More Than 30 Years Later

Abstract

The study of African American history was mandated in Philadelphia's public schools beginning in 1970. This mandate was a natural outgrowth of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. A march on the school board by students to protest the lack of any substantive content in their curriculum focused on the lives of people of African descent provided the catalyst for this shift in policy maker awareness but, more than 30 years later, the mandate remains largely unfulfilled in Philadelphia schools and many others around the country. Strained interactions between recently arrived African students and their African American peers in one Philadelphia high school prompted the present study. Five activities were designed to provide a more congruent history of the African heritage that these young people share. Many students of African descent continue to struggle to be reconnected to the rich African traditions from which they originated.