students have the information necessary to build background knowledge and develop their own thinking around the issue.

Primary sources are the most reliable information sources to use because they're original and were written or created during the time of the issue. Examples of primary sources include manuscripts, books, newspaper articles, historical documents, videos, photographs, and interviews. In other words-and they'll probably ask-students should not use Wikipedia.

3. Identifying math skills and connecting them to standards: Once you've identified the appropriate data points, you'll want to determine the specific math skills your students will use to analyze the data points and construct mathematical arguments.

The math skills should be developmentally appropriate for the grade level you teach: Recognizing that our racial profiling unit was heavily focused on statistical concepts, I determined that students could analyze the data points using such skills as conversions between rational numbers (decimals, fractions, and percentages), measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode), and two-way frequency tables.

Next, you'll need to align the math skills you've identified to the appropriate academic standards for your state, whether that's the Common Core State Standards or the academic standards for your state. Identify the standards that best align with the math skills that you expect your students to master for this lesson.

4. Determining the final work product: Finally, in thinking about the product your students will produce, you need to take into account their diverse academic needs. If you teach in an inclusive classroom setting, I highly recommend that you collaborate with the special education teacher on this step. They can assist you in creating a scaffolded or modified version of the final work product that is developmentally appropriate for each individual student receiving instructional support.

For this project, I gave students three options for the final product. They could participate in a whole-class Socratic seminar and engage in dialogue with each other by providing textual and statistical evidence that would support their response to the focus question. The second option was to write a letter to the police commissioner to express their concerns around the issue of racial profiling by law enforcement in Boston, including relevant data to support their argument. The final option was to write a paper stating their argument, with statistical evidence to support it and at least two solutions they thought would address the issue. My students opted for a whole-class Socratic seminar.

Ultimately, the final product should provide multiple access points for the diverse learners in your class and allow them to best demonstrate mastery of math skills and their knowledge of the topic.

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Bringing a Culturally Responsive Lens to Math Class

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Culturally Responsive Teaching A middle school math project gives students a chance to apply the skills they learn in class to an issue they care about.

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26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students

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26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students

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How do we get students to consider perspectives different from their own? How do we get them to challenge their own biases and prejudices? If, as Atticus Finch famously said, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," how do we get our students to do that?

Teachers traditionally turn to literature, history and current events to open up these conversations, but it's always helpful to have a bigger toolbox to tackle such important and difficult issues. That's why we pulled together these 26 short New York Times documentaries that range in time from 1 to 7 minutes and tackle issues of race, bias and identity.

To help teachers make the most of these films, we also provide several teaching ideas, related readings and student activities.

In the comments, we hope you'll share how you use these films in your own classroom.

_________
The 26 Films

* The Collector "We Are Not That" (2 min.)
* The Activist "They Think We're Just Historical" (3 min.)
* The Seller "It's Weird to Me, but It Sells" (2 min.)

Hyphen Nation- What makes someone American? How do you define American identity? In these films, nine American citizens describe their struggle to belong in a nation that both embraces and rejects them.

* Mallika (2 min.)
* Jason (2 min.)
* Amanda (1 min.)
* Roy (1 min.)
* Russell (2 min.)
* Wendy (1 min.)
* Ayman (2 min.)
* Armando (2 min.)
* Michaela (2 min.)

The latter three series were produced in collaboration with " POV," television's "longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films." For more educational resources from "POV," visit its website.
__________ Teaching Idea #1: Ask Open-Ended Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Horsing around with white friends in a parking lot as a teenager, only one person got singled out.

Sometimes the best way to prompt reflection and discussion after watching a film is simply to let students share their personal reactions. The four open-ended questions we use in our weekly Film Club are intended to encourage thoughtful and honest dialogue. Students might write a response first, or meet in partners or small groups before discussing with the class as a whole.

* What moments in this film stood out for you? Why?
* Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know - or thought you knew?
* What messages, emotions or ideas will you take away from this film? Why?
* What questions do you still have?

While students watch the film, they can take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help remember specific moments.
Teaching Idea #2: Offer Students Choice

It doesn't get more American than putting your hand over your heart at a Yankees game. And it doesn't get less American than being called a terrorist at a drug store.

Different film topics might appeal to different students and classes. If you plan to watch one or more of these films as a class, you can do a quick survey to decide which film in a series to watch. Or, if students are watching on tablets or laptops, you can let them decide individually or as small groups which film or films they'll watch.

If students do end up watching different films, you can have them share their observations and reflections with the rest of the class in a jigsaw activity or class share.
Teaching Idea #3: Go Further With Short Activities

These 26 films raise all sorts of questions about how we see other people, how they see us, and even how we see ourselves.

Extending classroom discussions with formal activities can help push the conversation forward and help students draw connections between their own lives and the ideas expressed in these films. Here are just a few possibilities that can be used before, between or after watching.

Short readings that provide additional perspectives or entry points for exploring issues of race, bias and identity can also deepen the conversation. We selected the following from Facing History and Ourselves' collection of resources:

* "Little Things Are Big" by Jesús Colón (also used in our Text to Text lesson plan)
* "The Bear That Wasn't," an illustrated children's book by Frank Tashlin
* "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Adichie
* "Orientation Day", a short personal essay by a 17-year-old student, Jennifer Wang
* Defining Race, short readings about "race" as a shifting social construct
* The Blink of an Eye, short readings about unconscious or implicit bias
* Words Matter, an interview with Niin, an Anishinaabe woman of both Cree and Ojibway descent
* The 'In' Group, a reflection by Eve Shalen, a high-school student
* Street Calculus, a cartoon by Garry Trudeau

For most of these readings, Facing History provides connection questions or even a related lesson plan.
Teaching Idea #5: Take Action

These films naturally raise questions about the daily choices we make, consciously or unconsciously, to treat others with respect and dignity. They also push us to think about the lengths we should go to as schools, communities, a nation and as a world to make sure that all people are treated fairly - so, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, people "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Students can brainstorm:

* What can we do in our individual lives to make sure others are treated with respect and dignity, and not based on stereotypes and prejudice?

* What can we do as a class or as a school to make sure our community is welcoming of people from different backgrounds - different races, ethnicities, religions, disabilities, gender and sexual orientations?

* And what about as city, state, nation or world? What can we do to make a difference in promoting equality and understanding across divides and in the face of intolerance?

Then, as individuals or as a class, students can come up with their own plans of action to challenge stereotypes and fight against discrimination.

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26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students (Published 2017)

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How do we get students to consider perspectives different from their own? How do we get them to challenge their own biases and prejudices? If, as Atticus Finch famously said, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ...

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16-year-old girls talk race, stereotypes, and identity in 2016

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16-year-old girls talk race, stereotypes, and identity in 2016

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16-year-old girls talk race, stereotypes, and identity in 2016 | 16 in '16 | TakePart

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Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color

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Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color

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What Happens When Poor Kids Are Taught Society Is Fair

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A new study finds that believing in meritocracy can lead disadvantaged adolescents of color to act out and engage in risky behavior.

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TEACHING TOWARD GENIUS:AN EQUITY MODEL FOR PEDAGOGY IN ACTION

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TEACHING TOWARD GENIUS:AN EQUITY MODEL FOR PEDAGOGY IN ACTION

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An ELA teachers explains how she applied the HRL Framework during a unit anchored in the text Thing Things They Carried.

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Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those doing it. - James Baldwin

For decades, critical scholars and educators have come together to ask the question, how can we interrupt systems and teaching practices that have not served all youth well? In much of the same way, Ivelisse and I came together to envision what can be done. Specifically, we wanted to know what we could do in the spaces we occupy as a professor (Gholdy) and teacher (Ivelisse).

Given the limitations of state standards and mandates, we have collaborated to move education forward in classrooms, especially for underserved students across the nation. And, in the spirit of James Baldwin, we specifically wanted to interrupt pedagogy that only taught skills and not other standards that students need.

Ivelisse and I met over a year ago in a teacher professional development I conducted on my book, Cultivating Genius. In the book, I outline four major standards of learning that were derived through my study of historical archives in the 19th century, which include teaching and learning to advance students' identity development, skills, intellectualism and criticality.

I name this the HILL model because it responds to students' histories, identities, literacies and liberation. Teaching these four standards collectively fosters the genius of who our students are. They Teach the whole child and not just skills. We will dive deeper into this equity model to specifically address the question: What does equity- centered education look like during times of remote teaching and learning?

Having been pushed into the waters of remote learning, many teachers might be asking themselves if they should prioritize identity, criticality, and intellect and if it is even possible without face to face interaction. And if it is possible, then how? We know it is rather easy to hand out packets or create activities that focus purely on skills. In many ways, we cannot judge these teachers, most of which were unprepared to abruptly move instruction online.

In this essay, we explicate the four learning standards of the HILL model and discuss its practical applications and challenges in the classroom and in remote learning. Teaching in equitable ways, and across genius, is more urgent than ever given the inequities we see each day.

What is the HILL Model?

The HILL model is an equity framework for teaching and learning across all disciplines. Honoring traditions and theories of culturally responsive learning, this model is historically responsive and grounded in Black education and Black excellence. Members of 19th century African American literary societies had four collective goals toward advancing their education:

1. Identity is made up of who we say we are, who others say we are, and the people we desire to be. Students are constantly making sense of who they are, and classroom instruction needs to be responsive to their identities. Because we are complex beings, we have racial, cultural, gender, environmental, and community identities, to name a few. Not only is it important to teach youths who they are, but educators should also teach students about the identities and cultures of others different from them. As learning takes place, one asks, "How am I learning about who I am and about the lives of others?"

2. Skills are the requite proficiencies and competencies for every content area. As learning takes place, one asks, "What disciplinary skills am I advancing?"

3. Intellectualism is knowledge of people, places, things and concepts and the ability to put this knowledge into action. As learning takes place, one asks, "What am I becoming smarter about?"

4. Criticality is the capacity and ability to read, write, think, and speak in ways to understand power and equity in order to understand and promote anti-oppression. In Cultivating Genius, I (Gholdy) define oppression simply as any wrongdoing, hurt, or harm, including racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, or any other oppression. Unlike lower case "c" critical, which is just deep and analytical thinking, Critical with a capital "c" is related to power, equity, and anti-oppression. As learning takes place, one asks, "How am I developing an understanding of power, equity, anti-racism and anti-oppression?"

The last goal of criticality helps students to become "woke" and socio-politically conscious beings so that they aren't merely passive consumers or producers of information. When studying the Common Core State Standards and state mandated standards, the central focus is skills and, at times, intellect. There is a glaring absence of s identity and criticality.

This is problematic for all youth who need to know themselves, know others (especially those different than them), and understand how to navigate a society and nation that is founded upon oppression. It is especially problematic, however, for Black and Brown youth, such as African American or Latinx youth, whose people have been negatively depicted and misrepresented in the public eye and ear.

In the following section, we engage in critical conversation about the use of the HILL model and specifically Ivelisse's experiences with implementing the model and her students' responses to the learning. We hope that this exchange will shed light on a new way of teaching toward genius.

In Conversation

Gholdy: What have been your experiences teaching with the HILL Model, and what was planning like?

Ivelisse: I had to deeply reflect on biases within my curriculum and admit that it was incomplete. In the past, I envisioned new units starting with texts; I would think about the skills I could teach through the texts and make certain I hit enough of the Common Core State Standards. Admittedly, identity, criticality, and intellect were ancillary. In contrast, when I planned units around the HILL Model, I no longer privileged skills in my instruction; skills became a smaller piece of a larger puzzle and purpose. Paradoxically, they also carried greater value because they were a means to move my students towards deeper personal and sociopolitical consciousness, empathy, and intellectualism.

Doing this work also presented an exciting intellectual challenge for me: If I wanted my students to be smarter about something, I had to be smarter about it first. It also answered a question I didn't even know needed answering: " Why am I teaching this?" For me the answer had always been, "To support students' skill development so they can be successful in college and careers." I see now that my job is so much bigger than that; there is a new urgency in everything that I teach.

Gholdy: Can you offer an example of something you have taught using the HILL model?

Ivelisse: I recently started a unit anchored in text The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien. My colleagues and I have been committed to diversifying authorship in our ELA curriculum, and this text is grounded in the experience of a middle-class white man; so we chose it reluctantly and as a matter of practicality. I teach in NYC; when COVID-19 hit and school buildings were preparing to close, we had to consider accessibility. There were several hundred copies of this book in our closet-enough to distribute to every student who wanted one; and audio files and a pdf of the text are also accessible for free online.

While I had taught with this text before, I knew I had to redesign the entire unit, both to frame it in the HILL Model and to plan for challenges that my students and I would inevitably face. In planning, I began with the unit objectives for each goal, and then I crafted essential questions around the objectives. In starting with Identity, students researched Vietnam's political history as well as its people's dynamic religious and cultural identities and values. In addition, students also reflected and wrote about the ways in which their own histories and cultures impact what they value. These activities yielded manifold outcomes. Students learned about the richness and beauty of Vietnam and its people; and they thought critically about how the tangible and intangible things they carry are connected to their personal and cultural identities. Finally, I learned a great deal about the students in reading their reflections; and I don't think there's ever been a time when knowing them has been more critical.

In hindsight, I see the HILL Model was the antidote to some of the challenges I anticipated, particularly around engagement. This unique, albeit catastrophic, moment in history presented entry points for rich sociopolitical discussion and learning that I had not seen in previous years of teaching the novel. The criticality piece was a major component of this unit, so we spent time learning about the history of American dissent and the 1960s Counterculture movement as well as the challenges and contributions of people of color over the course of American military history. We're living in a time when inequities created by racial injustice are impacting marginalized communities in ways that cannot and should not be covered or avoided; so those conversations held real weight and value for my students.

Gholdy: How did your students respond?

Ivelisse: As part of action research on the impact of the HILL model, and in an effort to assess my students' needs and interests during remote learning, I periodically administer surveys. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. One of the comments read, "What we learn is much more connected to our everyday lives." Another said, "I like how we relate everything to what is going on right now in the world." Quite a few commented on the parallels they easily drew between the divided nation of the 1960s and our current state of social and political polarization on race, socioeconomics, and even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of them also communicated excitement about work that required them to consider their own perspectives. "Much better than just a yes or no answer," one wrote.

Part 4: Conclusion

In a recent interaction with another teacher using the HILL Model, we heard a response: "This approach to teaching alleviates the question I often hear from my students: 'Why are we learning this?'" If you have ever taught, you may have heard students question the purpose of learning, as they should. We have found through research and practice, that translating equity and purposeful teaching into action is possible. Through the example in this essay, which uses the HILL Model, we are reminded that we can still teach students about their lives, the lives of others, and inequities in the world.

To start interrupting the norms of teaching, we must first interrupt accepted standards, theories, and approaches to teaching that do not serve the needs of all students. Educators must go beyond these and teach more of what our young people need. This first calls for interrupting our thinking and rethinking genius.

Genius must not be reserved for a selected few; it must be the ways we think of ourselves and of our youth.
Ivelisse Ramos-Brannon teaches ELA and AP Language and Composition at Central Park East High School in New York City. She is also an AP for All Teacher Leader and founding Member of the Drew University Digital Literacies Collaborative. Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She is the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

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View all posts by American Consortium for Equity in Education

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Teaching Toward Genius: An Equity Model for Pedagogy in Action | Equity in Education

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By Ivelisse Ramos-Brannon & Gholdy Muhammad Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those doing it.

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Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education

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Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education

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The two are not the same! This podcast defines both methods of education and helps educators think about how they can begin teaching with a social justice lens.

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Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Sponsored by PowerSchool and ViewSonic

These last few weeks have been especially difficult for me as the news continues to reflect that racism still exists in 2020. I've witnessed video footage of Ahmaud Arbery shot and killed while jogging, George Floyd murdered by the police, and Christian Cooper harassed while bird watching in Central Park. As we think about the next generation of adults we are influencing, particularly our White students, now more than ever, we need to teach more than kindness.

As an equity advocate, I have lots of conversations about culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education. Not too long ago while I was consulting with an elementary school principal she said, "Multicultural Education is nice, but we are well over 90% White at my school."

A common myth regarding multicultural education is that it is about helping students of color see themselves within the content. But multicultural education is about more than just race: It refers to any form of learning or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds ( Glossary of Education Reform). And even if the majority of your students are White, it doesn't mean we shouldn't teach from a multicultural perspective.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating for a bunch of Kumbaya moments in the classroom. This is not a post about how we need to teach students to embrace diversity and love each other. It's about the influence we can and should have on our students. Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings taught us that we teach what we value. Therefore, we are part of the problem if we refuse to teach about antiracism and speak out against police brutality. Our students look up to us as adults, and many of our students mimic our behavior. If we are silent around social justice matters, we send a loud message to our students about where we stand as these issues impact many of the communities we serve.

In fact, we need to go beyond multicultural education. In this 2017 interview, Zaretta Hammond differentiates between multicultural education and social justice education, which provides "a lens for the student, really being able to look at the world and seeing where things aren't fair or where injustice exists." To ensure the changes our society is hurting for, we need to give our White students both multicultural and social justice education. Additionally, Dr. James Banks, the father of multicultural education, advocates for educators to teach our students about social and civic action. Ensuring that students engage in multiple perspectives without coupling their learning with civic engagement does not complete the process of developing socially just citizens who are willing to take a stance against the mistreatment of others. We need to help our students find ways they can take action in response to what they have learned.

Going back to the principal I was speaking with about whether there was a need for multicultural education at her school, I was thinking, "This is why multicultural and social justice education is so important!" Even with her assumptions that because there wasn't a lot of racial representation at her school, does that mean the small percentage of students of color don't matter to her? If that's the case, what would her teachers say? Would they support her sentiments?

Why Multicultural Education is 100% Relevant in All-White Schools

"Whiteness" is Complex

When someone asks why multicultural education is needed at a predominately White school, an assumption is being made that White people are a homogenous group. But White people are as heterogeneous as other racial and ethnic groups: there's socioeconomic status, gender and sexual orientation, identity, religion, language, age, and disability, to name a few. All of those represent different cultures. Sometimes, when you're in a dominant culture and used to things being a certain way, you don't necessarily think about your ancestry or heritage and how things have changed over time. And because conditions have changed over time, it may appear that Whiteness is Whiteness, but there are so many different cultures embedded within that broad category.

I think it's essential that we help teach our White students about their ancestors and the origins of when their families first arrived in the United States. The languages, the cultures, the traditions, all those things don't necessarily have to be lost. They can be retrieved.

Let's go back to the 1790s, where the first census was started. With the first US Census, they classified race. The classifying of race allowed those in power to determine or allow a few rights: Who gets the right to get jobs? Who gets the right to marry? Who gets the right to own property? That's how the social construct of race started.

Above is a view of Europeans, or some of the first immigrants, who were coming from various countries. And if you look at the picture, they're White people, right? But they're coming from multiple countries. At this time, there were several languages represented. You had folks that came from Italy, Germany, Russia, England, and so on. There were all types of cultures coming into the United States.

There were also various forms of religions represented when the Europeans began to arrive in the US. In Russia, you had the Orthodox church. In England, you had the Anglican church. When they first came, they weren't willing to give up their culture and become this one White race. They held onto their traditions, values, and beliefs. But we see that over time, things have changed to where White supremacy and racial hierarchies began to form. Today, there are a lot of families who have European origins that may not necessarily speak the language from their original land of ancestry because those things might have been lost over generations.

Multicultural Literacy Is a Separate and Necessary Literacy

The concept of "literacy" is broad. Still, it can be divided into many different sub-categories. One of these is multicultural literacy, the ability to uncover biases relating to culture, and the skills to view the world through different cultural perspectives.

Dr. Robin DiAngelo says, "Historically reinforced ideologies such as individualism and color-blindness have left many White people racially illiterate but racially conscious when perceiving other racialized groups." So because they're in the dominant culture, they don't necessarily have to think about race, but they'll maybe notice racial issues that are not related to Whiteness.

In other words, maybe they might notice police brutality in a Black community. Perhaps they might see issues of race with Islamophobia and discrimination. But we want our students to do more than notice; responding to issues of racism, prejudice, and discrimination is essential.

Having literacy in this area is also key for equipping White students to participate more actively in conversations about racial justice. If they are not regularly exposed to these conversations, they are less likely to speak up on this topic. White friends and colleagues tell me all the time that they want to say something when racism and equity come up, but they often hold back because they don't know what to say or are afraid to say the wrong thing. With a higher level of multicultural literacy, our students will build more confidence.

What We've Been Doing Isn't Enough

Although multicultural education certainly isn't new, it's clear that what we've been doing up to this point hasn't been enough.

As recently as a few weeks ago, there have been instances of White people utilizing the police as a means to address their encounters with people of color. The underlying issue of racism is apparent in many of these instances. Discussing current events and helping White students understand why they should also be upset at discrimination and racism may prevent a continuous cycle of White people remaining silent and complicit when issues happen that do not directly impact them.

These conversations are essential to have. It's also critical to teach students about becoming allies and co-conspirators, especially at the middle and high school levels. It might be a little bit difficult with your first and second graders, and maybe your kindergartners, but I think there are some messages you could still portray to your students even at that age.

What Can Multicultural Education Teach Our White Students?

We've already established multicultural education goes beyond race. There's so much within the concept of "culture," and we must help our White students understand how race can impact them and how they can actively use whatever privilege they have to reduce issues of racism, discrimination, and bigotry.

1. Understanding Their Own Cultural and Ethnic Background

It's not uncommon for White people to say, Oh, I'm just White. I don't have a culture. We need to teach our White students about what their cultural background is and their ethnic backgrounds so they can understand and think about their language and religions going back to their ancestry. Lessons on their culture may help them start to understand how privilege and White supremacy began. So begin with going back and taking some time to help your students understand that. You can also work with students by exploring community history and cultural influence.

One of the things you can teach your students, your White students, is in history. Many White immigrants have been accused of marginalizing other White immigrants. For example, the Irish and Italians were mistreated, discriminated, and marginalized against by other White immigrants. If we can teach our White students how their ancestors might have perpetuated that oppression or perhaps were part of that oppression against each other, maybe that will help them understand a little bit how in 2020, oppression continues to exist to those who are not included in the dominant culture. They can kind of see how the "haves" and the "have nots" happened back then. One of the things we want to do is help students relate items from their background knowledge and be able to bring those to light.

2. Studying Implicit Bias in Everyday Language

Another thing we can do is discuss everyday language. How are words associated with white and black used? Words such as blackmail, blackballed, or blacklisted have different connotations than words like white labeled or whitelisted. We can have students examine how these words may spark negative perceptions based on their meanings and associations.

Consider how words such as "alien" or "immigrant" may trigger the thoughts of someone of Mexican descent. These types of stereotypes in our language may trigger our Latinx community. The same rule applies to phrases like "You should speak up more, you're so quiet" to an Asian student.

The language we use every day may not seem significant because of the implicit biases we have developed in our lives. The words we use daily are influenced by how we were raised, our social circle, and the media. We may not notice how some of the words we use may have adverse effects on particular groups of people (stereotypes, derogatory language, etc.). We can teach students about implicit bias and how to overcome bias in our language usage.

3. Examining Representation in Curriculum and Beyond

Let's take a look at our school curriculum. Have your students investigate how various cultural groups are represented in the school's curriculum. Lead these discussions with your students and have them understand it because a lot of times, that's not a thing we think about. When we are discussing representation in the school's curriculum, allow opportunities for a dialogue beyond heterosexual, cisgender, Christian-based educational norms. Instead, talk about subjects that aren't reflected, such as disabilities, and how they are depicted in the curriculum. How are people from the LGBTQ community portrayed or even acknowledged in the content? Chimamanda Adichie talks about the danger of a single story. We need to make sure that we can bring in various perspectives in our curriculum and instruction.

If students find minimal to no representation of certain groups in the curriculum, discuss ways to bring in a variety of multicultural perspectives. The website We Need Diverse Books is an excellent resource for building a more inclusive classroom library, and Milner published an article that discusses developing a multicultural curriculum for an all-White classroom.

From there, you can expand your communications by discussing popular culture and how various groups are represented in multiple media outlets such as the news, music, movies, and social media. Have them study or research certain groups and how the articles that come up and the titles of those articles. What do the reports say versus other articles about various groups?

4. Understanding and Recognizing Privilege

A combination of multicultural and social justice education can help students see the trouble with implicit racism and how even though they are not doing anything actively racist, they are still benefiting from a legacy of racism. Calling the cops to say that "an African American man is threatening me and my dog" is a result of White privilege. Knowing that Black people have historically been mistreated by law enforcement and using that knowledge to one's advantage is inhumane.

Teaching White students about power and privilege may be a touchy subject for some as White guilt and fragility may seep into the mindset of White teachers and students. However, we must learn to "disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." Starting at a young age, we can help our students learn to understand that not everyone has access and the same opportunities as others. Students as young as six years old can learn about race and class. And this work doesn't have to be limited to social studies class. We can embed these principles in all subjects, including mathematics.

5. Dismantling Racism

It is not enough to teach White children to embrace racial and cultural diversity. We've got to go beyond cultural competency. "Children must also develop individual and group identities that will recognize and resist the false notions of superiority and racial entitlement" (Derman-Sparks, Ramsey, and Edwards, 2011). Because today we have to teach our students how to be antiracist and how to work to dismantle racism actively.

Invest in meaningful dialogue that brings awareness to issues impacting both local and global communities. Additionally, a social justice-minded educator teaches their students to develop their own socio-cultural consciousness and advocacy skills so they can advocate for themselves and others.

For elementary students, that action may include students committing to do more than not bully or laugh at each other. They may also commit to bystander intervention by stepping in and helping their peers who they see are being mistreated. We can help our students take a stance instead of just teaching them to be kind to each other and not engage in activities that include mistreating others.

For secondary students, action may include writing their school board about their concerns and calls for change. A strong student group organized with a mission and objectives goes a long way toward challenging institutional practices that are unjust toward certain groups. On local and national scales, have students engage in lessons that address mass incarceration, police brutality, civil rights, immigration, racism, healthcare disparities, unequal pay issues, trauma, suicide, drug abuse, and women's rights, and privilege.

Sometimes we teach our students how to be kind to others, embrace diversity, and respect differences. We can go beyond that by teaching our White students how to be antiracist actively and do their part to support advocacy towards social justice and reform. The foundation for teaching our students how to engage in these practices actively is by helping students understand their White racial identity and positionality in society. From there, students may have a better understanding of the need for a multicultural approach in education and what they can do to find their voice and role in creating a socially just society.

Additional Resources
Framing Brave Conversations About Race and Ethnicity 8 Ways Teachers Can Address White Supremacy in the Classroom Teaching About Racism, Antisemitism and White Supremacy How Does Race Affect a Student's Math Education? Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activity for Project Based Learning Racism No Way: Anti-racism Activities, Years 3-12 How Should I Talk About Race in My Mostly White Classroom?
Learn more from Sheldon Eakins on his website, the Leading Equity Center, where he offers resources, courses, and his podcast, the Leading Equity Podcast.

Come back for more.
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Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education

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Sponsored by PowerSchool and ViewSonic These last few weeks have been especially difficult for me as the news continues to reflect that racism still exists in 2020. I've witnessed video footage of Ahmaud Arbery shot and killed while jogging, George Floyd murdered by the police, and Christian Cooper harassed while bird watching in Central Park.

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LA teachers can share ideas for the HRL Framework here.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Schools Featuring Gholdy Muhammad and Bettina Love.

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HaymarketBooks.org

Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools

The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America.

Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises.

Scholar and author Bettina Love's concept of abolitionist teaching is about adopting the radical stance of the movement that ultimately overthrew slavery, but persisted and insisted on freedom long before that victory.
What would freedom look like in our schools? How can abolitionist educators make the most of this moment to fight for humane, liberatory, anti-racist schooling for black youth and for all youth?
Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at University of Georgia. She is the author of We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.

Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She also serves as the director of the GSU Urban Literacy Clinic. Dr. Muhammad's scholarship has appeared in leading educational journals and books. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award and the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year. She is the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She writes and speaks nationally about social justice and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy as well as creating emotionally intelligent and safe classrooms within the context of equity and liberation. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin's Press, 2021).

Brian Jones is the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He writes about black education history and politics.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is one of the world's leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools

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The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America. Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises.

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Black History Month: Teaching Beyond Slavery

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Black History Month: Teaching Beyond Slavery

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Black History Month should serve as an exhilarating time to fill in the gaps left by textbooks and state curriculum standards. It should also inspire teachers to continue this education beyond February, teaching black and non-black students how they can affirm the existence and humanity of black lives year-round.

It's OK to teach about the resilience of black people despite the structures in place to uphold a racial hierarchy; we already know, for example, that more work is needed to help students learn the history of American slavery and the civil rights movement accurately.

But it's also critical that teachers show that people of African descent have contributed more than forced, free labor to U.S. history. Students deserve opportunities to examine black literature, art, innovations and customs that have helped shape the culture of the United States-and the world.

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Black History Month: Teaching Beyond Slavery

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Black History Month should serve as an exhilarating time to fill in the gaps left by textbooks and state curriculum standards. It should also inspire teachers to continue this education beyond February, teaching black and non-black students how they can affirm the existence and humanity of black lives year-round.

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Becoming Anti-Racist English Teachers: Ways to Actively Move Forward

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Becoming Anti-Racist English Teachers: Ways to Actively Move Forward

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This 19-page document lists five different areas (listen & reflect, read, interrogate, act, and repeat) that teachers can explore to become an anti-racist teacher.

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“Discuss[es] how to disrupt traditional pedagogies by suggesting alternative titles and approaches through thoughtful pairings, counter-narratives, and inclusive, diverse texts sets.”

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This account offers insight on systemic racism, especially in education.

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NCTE’s most recent list of anti-racist K-12 books to bring into your curriculum!

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This post was written by Lorena Germán (chair), Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko, Felicia Hamilton, and Holly Spinelli, members of the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. It is part of Build Your Stack,® an NCTE initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries. Build Your Stack® provides a forum for contributors to share books from their classroom experience; inclusion in a blog post does not imply endorsement or promotion of specific books by NCTE.
The Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English believes it's always a good time to teach about antiracism; however we also recognize that now is a time when most students and most adults are particularly ready to lean in and continue their understandings of antiracist teaching and learning.

Our committee is dedicated to making recommendations to counteracting racism and racial bias in the content, methods, and programs for language arts teachers. We also make recommendations to the NCTE Executive Committee in terms of considerations for professional improvement. We aim to support these necessary conversations in schools and we invite students, teachers, and scholars to begin or continue these discussions in classrooms and online.

We want to start by encouraging you to reconsider your libraries and curricula, if you haven't done so already. It is important to envision your books as voices. Whose voices are missing from your shelves and syllabi? What topics does your course neglect and what voices does it leave out? Is racism one of those neglected topics? Is oppression?

Our committee has come together to offer English teachers grade-level texts that bring a direct and healthy antiracist conversation to your classrooms. We invite you to add these texts to your curriculum as you plan for the next year.

Books for K-5

We know, based on research, that children as young as six months are aware of skin colors and differences. Children in kindergarten through grade five are absolutely ready to engage in conversations about racial awareness and antiracism.

Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Charles Waters and Irene Latham, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko

This collection of poems shares the authors' individual viewpoints and experiences relative to the complexities of race in society from the perspective of children. Educators can use this text to guide students through an exploration of uncomfortable interracial conversations about microaggressions.
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
This book centers the story of the Mendez family in California and highlights a pivotal moment for the Latino population in the desegregation movement in public education. This is an excellent text to broaden the conversation about Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC) experiences with integration in American public schools.

In this book, Whiteness and racism are named and discussed openly in a healthy and matter of fact way. It is a great tool for introducing and normalizing this conversation for young readers. It explains power and privilege in honest ways.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang March The Crossover by Kwame Alexander by Rep. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Books for Middle Grades
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
Middle school is a great time to engage young people in conversations about fairness, justice, and racial equity. Do so with the following books:

Focused on the story of Jin, this graphic novel explores issues of racial microaggressions and pushes students to think about the anti-Asian racism in the US. It's a genius text for starting conversations about racial bullying and developing a sense of social awareness among young people.

Written as a graphic novel, the three-book series chronicles US Representative John Lewis's personal journey growing up and participating in the US Civil Rights Movement. This text can be taught to offer some historical background regarding racism and injustice.
This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewel, illustrated by Aurelia Durand Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson (adapted for young adults) American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Written in a mix of free verse and hip-hop poetry, The Crossover explores the intricacies of coming-of-age and issues of race and identity, with basketball playing an important role in the relationships. Consider the graphic novel version, too!

Written in verse, this text shares the stories of childhood and dreams that led Woodson to write about the joys and challenges of growing up in the Civil Rights era. Use this memoir to explore poetic devices, analyze how Woodson develops a narrative through verse, and discuss the way skin color impacts one's experiences and identity.
Lorena Germán teaches at Headwaters School in Austin, Texas. She is the Chair of NCTE's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. She's a co-founder of #DisruptTexts and the Multicultural Classroom. Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko is an assistant professor of literacy education and a member of the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. Before becoming a teacher educator, Kate taught high school English in Florida. Felicia Hamilton is a seventh-year educator who teaches English 11 and African American Literature with a social justice lens in Windsor, Connecticut. She is a member of the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English and a recipient of the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award. Holly Spinelli began her career as an English teacher and student rights activist in New York City public schools and continues this work in a public high school in the Hudson Valley, New York, and as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Orange County Community College. She is a member of the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.
This novel follows Shayla, who decides some rules are worth breaking when she starts to wear an armband at school in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. This text can be used to explore racism and microaggressions, as well as to examine how young people address authority.

Books for High School

In grades nine through twelve, young people are ready to not only read, but also critically discuss social issues and national injustices, particularly ones related to race. Use that energy and open the conversation with the following books:

This nonfiction text is visually pleasing with many great lessons, definitions, and prompts that serve as learning activities for adolescents. Educators can use this text with students to explore the origin of racism and racial oppression.

This remix presents a history of the construction of race and explores a categorization of individuals in regards to race: racists, assimilationists, and anti-racists. Reynolds and Kendi provide contexts and stories of how these racial constructs have influenced people's dispositions and beliefs. High school educators could employ this accessible text to critically analyze the formation of racism and Black identity. Excerpts from the varying viewpoints of thinkers W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington can be paired with this text to examine racist arguments: how they are developed, how they are distributed, and how they can be discredited.

Bryan Stevenson brings individuals into his experiences as a lawyer and social justice advocate for those who are marginalized in the criminal justice system. The text follows the case of a wrongfully convicted man and shares accounts of discrimination. Educators can address themes of systemic power, dehumanization, and oppression with this text.

This symbol-filled novel explores the theme of identity formation from the perspective of a Haitian immigrant teenager. The juxtaposition of the language crafted in this text can be analyzed alongside that crafted in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. The novel examines the harsh realities of seeking the American Dream as a Black person and as an immigrant teen.

What will you do with your students to help them become antiracist? What conversations do you need to start or continue? The Committee Against Racism and Bias is here to support you. We believe in the power of stories and writing to move our country forward.

Our young people are ready and they are willing. We invite English teachers to model antiracism for students, and we will see that they'll follow our lead. We must believe.

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Build Your Stack: Antiracist Books for Your Curriculum Today - NCTE

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This post was written by Lorena Germán (chair), Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko, Felicia Hamilton, and Holly Spinelli, members of the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. It is part of Build Your Stack,® an NCTE initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries.

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NCTE offers a list of steps to decolonize curriculum.

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From the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship
This post was written by NCTE member Michael Seward, a member of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship.

"You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside . . ." Ariel Dorfman

As a member of NCTE's Standing Committee on Global Citizenship, I am concerned with the legacy of pervasive and lasting pain and inequity left by colonization: across the globe, within the US, within schools, and in my own classroom.

Colonization's legacy is about power: who has it, and who is denied it? Power has to do with material existence and lived experience: access to and use of resources (money, housing, transportation, energy, healthy food, clean water), knowledge, influence, self-determination and economic potential and clout.

Power is political. In a world profoundly shaped by colonization, because, globally, power has been divided along racial lines, politics become inherently racial-even in the classroom.

The classroom is a political space: power is exerted, resisted and yielded to in every classroom; every classroom is situated within an institution, state, and nation-all locations in which resources, knowledge, and access must be negotiated. Justin Simien , director of Dear White People , reminds us that "[r] acism is systemic: It's oppression that's built into the laws, legislation, into the way neighborhoods are policed, and into job opportunities and health care and education" (emphasis added).

Thus, those interested in decolonizing the classroom must take a first, crucial step: a personal commitment to political change. To deny the racial nature of politics (and power)-both inside of and surrounding the classroom-is to perpetuate the inequities created by colonization.

In an attempt to decolonize the classroom, one can make many changes:

diversify materials and content

teach to learning outcomes that address power and social justice;

design assessments that allow diverse students to demonstrate mastery in diverse ways;

involve students in the creation of knowledge, content, and curriculum;

embrace diverse language usage in interactions, writing and tests;

involve oneself at the institutional, local, state and national levels to advocate for equity.

Yet the first change must be to become politically conscious. In order to speak truth to power, one must first enable oneself to see the truth, the truth of the profoundly damaging legacy of colonization.

Anyone who teaches English outside of England is part of the colonial project, particularly if the teaching takes place within a sanctioned institution and if the English being taught is a standardized, "official" English. One need only contemplate the role of language and schooling in European colonization of the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia to grasp the central function of teaching (particularly teaching English) in colonization.

A politically conscious teacher acknowledges that one cannot claim to be purely (and innocently) against racism while acting as a functionary for a colonial and racist system (especially when benefitting materially while doing so (i.e., receiving a paycheck)). To build on Napoleon's observation, "among those who dislike oppression are many who" enjoy the privileges the oppressive system offers.

I have been teaching for over 30 years; I have yet to encounter a teacher who openly espouses racism. Everyone claims to be against racism. Everyone wants to empower students. Yet to begin to ameliorate the deep damage caused by colonization and racism (systems of power) means to be actively and overtly political. To decolonize the classroom, one must examine oneself and one's beliefs:

Let go of the disingenuous notion of objectivity in the classroom, of maintaining political neutrality, of seeing all sides and positions as having equal impact on marginalized groups.

Learn to live in the discomfort of having to take a stand.

Acknowledge that your role as teacher has been historically problematic: that by teaching English you are inherently complicit with forces that damage marginalized students.

See and address the trauma that colonization, poverty, sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of oppression can and do cause for marginalized students.

Resist seeing yourself as the "good guy," fighting the good fight.

Avoid perpetuating the myth of boot-strapping and the belief that by helping individual students you are effecting social change.

Understand that by promoting notions of a standard, correct and preferred language, you are perpetuating colonization, ensuring that future students will suffer the same marginalization.

Act to effect systemic changes that address the forces that damage groups of students, those groups that have been historically traumatized by colonization and racism.

Along with delivering required content, understand your job as providing students with the means of grasping that their difficulties and struggles stem from an inherently inequitable system and culture, as well as ways of resisting and subverting such systems.

See yourself, your curriculum, your content and your classroom as existing within a historical context of racism, subjugation, and control.

Challenge systemic oppression and acknowledge the collective experiences of marginalized groups.

Even those who are made uncomfortable by the status quo may be unwilling to take on the system, for global colonialization has traditionally wrapped itself in the mantles of religion and patriotism, and, as Luis Bunuel reminds us, " God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression " (170). What English teacher wants to take on God and country? And, really, what need is there to challenge the system, when one can still envision oneself as doing good without having to take the risk of being targeted for calling attention to the fact that the pain and suffering of marginalized groups are inherent to and necessary for the functioning of the system.

Florynce Kennedy notes, " When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive " (439). Thus, teachers are taught in their training to envision themselves as doing good, even as they reinforce and perpetuate the colonization and racism that damage students. Like missionaries, foreign aid, and global capitalism, we English teachers are part of the "[c] olonialism [that] subdues in many dulcet guises. It conquered under the pretext of spreading Christianity, civilization, law and order, to make the world safe for democracy" ( F. Sionil Jose ). Instead of seeing themselves as generous and helpful, politically conscious teachers must perpetually struggle with the problematic nature of their role. Leila Janah warns us of the dangers of helpfulness:

"[P]art of the problem with charity is that it tends to make us view people as helpless victims. I think in the future, we'll look back on charity in the same way that we look back on colonialism today: as a very paternalistic system that doesn't fully recognise the full spectrum of humanity. "

Instead of envisioning students as individuals in need of the tools required for self-improvement ( as the teacher, I am the one who, by providing you the benefits of the curriculum, helps you succeed ), politically conscious teachers understand that the suffering of marginalized students is a result of an inequitable system.

Politically conscious teachers shift the focus away from the individual as needing change to the system as needing change, a shift that is made very difficult within the American context with its cult of individualism.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali says, "The liberal psyche wants to protect minorities, to apologize for imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and the appalling treatment of black people during the civil rights movement. At the same time, they want to continue to defend the rights of individuals." By focusing our energies on individuals, we avoid dismantling systems of power that privilege some while damaging many others.

To e mpower students (or anyone) on the margins means much more than guiding individuals to a sanctioned academic success; individuals are empowered when systems are altered to shift power toward the groups to which they belong. To empower people from marginalized groups means to disrupt the current balance of power, something the powerful invariably resist. Politically conscious teachers prepare themselves and their students to confront, resist, and withstand such a backlash.

In addition to works by those quoted in this blog, interested educators might find works by the following authors helpful:

In addition to the above resources, interested educators may want to consider participating in the workshop that my colleague Kylowna Moton and I will lead at the 2019 NCTE Convention in Baltimore. "Decolonizing the English Classroom: Why and How?" will be held Thursday, 11/21, 11:30-3:30. We invite concerned educators to join us for a generative session and challenging conversation on decolonizing the classroom.

I'd like to close with the full quotation from Ariel Dorfman , which speaks to us directly as teachers of language: "You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside, look sideways, look at the hidden violence of language. Never forget that language is where the other, parallel violence, the cruelty exercised on the body, originates."
For over 30 years Michael Seward has been teaching a variety of subjects at various levels, from eighth grade to post-graduate. He has been involved in global education in a number of capacities (including two Fulbright teaching exchanges) and countries (including England, Germany, Slovakia, Costa Rica and Poland). Currently he teaches English and serves as an Assessment Coordinator at Minneapolis College.
"The Standing Committee on Global Citizenship works to identify and address issues of broad concern to NCTE members interested in promoting global citizenship and connections across global contexts within the Council and within members' teaching contexts."

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Decolonizing the Classroom: Step 1 - NCTE

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From the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship This post was written by NCTE member Michael Seward, a member of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship. "You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside . . ."

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This is a collection of diverse texts that includes TED talks, songs, novels, and more!

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Hey y'all! Are you looking for diverse texts for secondary ELA? Do you want to grow your classroom library or find suggestions for a lit circle? Look no further!

I've written a lot of YA book reviews and created a lot of book "round-up" lists over the years, so I thought it would be helpful to compile my many recommendations here. Each list, unless otherwise specified, features a range of authors and protagonists, including BIPOC, queer, neuro-divergent voices.

And a final word about diversity and inclusion: no "one text" is going to develop your students' empathy and thirst for justice. Instead, be sure to include a variety of voices throughout your shelves and curriculum, all year long.

Be sure to bookmark this page as the lists will be continually growing 🙂

LGBTQ+ Novel Recs
LGBTQ+ Books for Middle Grade Books Featuring LGBTQ+ Protaganists
Book Recs from the YA Cafe Podcast
Reviews from our first season Reviews from our second season
Genre Recommendation Lists
Inclusive fantasy/sci-fi novels Mysteries and thillers YA books about sports
Book Recs to Broaden Horizons
YA books by Asian American authors Books for teaching about immigration YA lit by Indigenous authors
Inclusive Recommendations for ELA
Books to help students fall in love with poetry Short story anthologies Inclusive + engaging nonfiction for teens Science fiction poems for ELA
15 Songs to use in ELA and 15 MORE songs to use in ELA
TV episodes to use in ELA TED Talks for young writers
And last but not least, a list of my favorite YA reads of 2019.

What kind of reviews do you want to see from me in the future? What kinds of diverse texts for Secondary ELA do YOU need? Let me know in the comments, or on IG @nouvelle_ela

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Diverse Texts for Secondary ELA - Nouvelle ELA Teaching Resources

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Hey y'all! Are you looking for diverse texts for secondary ELA? Do you want to grow your classroom library or find suggestions for a lit circle? Look no further! I've written a lot of YA book reviews and created a lot of book "round-up" lists over the years, so I thought it would be helpful to compile my many recommendations here.

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Some suggestions for a classroom library in a social studies class.

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Lately, I've been daydreaming about creating a social studies classroom library. When I see the amazing collections amassed by my friends who teach ELA, I think back to the collection of thirty year old encyclopedias, old textbooks, and atlases that made up my classroom library when I was in the classroom. They definitely served a purpose, but students weren't exactly excited to use them.

So...
What if teachers added books to their libraries that hooked students and made them want to learn more? What if the books made a foreign culture or time more relevant? What if the books were just fun to read? What if the classroom library became a spot that students liked to go to and were excited about?

While I was creating a wish list of books for my dream library, I realized I didn't have many recent books on my list. So, I asked my good friend and ELA teacher, Rachel of Writing by Rachel, to make me a list of recent books that should be added to a middle school social studies classroom collection. Here are her amazing suggestions.

Calico Girl by Jerdine Nolen.
As the Civil War rages, twelve-year-old Callie Wilcomb and her family attempt to break free from the bonds of slavery.A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.
Ada was born with a clubfoot, a fact that embarrasses her mother who forbids her from leaving the house. So, when Ada's brother is sent out of London to escape the War, Ada takes advantage of the opportunity and sneaks along. Free from her mother, Ada can leave her new house, and form bonds with new people. What will happen to Ada when the War ends? Winner of the 2016 Newbery Honor.

Betty before X by Ilyasah Shabazz.
Inspired by Betty Shabazz's life, this fictionalized account of 11-year-old Betty's experiences will resonate with all teens searching for purpose and acceptance, and will introduce readers to Betty Shabazz against a backdrop of pre-Civil Rights era social protest.

Amina's Voice by Hena Khan.
Amina, a Pakistani-American, must balance two cultures: her rich Pakistani heritage and home life with her American school. When her mosque is vandalized, Amina discovers her voice is even more important.

Refugee by Alan Gratz
A Jewish boy in 1930s German. A Cuban girl in 1994. And, a Syrian boy in 2015. Three young adults in search of refuge. Their stories draw connections between events and themes that are at once historical and timely.

NONFICTION (in no particular order)

City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction written by David Macaulay
With time, our attention to older books often fades. But, this still deserves a place on your history shelf. It shines a light on a commonly taught place and time, and is still revolutionary in how its detailed illustrations work with the text to reveal the intricacies of Roman cities and design.

Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem written by Rosalyn Schanzer.
300 years later, we are still mesmerized by the Salem Witch Trials. Schanzer's Siebert winning Witches combines primary source documents with an engaging and unbelievable but true narrative that transports readers back to a dramatic time of 'witches,' lies, and ruined lives. Jerry Springer has nothing on history!

An American Plague written by Jim Murphy.
Murphy takes readers back to 1793 and, with engaging writing and thorough research, leads us through the social and political aspects of the plague, as well as how doctors responded. Winner of a Sibert Award, this book is a great partner to Laurie Halse Andersen's popular fictional account of the same time, Fever 1793.

Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You about the Civil War written by Steve Sheinkin.
Sheinkin combines attention-grabbing, little known anecdotes with historical facts, and lots of graphics- cartoons, maps, illustrations, and diagrams. The result, as you might expect from the title, is a lively look at the Civil War that kids will enjoy (and learn from.)

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia written by Candace Fleming.
Among history's most fascinating mysteries is that of the Romanov family. Fleming weaves together information about the family and the times to create a page-turning tale with first-hand accounts and photos.

We Will Not be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement that Defied Adolf Hitler written by Russell Freedman.
Freedman is known for his clear, eloquent, and accessible writing. All that is true but this book will appeal to students because it focuses on the youth of the White Rose Resistance. Learning about the Holocaust is important, but can be draining. It helps to balance the darkness of the Holocaust with information about people who fought for right and against Hitler. That Freedman's focus in this book is a brother and sister team, Hans and Sophie Scholl, is even more compelling to young readers.

Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World's Most Dangerous Weapon written by Steve Sheinkin.
The story of the atomic bomb is full of risk, lies, spies, twists and turns that will grab the interest of students from page one.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice written by Phillip Hoose.
Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same. Author Phillip Hoose, who believes youth should be involved in social change, brings us the forgotten story of Claudette Colvin and her persistent efforts amid the civil rights movement.

Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassin written by James Swanson.
Swanson traces King's life and importance in America's Civil Rights' Movement, and then examines the facts surrounding his death. Packed with primary source photos and notes. Bonus: You can refer satisfied readers to Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer.

Vietnam: A History of the War written by Russell Freedman.
More than other wars, the Vietnam War can be difficult to understand. Why were American troops there? What was it about? Freedman's Vietnam provides an unbiased overview of a complicated conflict.

I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Reader's Edition) written by Malala Yousafzai.
Perhaps more than any other young adult, Malala Yousafzai is known around the world as a crusader for education for girls, and for her tremendous perseverance in the face of violence. Few people make a lasting mark on the world and remain known generations later. Malala Yousafzai not only made her mark on today and for generations to come, she did it as a teenager. She is unique and inspirational.

A FEW TIPS FOR GETTING BOOKS TO BUILD A LIBRARY
Are you excited about building a classroom library for your social studies class? Books are expensive so to get them cheaper requires some work. Here are 9 ways to build up your collection without breaking the bank:

(1) Collect gently used books from people in your neighborhood

(2) Go to your local libraries semi-annual book sales

(3) Go to Scholastic Warehouse sales and fill up boxes of books for a fraction of the regular cost

(4) Visit used book stores

(5) Use Donor's Choose to fund new books

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Growing a Classroom Library? Add these books!

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Lately, I've been daydreaming about creating a social studies classroom library. When I see the amazing collections amassed by my friends who teach ELA, I think back to the collection of thirty year old encyclopedias, old textbooks, and atlases that made up my classroom library when I was in the classroom.

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"All children deserve to see themselves and their experiences reflected in books, but too many students, especially students of color, are denied such opportunities."

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Kate Stoltzfus

The #DisruptTexts Twitter chat isn't afraid to put classic texts in the hot seat. The titles addressed would ring familiar to most students, past and present: Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible. As educators discuss how best to teach (or not teach) these books in week-long Twitter chats, one title at a time, they call out the perils of a K-12 literary curriculum long set in stone.

All children deserve to see themselves and their experiences reflected in books, but too many students, especially students of color, are denied such opportunities. White-authored "classics" still dominate the top 10 most-read lists for high schoolers, according to research from assessment company Renaissance Learning. What's more, diverse literary perspectives face a multitude of challenges to exposure. Of the 416 books flagged for questionable content in schools and libraries in 2017, the American Library Association's Top Ten Most Challenged Books list includes titles by black authors (Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give) and books that discuss Islam ( The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini) and LGBTQ experiences ( George by Alex Gino).

For decades, scholars have decried the harmful disconnect between young, diverse readers and the mostly white, middle-class, straight, and able-bodied characters and storytellers they engage with in the classroom. In her 1990s essay "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors," scholar Rudine Sims Bishop wrote that when students see images of themselves that are absent, negative, or distorted, "they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society."

Decolonize the Curriculum

The founders of the #DisruptTexts movement-English educators Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena Germán, Kim Parker, and Julia Torres-offer a new set of tools to create a more equitable ELA curriculum through recurring chats and a crowdsourced website of resources. They started the hashtag in 2018 to center perspectives of marginalized voices, especially people of color, in student literature. They now present on #DisruptTexts at gatherings such as the National Council of Teachers of English conference and Teachers College's Social Justice Saturday.

"We have a lot of power over what and who we bring into the classroom," said Ebarvia. "Collectively, we have an opportunity to make real change."

The benefits of disruption are wide-ranging: Research has shown that diverse literature reduces stereotypes and increases empathy, global awareness, and academic performance among all students. Absent districtwide shifts in curriculum, teachers can choose which books to highlight and how to frame literary discussions to better reflect the needs and experiences of every student.

Individual awareness is the first step to challenge traditional, whitewashed pedagogy and prevent damaging experiences for readers of color. The #DisruptTexts model asks teachers to audit their personal and classroom reading experiences:

What experiences have shaped and limited your ideas about race, culture, gender, and power?

How inclusive are the books and media you consume personally and professionally?

How inclusive are your class discussions and curricula?

Teachers can then employ two main levers of disruption: the diversity of the texts they choose and the critical pedagogy they use to guide students' engagement with the texts. That might mean using pairings and counternarratives to champion missing voices or replacing texts with alternative titles. Last year's #DisruptTexts chat about The Great Gatsby suggested teaching the text alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me, Harlem Renaissance poetry, and the film Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Empower Students

Any text is prime for disruption, but the movement's founders caution that it isn't just about replacing older texts with newer ones-it's a professional responsibility to both focus on marginalized voices and develop students' critical literacy skills to question the status quo.

Parker works with preservice teachers in Massachusetts to design inclusive units, thinking critically about how to teach about Christopher Columbus using voices of American Indian scholars like Debbie Reese. Ebarvia, who teaches at Conestoga High School near Philadelphia, asks her students to examine national identity in novels like The Things They Carried. In an account of the Vietnam War, why do they hear military voices but not Vietnamese or civilian ones?

To frame discussions of any book, educators should think about the following questions alongside students:

In what ways might a text present problems related to equity and representation?

How do the disruptive texts and multimedia stand with or against the traditionally taught text?

Whether her students devour The Poet X or Othello, Torres-who teaches in a predominantly black public high school in Denver with majority-white colleagues-always keeps in mind: How is this story empowering or disenfranchising students?

"As educators of color, this work is something we do as a means of survival," said Torres, a teacher librarian. "All of us teach in different environments, but all of us have the experience of going to school and not reading stories that reflected our cultural and linguistic realities and beliefs. It was very natural for us to want to create a better experience for our students-helping them reclaim what has been stolen from them."

Lean into Discomfort

#DisruptTexts isn't the only social media movement working to address holes in ELA curricula. Joel Garza, the cofounder of #THEBOOKCHAT, uses his chats to create "units in a box" for titles like There There by Tommy Orange, a novel that investigates American Indian identity.

"Whether it's #DisruptTexts or #APLitChat or #TeachLivingPoets, these self-selecting groups are reading deliberately and tweeting naked," said Garza. "You don't recognize how siloed you've been until you reach out on social media."

Educators can use these online resources to track harmful patterns that might influence their approach to disruption, such as depictions of diverse characters only as victims of violence. Pernille Ripp, founder of Global Read Aloud, uses sources like #DisruptTexts, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, and Teaching Tolerance to consistently check in with her curricular choices. An audit of a book's themes and messages is just as important as title and author choices. Ripp once heard a 7th grader ask, "Why are the books that look like me always about slavery or civil rights?"

"If the only books we're sharing are about basketball and brutality, then it's no better, because those aren't the only stories out there," Ripp said. "Look at the small details: What kind of experiences are you creating for students?"

But challenging a school's literary choices can be uncomfortable for some educators. In a profession where 80 percent of teachers are white, it's easy to default to the dominant discourse. That's why long-term disruption, according to Torres, will require shifts throughout departments and in professional development, not just isolated action. Part of that work involves white educators confronting both their whiteness and schools' unequal balance of race and power.

"Educators are really good at having conversations and sometimes not as good about pushing back," said Torres. "This canon has been so calcified and white for so long and remains for a lot of reasons. What I will trust more than anything is when children say, 'My year was completely different.'"

Disrupt for the Next Generation

Germán, who works at Headwaters School in Austin, Tex., has seen disruptive literacy conversations begin to change school culture. Many of her high school students weren't used to talking about race, bias, and privilege. Now they call each other out on problematic behavior and language and bring up diversity issues at soccer practice, in student council, and in other classes.

That the school is undergoing an inclusive climate assessment and just hired a black male administrator isn't a coincidence, said Germán. She believes the changes correlate directly to the growth of students.

"If things proceed as they have been always, a lot of my students are going to be the folks in power," said Germán. "How do you continue to teach the same thing when our society and demographics have changed? This is where real life and fiction intersect."

When I teach the 1920s, the majority of my students know jazz, flappers, automobiles. What they don't know ... the nativism, the visibility of the Ku Klux Klan, the lynchings, the race riots. My students come in with this idea that the Roaring 20s was a gas. Fun, frivolous, free. But for who? -@jennphillipstx

Ernesto Quiñonez's Bodega Dreams is a great companion/alternative to Gatsby. Loosely based on the Fitzgerald novel, set in East Harlem in the 1980s and 1990s.-@JMFall

A great YA lit title is Mitali Perkins's You Bring the Distant Near to look at the American Dream, reinvention of self, and identity through three generations of women in an Indian American family. -@triciaebarvia

Gatsby is the only required book in 11th grade. I pair it with The Warmth of Other Suns and a documentary about The Osage Tribal Murders. Our final essay question is, "What does it mean to be American, and who gets to be American?" -@dk_finley

You could split class into two groups: one that focuses on racial passing and the other on gender passing. I think of women who passed in order to join the military or African Americans who passed in order to survive/succeed. You can then tie it back to Gatsby and explore how his white male privilege allowed him to get to his success. -@nenagerman

One guiding question I had for Gatsby was, "If this is a story of the American Dream, what voices are being left out or misrepresented?" I used Harlem Renaissance poetry and critical reading of Wolfsheim's character to frame discussions. -@MrHorneland

Often I see Gatsby taught through the lens of the Roaring '20s-all flash and fun and fame. Disrupt that with August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which takes place in 1920s Chicago. Wilson always gives a stern dose of reality without sparing your feelings. -@Lyricalswordz

At the risk of sounding radical, I don't think Gatsby is so marvelous a teaching tool that the aesthetic or style components couldn't be found in another text. Also, the Rags to Riches theme toes the line of perpetuating the myth of meritocracy. -@juliaerin80

This story has been updated to better reflect Headwaters School's efforts.

Kate Stoltzfus is the associate writer at ASCD.

KEYWORDS

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Kate Stoltzfus The #DisruptTexts Twitter chat isn't afraid to put classic texts in the hot seat. The titles addressed would ring familiar to most students, past and present: Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible.

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We Need Diverse Books™ is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry. Our aim is to help produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

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Illustration by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Who We Are We Need Diverse Books™ is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature tha…

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25 FANTASTIC MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS

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25 FANTASTIC MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS

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As a children's bookseller, there are many days when parents, educators, and readers come looking for books written by Black authors, especially if they're books about Black kids. Once upon a time it was a lot harder to find them, and while there's still a long way to go, there's a rapidly growing subset of middle grade books by Black authors featuring Black kids, as well as some books that have been around for a long time and are still entertaining and inspiring readers today. Read on for 25 middle grade books by Black authors across all genres: mystery, fantasy, historical fiction, graphic novel, contemporary, memoir, and verse. They range from fun and zany to gut-wrenching and heartbreaking, and some are a mix.

Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renee Watson

Inspired by the real life of activist Dr. Betty Shabazz, this fictionalized account from Shabazz's daughter Ilyasah follows Betty through four important years of her childhood. Beginning in 1945 Detroit, where Betty starts volunteering for the Housewives League and sets out on her path toward activism.

After her parents' divorce, 11-year-old Isabella feels divided. She splits her time between her parents' houses. Her black father's home, where he lives with his girlfriend and her son, is fancy-and they're one of the only black families in the neighborhood. Her mom lives with her boyfriend in a house that's small and not as fancy. Isabella doesn't just switch lives every week but also identities. Her dad is black, her mom white, and Isabella is constantly peppered with questions about her racial identity. As her parents' fights worsen, and the two get engaged at the same time, Isabella's family seems like it will never be whole again. And neither will Isabella.

Acclaimed author Jacqueline Woodson writes a memoir in verse of her childhood. Growing up Black in the 1960s and 1970s means contending with the aftermath of Jim Crow and the strengthening Civil Rights Movement, and for Woodson, also realizing her dreams of putting her voice and experiences to paper.

In 1936 Flint, Michigan, Bud (not Buddy) sets off on a journey to find his father. After the death of his mother and a string of abusive foster homes, Bud doesn't have much to go on-just flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression-but he's got a suitcase full of everything that matters to him, and nothing's going to stop him from finding his father.

In this novel in verse, twins Josh and Jordan are teammates on the basketball court and in life. Making their way through middle school and all its trials (homework, crushes, family issues), the two begin to pull apart for the first time.

Genesis hates many things about herself. Like that her skin is so dark that her family members and classmates call her names. Like that her father gambles away their rent so often that they're regularly evicted. When Genesis and her mom find themselves with nowhere to go, they head to her grandmother's house, where her mom and grandma fight all the time. Grandma wants Mom to leave her father and thinks she should have married a light skinned man to begin with. Despite this, Genesis is liking her new school, making some new friends, and the choir teacher thinks Genesis is talented enough to perform in the talent show. But neither the citrus fruits nor the lightening creams are working, so how can Genesis believe anyone else likes her or believes in her with her dark skin when her own family doesn't seem to?

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Though Ghost, real name Castle Crenshaw, has always been running-he's just never done it on a track team. But after he challenges an elite sprinter to a race, and wins, suddenly a new path is open to him. The track coach thinks Ghost and his natural talent would make a perfect addition to the team. Ghost joins up, and finds the team is full of kids with their own problems, and that the running is much harder than he expected it to be. But he also knows that no matter how fast he runs, there are some problems that threaten to keep up with him.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

After 12-year-old Jerome is shot by a cop who mistakes his toy gun for a real one, he returns as a ghost to witness the devastation caused by his killing. It's not long before Jerome meets another ghost, Emmett Till, a boy who was lynched and murdered. Emmett helps Jerome process his death and the historical context that led to it. Later, Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the cop who killed him, struggling with her father's actions.

Twelve-year-old Shayla only wants to follow the rules. But now in middle school, she's no longer sure what the rules are. Not with her friends and not with her classmates. Her sister's involved in Black Lives Matter, which Shayla doesn't think is for her. But after a protest, Shayla decides some rules are okay to break, and she starts wearing an armband to school in support of BLM. The principal announces that the armbands aren't allowed, and Shayla's given an ultimatum. Though Shayla's always tried to avoid trouble, she might be in even more trouble if she can't face her fear and do what she knows is right, even if someone else has decided it's wrong.

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

Once a week, six kids meet up in an empty room, with no adults around, to talk about whatever they want. They call it the ARTT (A Room to Talk) Room, and there, the kids can open up about everything troubling them, like Haley's father being in prison and Esteban's dad being deported. As the kids talk more, they begin to see the strength they draw from the little community they've built, and they see that the support they can get from each other is how they'll withstand their struggles.

In 1944, 12-year-old Ella leaves her small town in South Carolina to spend a month in Boston with her jazz singer mother. Though Ella's initially thrilled to get the chance to spend time with her mother, and ask her questions about the father she's never known, what she finds is unexpected. Busy Boston is an entirely different world compared to the Jim Crow South Ella left. While Ella's there, there are some big changes taking place in her hometown, and when Ella returns home she finds her classmate has been accused of murdering two white girls.

A child born during a hurricane is said to be unlucky, and 12-year-old Caroline has had plenty of bad luck already. Everyone at her school hates her, she can see things no one else can, and her mother has abandoned her. Caroline's luck begins to turn when she meets new student Kalinda. She also seems to have visions no one else does, and she becomes Caroline's only friend-and her first crush. Now Caroline has to find a way to brave her feelings for Kalinda, a spirit haunting her island, and a hurricane, so she can find her mother and face the reason she left her.

Corinne isn't afraid of anything, especially not jumbies. Those are just trickster creatures parents make up to scare their kids into behaving. When Corinne spots a beautiful woman named Severine in the town market, she knows something big is about to happen. And when it comes, it's Severine at her house, bewitching her father, and it's only the first step in Severine's plot to claim the island for the jumbies. To save her home, Corinne must face the jumbies and draw on magic she didn't know she had.

Local detectives Otto and Sheed are legendary, and have put their skills to use saving their town from all manners of mischief. And on the last day of summer, they'll have to use all their skills to save their town when Mr. Flux arrives with a camera that stops time.

As the Miss America pageant unfurls on a stage in 1983, Vanessa Martin watches from home. Her life couldn't be more different. While Vanessa struggles with her self-esteem, she can hardly remember her mother, and her grandfather is struggling with addiction. But then her school organizes a pageant, and Vanessa, with the help of a teacher and a friend, decides to enter.

Ebony-Grace has lived with her grandfather in Huntsville, Alabama, for most of her life. There, her grandfather, one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA, passed along his love of outer space and science fiction. But in the summer of 1984, Ebony-Grace is sent to Harlem to live with her father. For sheltered Ebony-Grace, Harlem is thrilling but also scary, and she plans to stay safe in her imagination. But it's not long before Harlem shows Ebony-Grace how much it has to offer her, and how much it has in common with her favorite sci-fi adventures.

Though Jordan wants nothing more than to go to art school where he can perfect his cartoon drawings, his parents have other ideas. Instead, Jordan's sent to an upscale prep school where he's one of only a few kids of color. Struggling to fit in with his new classmates, and to maintain his friendships with his neighborhood friends, Jordan must find a way to remain true to himself as he straddles the line between two worlds.

It's the summer of 1968, and Delphine-along with her sisters Vonetta and Fern-have traveled from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to reunite with the mother, who left them to pursue a radical new life as a poet. When they arrive, they find their mother to be nothing like they imagined, and instead of getting to spend their summer exploring Disneyland, their mother sends them to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers.

One summer, Candice finds a letter in the attic. It's addressed to her grandmother, who left their town of Lambert, South Carolina, in shame. Candice isn't sure she should read it. But when she does, the letter describes a mysterious young woman, a decades-old injustice, a mysterious letter-writer, and a fortune awaiting the person who can decipher the letter and solve its clues. With the help of Brandon, the quiet boy across the street, Candice gets to work, and their investigation leads them deep into Lambert's forgotten history.

After Brianna's celebrity chef idol traces her own success back to being president of her fifth grade class, Brianna decides she too must become fifth grade class president if she wants to have her own cupcake empire one day. But Brianna has more competition than anticipated in the form of new student Jasmine, and suddenly Brianna doesn't find working fairly alongside her friends to campaign as attractive as the opportunity to steal votes by revealing as embarrassing secret about her opponent.

This Newberry-winning middle grade classic follows Cassie Logan and her family, trying to survive in the middle of the Great Depression. Their family's land is their lifeblood, and as Cassie and her family endure a turbulent year of night riders and burning and casual degradation from white people, Cassie realizes how invaluable it is for their family to have a place of their own.

Caleb Franklin and his brother Bobby Gene are looking forward to a summer of venturing beyond their tiny town, but their dad doesn't want them straying too far. Enter new neighbor Styx Malone, 16 years old, well-traveled, and impossibly cool. Styx promises that three of them together can accomplish the Great Escalator Trade, exchanging small things for something greater over and over until they can reach their wildest dreams. But the trades get bigger, and it's not long before the brothers are overwhelmed and it before it becomes clear that Styx hasn't been completely honest with them.

So Done by Paula Chase

Ever since they were toddlers, Tai and Mila have been inseparable. But after a summer spent apart, Tai seems to be the only one excited to reunite. When Mila returns from her summer vacation, she's more interested in preparing for an upcoming dance audition. And both are keeping secrets from each other: though Tai has always loved their community and enjoys keeping to its rule, Mila no longer feels safe there, and the reason is much closer to Tai than she knows.

Still reeling from his brother's death in a gang shooting, Lolly is looking for a way forward, and the pressure to join a crew, as his brother did, follows him everywhere. After Lolly and his friend are attacked, it seems joining a crew might be their safest option, but instead Lolly finds solace in a gift of two giant bags of Legos. Though Lolly's prided himself on being able to piece together Legos perfectly with the help of instructions, he doesn't have any this time, and he'll have to piece his own way forward.

Sent to Alabama to recover from an accident that killed his best friend, 7th grader Tristan Strong hasn't felt very strong in a long time. On his first night in Alabama, a creature comes into his bedroom and steals his lost friend's journal, and Tristan has no choice but to follow. In the chaos that ensues, Tristan punches a tree, inadvertently opening a chasm into the Midpass, a land of burning ships and volatile creatures hunting the people of our world. In Midpass, Tristan finds himself in the center of a battle that has worn down its warriors, Black folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit. To close the opening to Midpass, Tristan and his new allies will have to seek out Anansi the Weaver and find a way to barter with the trickster that won't mean Tristan losing everything else he loves.

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25 Fantastic Middle Grade Books by Black Authors | Book Riot

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As a children's bookseller, there are many days when parents, educators, and readers come looking for books written by Black authors, especially if they're books about Black kids.

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How Do I Teach Mathematics in a Culturally Responsive Way? Identifying Empowering Teaching Practices

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How Do I Teach Mathematics in a Culturally Responsive Way? Identifying Empowering Teaching Practices

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This article was published in 2011. It includes interesting suggestions, like using word problems that reflect students' cultural experiences.

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On p. 152, we learn that W.E.B. Du Bois led an effort to publish texts that "represented people of color in a positive light, dispelling falsehood and stereotypes."

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The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or any other restrictions in the documents in this collection. However, some of the content may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and/or by the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.

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Nothing But Education invites you to take a quick survey. They will provide feedback if you send your survey response.

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Working with others in a leadership capacity is how we spend most of our work time. Having innovative individuals on the team, who can lead and follow is essential to the success of an organization. Building bridges with businesses, colleges, and communities are methods to stimulate thinking, collaboration and recruitment.

Customized Professional Development Through an Equity Lens

It is essential that students be able to access instruction within various entry points. Through the work of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad research shows her four-layered equity framework is essential. Because each student is unique, the curriculum we teach should embody a culturally responsive approach allowing equity in learning for all. Whether training for a new curriculum or leadership development, all our trainings have an equity focus.

We know that many factors contribute to trauma in children. These "Adverse Childhood Experiences" can impact a child socially, emotionally and academically. Through Dr. Nadine Burke Harris' research, we work to provide expert consultation and tools addressing trauma. Not only are students working through traumatic situations, so are teachers. The use of professional books and professional learning will assist both students and teachers with strategies to move forward in a positive manner.

Reaching Goals Through Building Capacity

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NOTHING BUT EDUCATION | EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING | United States

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In order to form a strong and accountable service organization, two-spirited and accomplished women had the vision to create Nothing But Education. By building capacity through diverse consultants and offerings, we engage schools, districts, and communities in positively changing students' lives.

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Muhammad encourages teachers to layer short, powerful, multimodal texts. She suggests sharing one image, one video, and one print text. The work of Richard Mayer, specifically his principles of multimedia learning, might help us choose wisely.

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What you Need to Know to Create the Best Videos for Learning

One of the many great sessions I attended last week at UBTech 2017 was Brian Klaas's "Spielberg not Shakespeare: What we can Learn from YouTube When Flipping Classrooms". Klaas is Senior Technical Officer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I've seen Klaas speak before, he is an engaging, dynamic presenters. He is an avid fan ofÂ Mayer's 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning, and he very successfully walks the walk in his own presentations.

One interesting thing about these principles is their applicability over the long haul. While education's growing use of technology as an instructional aid calls for the use of guiding constructs like these more than ever, these fundamental principles were published back 2001 and it's a safe bet that they will remain relevant for decades to come.

Here are Mayer's Principles:

1. Coherence Principle â€" People learn better when extraneous words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included.

2. Signaling Principle â€" People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.

3. Redundancy Principle â€" People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text.

4. Spatial Contiguity Principle â€" People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

5. Temporal Contiguity Principle â€" People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

6. Segmenting Principle â€" People learn better from a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

7. Pre-training Principle â€" People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

8. Modality Principle â€" People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.

9. Multimedia Principle â€" People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.

10. Personalization Principle â€" People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.

11. Voice Principle â€" People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.

12. Image Principle â€" People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speakerâ€™s image is added to the screen.

Let's look at how some of these principles relate to truly effective learning content. Coherence
The best learning materials limit extraneous content. It doesn't help. Keep it simple. Think of the many ridiculously dense, loud, cluttered slides you've seen from time to time. It's very hard to learn from content like that. This page contains a couple good examples of violations of the Coherence Principle.
Contiguity
The two contiguity principles inform us that people learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen, and when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

I borrowed this image from this site - this is a great example of the contiguity principles in action: Â
Segmenting
This principle tells us to break things into user-paced segments. An excellent application of this principle when it comes to video to create multiple short videos rather than one long one.
Multimedia
Words and Pictures together are better than words or pictures alone (but, following the other principles, keep it simple). Klaas illustrated this with simple elegance by showing the word "circle", then a separate picture of a circle, followed by a picture of a circle with the word "circle" on the same slide. It was quite obvious that the latter slide provided the best learning experience.
Signaling
When I first read this principle, it reminded me of the first part of the three part adage, "tell them what you are going to teach them, then teach them, then tell them what you taught them". However, the video below, from Sarah Martin, gives a different perspective to signaling (I suppose both of these ideas are essentially signaling, i.e. reminding the learner what to expect and pay extra attention to).

So that's a quick look at some of these powerful principles from Mayer. I look forward to exploring them further in future articles, and to applying them in content I create from this day forward.

For a deeper dive into Mayer's Principle, you can consider buying or renting the book. It is expensive it print format, but I found it available for rent in digital format on Amazon for $13.44.

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Mayer's 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning are a Powerful Design Resource

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One of the many great sessions I attended last week at UBTech 2017 was Brian Klaas's "Spielberg not Shakespeare: What we can Learn from YouTube When Flipping Classrooms". Klaas is Senior Technical Officer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I've seen Klaas speak before, he is an engaging, dynamic presenters.

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Sponsored by Pear Deck and ISTE U

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

For years teachers have been looking for ways to improve the academic performance of all students, especially students of color and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. While some of these efforts have been successful, many more have had lackluster results.

In the past, we've explored different approaches teachers can take to do a better job of reaching all students: interviews with Dena Simmons, Zaretta Hammond, Pedro Noguera, and Hedreich Nichols, to name a few. In these conversations, we looked at more effective ways of relating to students, strategies for working toward equity outside the classroom, and instructional methods that are more culturally responsive.

This post continues that work with a fresh response to the question of how to better serve diverse students. It's a framework that deals directly with the curriculum side of things, the standards, the actual content we teach in our classrooms. The framework is called Historically Responsive Literacy, and it was developed by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, a professor, a former middle school educator, and the author of the book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, where she makes the case for this framework.

In short, Muhammad believes we're not reaching many of our students, especially Black students, because our curricula and standards are lacking. The emphasis in our current standards is mainly on skills-skills that can be measured easily on standardized tests-and not a whole lot else. Some teachers go beyond the tested material, pushing students to think critically, exploring social emotional competencies, and designing opportunities for inquiry-based learning; unfortunately, the standards themselves don't require those things.

But there was a time in history when a more complete, more human form of "curriculum" did exist, and it energized and inspired its students-all of them Black men and women-to read, write, speak, and publish with the kind of passion and dedication we would want all of our students to have about learning. This curriculum evolved within the Black literary societies of the 19th century. These groups met regularly to read, write about, and discuss a wide range of texts and ideas. Their goals were far loftier than basic skill development or scores on a test, and engagement-to borrow a term we use in modern education-was at an all-time high.

These societies were the inspiration for Muhammad's Historically Responsive Literacy framework, a four-layered pedagogical model that places skills on an equal plane with three other learning pursuits: identity, intellect, and criticality.

The framework was designed with Black students in mind, but it will benefit all students. Muhammad explains it this way: "If we start with Blackness (which we have not traditionally done in schooling) or the group of people who have uniquely survived the harshest oppressions in this country, then we begin to understand ways to get literacy education right for all" (p. 22).

In our interview, she unpacks all four layers of her framework and helps us understand what it looks like to implement them in the classroom. What follows is a summary of our conversation.

First, Two Clarifications

Is Historically Responsive Literacy Just for "Literacy" Teachers?

No. In the book, Muhammad explains that in the past, "literacy was synonymous with education, so although I name 'literacy,' these four pursuits can be used and layered with math, science, ELA, social studies, or physical education/health" (p. 57).

In other words, this is not just a framework for ELA teachers, and in the book, Muhammad explores how to implement HRL in many different subject areas.

Is HRL different from Culturally Responsive Teaching?

Think of HRL as living under the broader umbrella of Culturally Responsive Teaching, which includes relationship-building, instructional strategies, and curriculum. "My work is taking a more historic look back and putting a practical model to the theory," Muhammad says.

The Four Layers of Historically Responsive Literacy

Historically Responsive Literacy is built on four layers, four "learning pursuits" that Muhammad believes should receive equal priority

1. Identity

For students to be fully engaged in school they must first find it relevant, and that starts with identity.

"Identity is who you say you are, who others say you are... (and) who you desire to be," Muhammad says. "I feel like children are trying to make sense of all three areas, and the curriculum and the pedagogy should be an opportunity for students to know themselves."

Muhammad believes this is especially important for children of color because "when we look at representation in children's literature, in society oftentimes, and historically, they are invisible or represented in negative ways. So the classroom needs to be a space for students to affirm and celebrate and validate who they are, so that they know they are enough, so they know they are brilliant and excellent and beautiful. Because society doesn't tell us that all the time."

Along with self-knowledge, the learning pursuit of identity should also include knowledge of others who are different from ourselves. "When students learn about the lives of other people," Muhammad says, "they are less prone to hate, to treat them in harmful or hurtful ways."

What it looks like in the classroom: Start by asking yourself, "How does my teaching and learning help students to learn about themselves and about others?"

From there, plan instruction and write learning goals to satisfy that question. Muhammad gives an example from science. "Some teachers have written it (in language like) Students will understand their environmental identity and their roles and responsibilities regarding the planet. Then in the lesson or unit there are opportunities for students to deeply reflect about how they recycle or (whether) they take care of the earth and the planet and the environment."

Finally, be sure to assess for it. "Kids know that if my teacher values it that she or he or they are going to test it," Muhammad says. "You can assess it in discussion, in a quiz, or a summative kind of test at the end: What are five things you can do to take care of the planet? Or Name five roles that humans play on climate change. So it could be a qualitative or a quantitative assessment, but if you value it enough, you can assess it."

2. Skills

So much of our current curricula and standards already focus on skills, so this part of the framework is nothing new; what's important is to not throw it out when the other three layers are added.

Muhammad explains that this abandonment of skills is a common problem when new approaches to schooling are introduced. "That's a way of thinking that we have to dismantle," she says. "Sometimes we think that when we add identity or when we add voice and freedom of expression, that somehow we don't focus on skills at all. But that's just simply not true. You can have it all. You can have voice and fun and engagement and skills."

What it looks like in the classroom: Teaching skills is more or less what you'd expect typical school content to be, what our current standards are already prescribing. "In math it can be learning equations. In ELA it can be citing textual evidence. In social studies, it can be questioning the source. In physical education it can be learning to play basketball."

So the skills themselves may be taught in whatever way works best for your students. The difference now is that in terms of class time and assessment, their weight will be equal to that of the other three layers.

3. Intellect

Along with identifying the skills students need to acquire, Muhammad urges us to ask What do we want our students to become smarter about?

Because our recent standards have been so skills-driven, knowledge has fallen by the wayside in a lot of schools, and that can strip away the joy that comes from simply learning new things about the world. But the Black Literary Societies of the 19th century valued knowledge as a vital part of a person's development. "So I'm pushing this idea of intellectualism," Muhammad says, "of treating young people as if they are scholars and intellectuals and thinkers."

She sees the loss of intellectualism even in how we prepare and treat teachers. "It's like we're sucking the power out of them by telling them to read a script in a curriculum. We need to go back to teacher as intellectual, teacher as scholar, reserving the field for the brightest among us who are knowledge-seekers."

And Muhammad's definition of intellectualism goes beyond simply gathering facts. "Intellectualism is when you do something with that knowledge, where you apply it somehow, in your discussion, in your activism, in your actions."

What it looks like in the classroom: When developing lessons and units, ask yourself, "How does my teaching and learning help to teach students new knowledge and concepts? New histories, new people, places, and things?"

Muhammad cautions teachers not to confuse skills for knowledge. "You shouldn't say they became smarter about equations or citing textual evidence," she says. "That's not intellect. Those are skills."

4. Criticality

"Criticality is helping students to read, write and think in active ways," Muhammad explains, "as opposed to passive-when you ask a question and there's one correct answer, and you just take it in. We don't want them to be passive consumers of knowledge. We want them to question what they hear on the news."

"We see the word critical and sometimes our minds can go to critical thinking," she continues. "But it's more than just deep and analytical thinking. Criticality is deep and analytical thinking to understand power, equity, anti-racism and other anti-oppressions. This is where we help students to be woke."

This fourth layer is essential "because oppression exists in the world. Period. We want students to leave our schools not contributing to more oppression or wrongdoing and hurt in their relationships and with strangers. We also don't want them to be silent. If they see oppression, we want them to actively respond to it."

What it looks like in the classroom: "With criticality," Muhammad says, "the teacher is asking, How does my teaching and learning help students to understand power, equity, anti-racism and anti-oppression? So (students are) reading, writing, thinking in active ways to understand power, inequality, equity, oppression. They're investigating different standpoints, especially the marginalized point of view, and reading between the lines. In other words, reading for what's not being said and for what's not there.

The brilliance of the framework is revealed when Muhammad explains that the four layers are not separate, but progressive, each one building on the layers that came before it, starting with identity: "They see themselves, they validate themselves, they're learning about other people, which creates a safe space to learn the skills. If you learn the skills, you can learn the intellect. You cannot learn the intellectualism without first having those skills to do so. If you have the intellectualism and that knowledge, you can critique the knowledge. Because of all the layers that came before it, you now have the capacity to disrupt and to dismantle. If you're just woke without the identity and the skills and the intellect, you're not going to be able to make change in ways that you could with those things."

Tough, but Possible

Making this kind of shift-especially if our standards still don't reflect these four layers-will not be an easy task to take on. This concern has been expressed when Muhammad presents her framework to teachers. But despite its challenges, she feels this type of curriculum is exactly what any parent would want for their child.

"It's not a matter or a question of if it's tough," she says. "The question is, is it possible? Everything is tough. And if you had your own child, if you're a parent, parents are going to equally value the beautiful ways that their child loves themselves: identity, the skills they have, the intellect they have, and the social consciousness they have. I don't see parents saying No, let's just talk about my child's reading skills. They talk about their emotional intelligence, they talk about the whole child."

"And that's what we're trying to get to," she says. "This is humanizing work."

Come back for more.
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Historically Responsive Literacy: A More Complete Education for All Students

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Based on the work of 19th century Black literary societies, this fresh approach to curriculum focuses on identity, skills, intellect, and criticality.

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Evaluate the cultural responsiveness of your curriculum

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Evaluate the cultural responsiveness of your curriculum

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This resource from NYU defines culturally responsive curriculum and provides a team of teachers/stakeholders with a process and the tools to evaluate required texts and curriculum.

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Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard - EJ-ROC

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The Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard was designed to help parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools’ English Language Arts curricula are culturally responsive.