5th Annual Teaching Black History Conference Program

5th ANNUAL

TEACHING BLACK HISTORY CONFERENCE

July 22-24, 2022

Held in person at City Honors School and online Over 50 presentations from K-12 educators from around the world

THANK YOU The conference would not be possible without so many people. I would like to thank the Center staff, University and GSE support staff, Buffalo Public Schools, William A. Kresse, Principal of City Honors high school, the faculty and staff in the Learning and Instruction department in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo, Dean Rosenblith, and the Buffalo community.

-------------------------------LaGarrett King

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AGENDA CENTER 4 WELCOME SESSIONS

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SPONSORS 11 TRIBUTE 12

Friday, July 22

Opening Session................................

Session 2 .............................................

Session 3 .............................................

Session 4 .............................................

Session 5 .............................................

Session 6 .............................................

Saturday, July 23

Opening Session................................

Session 2 .............................................

Session 3 .............................................

Session 4 .............................................

Session 5 .............................................

Session 6 .............................................

Sunday, July 24

Opening Session................................

Session 2 .............................................

Session 3 .............................................

8:00 - 9:20 am EST 9:20 - 10:20 am EST 10:30 - 11:20 am EST 1:00 - 1:50 pm EST 2:00 - 2:50 pm EST 3:00 - 3:50 pm EST

8:00 - 9:20 am EST 9:20 - 10:20 am EST 10:30 - 11:20 am EST 1:00 - 1:50 pm EST 2:00 - 2:50 pm EST 3:00 - 3:50 pm EST

8:00 - 9:20 am EST 9:20 - 10:20 am EST 10:30 - 11:20 am EST

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OUR MISSION Our research mission centers on the enduring question: What is Black History Education? The center’s research will focus on how Black history and race are taught and learned around the world in K–12 schools, teacher education programs and other educative spaces with particular focus on research, professional development and learning, networking and advocacy.

OUR STAFF UNIVERSITY SUPPORT STAFF LaGarrett King, PhD Founding Director

Brian Ibsen Advancement (Corporate) Jennifer Rosseland-Bates Business Liaison

Dawnyvan James Graduate Fellow

Gregory Simmons Graduate Fellow

Monica Washington Center Administrator 4

Katheryn Ross-Winnie Advancement (Local) Amber Winters Marketing and Communications

WELCOME

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 5th annual Teaching Black History Conference. We are always excited about our conference, but this one has special significance. It is our 5th anniversary, and the first hosted at our new home, the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education housed at the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo in New York!

The Teaching Black History Conference seeks to be a safe and radical space where teachers convene and dialogue about Black history curriculum and instruction. This multi-day conference aims to bring together educators who pursue transformative and engaging ways to teach PK-12 Black history, not only through history classes but also through other humanities courses. Workshop presentations are informative and interactive, providing participants with culturally relevant and sustaining strategies and resources to incorporate Black history throughout the school year and across curriculum disciplines.

Our 2022 theme is Mother Africa. The foundation of World history is African history. Africa is humanity’s birthplace and knowing herstory is essential for understanding global society. For too long, our school curriculum has ignored the vastness of African history, typically only highlighting her wildlife, colonization, oppression, and despair. African history is so more dynamic. Knowing African history is to know that Africa has been home to some of the world’s oldest and most advanced civilizations. Africans have created entire mathematical systems, advanced agricultural schemes, cutting edge architecture including pyramids, castles, mansions, and religious structures, developed world-class cities and empires, and governments. Africans charted the sun and created calendars, were explorers who sailed to South America and Asia long before Europeans, and advanced tools and techniques that rivaled Roman technology. Africa has massive libraries, world-class universities, and some of the greatest thinkers in history.

Of course, African history is not all glory and positivity. African history includes war and conquest, ethnic subjugation, corruption, poor leadership, and racism. The point here is to move from an eurocentric understanding of Africa into what many scholars and educators note as Africanizing knowledge. To borrow from Nwando Achebe, we ask that our workshops present “Another Africa,” sessions that move us away from the usual state standards and history textbooks that do not show Africa in her fullness. We ask for workshops to explore African history from the ancient to the contemporary, including all geographical regions and the vast ethnic groups who inhabit the continent.

I am excited as we host our 1st hybrid conference. The Covid-19 pandemic prevented us from meeting face to face the last two years but also allowed access to the conference to hundreds of people from around the world. We had record attendance those two years, topping out at 1,007 people in 2020. This year is the best of both worlds. With over 350 educators joining us for this year’s conference and another 6,000 that we have served through professional development throughout our last five years, we are beyond excited to welcome our new friends as well as all our returning friends from previous years. Your dedication to learning and growing is encouraging and we welcome you to our family of educators. We hope you leave here inspired with an abundance of resources and ideas and a bevy of new contacts and friends. We appreciate your continued support!

In conclusion, while excited, we are also somber. We recognize our conference is happening within a historic time in our nation’s history. We are still living in a pandemic, civil rights and voting laws are being rolled back, antiBlack history legislation are being passed, and locally, we are only two months removed from the tragedy in East Buffalo, one of the city’s most prized Black communities. Many people were injured, and ten innocent people lost their lives at the Tops grocery store through an act of White supremacist terrorism. Our hearts go out to everyone impacted. We dedicate this conference to those families, the community, and the city of Buffalo.

LaGarrett King, PhD

Founding Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education 5

FRIDAY, JULY 22

SESSION ONE..................................................................................................... 8:00 - 9:20 a.m. Auditorium

WELCOME: LaGarrett King, Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy KEYNOTE: “Exploring Global Black History through the Archives” Joy Bivins, Director of Schomburg Center (NYC) SESSION TWO.................................................................................................... 9:20 - 10:20 a.m.

“Africa, Amazing Africa” Dawnavyn James.........................................Room 117 “Reaching Pass the 7th Row” Topic: Genealogy and Family History to the Motherland” Valencia Abbott...........................................Room 114 “Using Comics To Drive Difficult Conversation About Race and History” Steph Manuel...............................................Room 112 “Avoiding the White Gaze: What We Learn from African Writers” Islah Tauheed...............................................Room 108 “The Negro Leagues: Behind the Curve” Gigi Wolf.......................................................Room 103 SESSION THREE................................................................................................. 10:30 - 11:20 a.m.

“Black History for Elementary” Gwen Marshall ...........................................Room 117 “The Art of Black Education: Learning Spaces That Heal and Empower Connected To African Tradition” Marcus “Sankofa” Nicks.............................Room 114 “Teaching economics through a global lens of Blackness” Shakealia Finley..........................................Room 112 “History through images: The picturing Black History Project and How teachers can use it.”

Nick Breyfogle..............................................Room 103 “Roots: incorporating African inspired art, music, and literature into Social Studies curriculum” Vicki Math.....................................................Room 108 LUNCH................................................................................................................. 11:30 - 12:50 p.m.

SESSION FOUR.................................................................................................. 1:00 - 1:50 p.m.

“Afrofuturism in Elementary: Black Children Creating Their Own Black Futures” Danelle Adeniji......................................... .Room 117 6

FRIDAY, JULY 22

“Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation of Historical Texts to Unpack How Rhetoric Impacts Historical Interpretation” Christina Sneed and Susan Hill.....Room 114 “Let Her Speak for Herself: Unsilencing the Geographical Stories of the African Continent” Holly Marcolina........................................ . Room 112 “Preserving the Black Narrative in Digital Form” Rodney Freeman...................................... . Room 108 “African Kingdoms: “Bity” The Workings of Bees & Honey in Kemet” Deidra McIntyre-Secondary................... .Room 103 SESSION FIVE..................................................................................................... 2:00 - 2:50 p.m.

“Say it loud...quietly: Black Americans & European Contexts of Peace, Pride, Prize and Excellence” Joy Barnes-Johnson.................................. . Room 117 “Mapping & Mythologizing Africa” Amy L. Masko, Tamara Shreiner, Jamesia Nordman, and Mary Meyer.....Room 114 “Where Complaints Can Neither Be Heard, Nor Grievances Redressed”: Freedom Seekers as Defendants in the Courts of Upper Canada and Canada West” Shantelle Browning-Morgan ................. .Room 112 “Let’s Get L.I.T.(Liberating Individuals Through Literary Texts)” Clianda Florence ..................................... .Room 108 “Teaching about Nigeria in the High School or Community College Classroom” Mimi Stephen ........................................... .Room 103 SESSION SIX....................................................................................................... 3:00 - 3:50 p.m.

“Ashaware.com: Afrocentric PK-12 education to support academic achievement, STEM, SEL, reading and math” Warren Salmon......................................... . Room 117 “The CARE Framework: Antiracist Education from Theory to Practice” Val Brown.................................................. .Room 114 “Approaches to Developing and Teaching a PK-12 Interdisciplinary Black Studies Curriculum: Insights from the Black Education Research Collective (BERC)” BERC.......................................................... .Room 112 “Politics and the Power: Historical considerations of teaching African History in anglophone Africa” Rhoda Nanre Nafziger................................ Room 108 “Royal before Enslaved: Teaching African Identity Before Enslavement” Terrance Lewis.......................................... .Room 103 7

SATURDAY, JULY 23

SESSION ONE..................................................................................................... 8:30 - 9:20 a.m. Auditorium

KEYNOTE: “Nneka—Mother is Supreme: Women, Gender, and the Female Principle in Africa.”

Nwando Achebe, Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, Michigan State University SESSION TWO.................................................................................................... 9:30 - 10:20 a.m.

“Asase Ye Guru - The Earth Has Weight”: Africa at the Forefront of the Environmental Movement” Islah Tauheed............................................ . Room 117 “Centering Afro Indigeneity in the Spanish Curriculum: Black Lives Matter at School as Cultural Citizenship” Denisha Jones and Erika Strauss Room 114 “The Three Assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Frederick Douglass.................................. .Room 108 “Why Teach Historical Truths? A Deep Dive into the Empirical Research” Kate Shuster.............................................. .Room 103 “A conversation on the new Advance Placement African American Studies course” College Board............................Room 112 SESSION THREE................................................................................................. 10:30 - 11:20 a.m.

“The Freedom Seeker Narrative: Centering Humanity and Agency while Teaching American Slavery” Shannon Griffin........................................ .Room 117 “Engaging Middle and High School students in culturally and linguistically responsive curricula district-wide using The 1619 Project” Niya Sosa, Genah Lasby and Deb Bertlesman.....Room 114 “The Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System “Legacy Curriculum” Journey” Jen Saylor.................................................. .Room 112 “Reflections on the founders of the Black History Movement” Hakim Cosby............................................. .Room 108 “Closing the Cradle to Prison Pipeline (C2PP) Using the Principles of Ubuntu” Jackie Bingham-Flemmings and Jeri Johnson.....Room 103 LUNCH................................................................................................................. 11:30 - 12:50 p.m.

SESSION FOUR.................................................................................................. 1:00 - 1:50 p.m.

“Untold: The Golden Age of Africa” Emmanuel Kulu......................................... .Room 117 8

SATURDAY, JULY 23

“We Are All We Need: Collective Action and Crowd-Sourcing the Pedagogical Underground Railroad” Victoria Patch Williams............................ .Room 114 “Why I believe Africana Studies Can Save the World” Ismael Jimenez......................................... .Room 112 “Instructional Strategies for Teaching About Structural Racism, Part 1 of 2” Ayo Magwood........................................... .Room 108 “Be Real Black for Me”: Centering the Role of Black Agency in Foundation Courses for Teacher Education Programs” Lauren Anderson.......................................Room 103 SESSION FIVE..................................................................................................... 2:00 - 2:50 p.m.

“Transforming Young Lives Through African Cultural Principles” Kezia Myers............................................... .Room 109 “Histematics: The Root is Africa” Akil Parker................................................. .Room 117 “Instructional Strategies for Teaching About Structural Racism, Part 2 of 2” Ayo Magwood........................................... .Room 114 “I Just Don’t Know What To Do?!”: Using a Conceptual Framework to Support Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Identity Developmententity Development” Reuben Faloughi....................................... .Room 112 “Racial Equity and Justice series” Apple Education....................................... .Room 108 “Dame Dame - Intelligence and Ingenuity”: African Curriculum in the Elementary Classroom” Islah Tuaheed............................................ .Room 103 SESSION SIX....................................................................................................... 3:00 - 3:50 p.m.

“More than a Month - Black History is more than Slavery and Segregation” Griot B (Schoolyard rap)......................... .Auditorium

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SUNDAY, JULY 24

SESSION ONE..................................................................................................... 8:30 - 9:20 a.m. Auditorium

KEYNOTE: “Back to Africa: A Conversation with Drs. Diaspora” Gloria Boutte and George Johnson SESSION TWO.................................................................................................... 9:30 - 10:20 a.m.

“Teaching The 1619 Project: Resources and Key Takeaways from the 1619 Education Network” Donnalie Jamnah and Fareed Mostoufi.....Room 117 “Interrupting Eurocentric Histories: Racial Literacy Development and Black History Instruction” Daniel Tulino, Brianne Pitts, Greg Simmons, and Mary Adu Gyamfi Room 114 “‘In Search of Mother Africa: Using Children’s and Young Adult Literature to explore Africa as a Continent not a Country” Nicholl Montgomery and Tiffeni Fontno....Room 112 “Ethnic Studies/The Truth About Coalitions between African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Poor Whites” David Carr................................................ .Room 103 “Black History 365: An inclusive Account of American History” Walter Milton ...........................Room 108 SESSION THREE................................................................................................. 10:30 - 11:20 a.m.

“Back To Africa: Teaching Elementary Students To Be Literate About the African Diaspora” Saudah Collins, Janice Baines, Jarvais Jackson, Valente Gibson, Gloria Boutte and George Johnson........................................ .Room 108 “Build...Black Studies...Better! Authentic Innovation in Your Classroom!”

Rosalyn Jones............................................ .Room 117 “African Diaspora in the Caribbean; “Tell Us What You Know About Afro-Cubans and the Maroons of Jamaica” Antoinette Rochester, Yvonna Hines-McCoy, Tina L. Heafner....Room 114 “Teaching Ancient Nubia: Pre-Kerma - The Kingdoms of Kush” Sydney A. Pickens..................................... .Room 112 “An Introduction into The Gold Road, Medieval Ghana, Mali and Songhai & Discover Africa in the World” Brenda Randolph..................................... .Room 103 10

CONFERENCE SPONSORS

Special thanks to our sponsors, the Center staff and all volunteers and presenters, for their hard work and dedication.

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The Buffalo Ten “How do you find a place to hold a pain that’s larger than your body?...

How do we sleep knowing that hate found a home in our city? In our sacred place…

The grocery store, the church, the school, the playground. When does it end?...

And though our hearts are tired, our feet will not grow weary.

We will organize and strategize. Fighting for change until our very last breath…”

-- Excerpt from “Unanswered questions” by Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo’s first Poet Laureate From left to right:

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Ruth Whitfield, 86 Katherine Massey, 72 Margus D. Morrison, 52 Andre Mackniel, 53 Aaron Salter, 55 Roberta A. Drury, 32 Pearl Young, 77 (University at Buffalo Alumna) Celestine Chaney, 65 Heyward Patterson, 67 Geraldine Talley, 62