Rationale
The history that this unit covers is extremely important to me. I am a black male, the great grand child of slaves, who managed to do well in school. Not a day goes by where I am not actively reminded of the struggles that my ancestors went through, or the barriers that they faced. When I was in university and presented with a challenge, be it academic or social, I would think of the opportunities that I was given that they never had. Every second I feel the pulls and pressures of history on my own life and see how it shapes everything we do today. My people's history and struggle gave me strength to push through difficult times and I am compelled to honor its legacy.
It is also, through my own experience learning this history and its transformative effects on my own life, that I feel compelled to teach it to my students. Once confronted with it, I could no longer see the world in the ways that I had once seen it. Once they are confronted with this history, hopefully they will not see the world in the same ways either. Knowing what my ancestors fought against, how merely surviving in a racist society was an act of defiance, and how noncooperation could, at times, be a revolutionary act, pushed me to not settle for a life divorced from the issues that face my community. These historical forces have moved me into education, for I believe that education is the first step in achieving true liberation. These historical forces have moved me to work with the most educationally marginalized communities in San Francisco in a continuing education setting at Downtown High School.
I teach in a city of incredible diversity and crippling segregation. Though, according to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, African Americans represent only 7.3 percent of the city's overall population, they represent roughly 35 percent of my school's population. Latinos, who comprise nearly 14 percent of the city's population, constitute roughly 40 percent of my school's population. Asians, who are 33 percent of the city's population, are only 10 percent of my school's population. Pacific Islanders, who are under 5 percent of the city's population, are roughly 12 percent of my school's population. Caucasians, who are 45 percent of the city's population, are less than 2 percent of my school's population. 1
The city is also a city of incredible economic wealth and disparity. The median annual household income is 81,136 dollars for the entirety of the city. However, there are dramatic differences between the core demographics of my school and the city in terms of household income. Nearly 60 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and their families are significantly and dramatically behind the rest of the city in terms of income and poverty. A dramatic number of the students at my school have parents who are currently or formerly involved in the criminal justice system. Many of the students themselves are currently or formerly involved in the criminal justice system as well. Drug usage among parents and students is common.
My students come from the most marginalized communities in the city, predominately the southeast side, and many live in subsidized housing or housing projects. They have histories of truancy, semi-literacy, sexual assault, gang membership or affiliation; few come from two parent homes and some are, themselves, parents. All of them have been failed, on some level, by the educational system and Downtown High is, for many of them, the end of the road. Either they make it at Downtown or they drop out.
Downtown's unique structure allows for students to take a semester long (eighteen-week) project organized around a central concept. The project I co-teach is called Physics Reflected In Social Movements (PRISM). I have total curricular freedom and can teach whatever I want. It is within this particular context that I am allowed to design a course that can cover a substantial period of time in significant depth.
Given all of this and the problems of violence and alienation that affect many of them, creating a rigorous, relevant and, above all else, libratory educational experience is paramount for me. Teaching my students that people who have had similar, or even more difficult, life situations to theirs managed to resist and achieve a modicum of independence, is what will, hopefully, inspire them to change their own communities.
It is through an examination of the one hundred year African American struggle, beginning with Emancipation and ending with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that I want the students to reflect on their own lives and their own possibilities. I want them to have a historical foundation in the struggles of African Americans regardless of whether or not they themselves are African American, so that any future struggle they engage in based on a knowledge of what has worked and what has failed.
This unit is designed to run for an entire eighteen-week semester. Due to space constraints, I am forced to limit the scope of what is being published through the Yale National Initiative to the thirty-three years that encompass Emancipation and end with Plessy vs. Ferguson. There will be additional material, narrative and structure on my class Wikispace, which covers the final two sub-units.2 Structurally, the course is composed of approximately four mini units that consist of one theoretical unit and three thirty-year time spans. All of the smaller units are arranged chronologically and thematically. More specifically, the first mini-unit will focus on rights and laws, what they are, where they come from. The second mini-unit will begin an exploration of historical content, focusing on the period from Emancipation to the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (1863-1896). The third mini-unit will focus on black struggle during the era of Jim Crow segregation to the beginning of World War II (1896-1941). The fourth and final unit will focus on the struggle for the meaning of black liberation (1941-1968), culminating in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The course is designed to allow other teachers to take snippets or individual case studies and teach them to their students. Each of the sub-units looks at the struggle in terms of oppression and resistance in four key areas: law, culture, economics and violence. The vast majority of it will be taught using a case-study method, and each case study will run roughly one to two days.
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