NYC Underground Railroad Curriculum

Whereas Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence has identified as its top priority the inclusion of Black History (African, African American & Caribbean) in the NYC Department of Education curriculum

Whereas more than 600,000 of the 1.1 million students in the NYC school system are of African Ancestry

Whereas there is no accurate history of people of African ancestry being systematically taught within the NYC public school system

Whereas Dr. Carter G. Woodson in his 1931 seminal work, The MisEducation of the Negro, stressed Black children will never be properly educated without being taught their history is still true today

Whereas numerous commissions have concluded that the teaching of Black History is related to enhancing Black childrens self esteem and overall success of their academic performance including doing well on standardized exams

Whereas prior initiatives including:
The Curriculum of Inclusion (1989)
The Commission On Students of African Descent (1995)
both have emphasized the urgent need for Black History to be taught in our schools

Whereas numerous education experts and civic leaders including Regent Dr. Adelaide Sanford and Dr. Donald Smith have supported these initiatives as vital to the success of Black students

Whereas the current curriculum is culturally insensitive and inaccurate which has, in turn, helped to alienate Black students from the educational process

Whereas in 1997 the New York State Legislature, in Bill #8458B, and the US Congress 1998 bill have both mandated the teaching of the Underground Railroad Curriculum to ALL children in ALL schools and colleges public & private

Whereas all research, Legislative acts, laws & commissions have been deliberately ignored and never implemented by either the New York City or the New York State Departments of Education

Be it Resolved that:

We declare that we will no longer sit by and watch our children be subjected to an institutionally racist and humiliating education. As citizens and taxpayers, we are declaring a State of Emergency regarding the education of Black Children

We are advocating that all the funds set aside to implement the Underground Railroad Curriculum since 1997 as well as at least 5\% of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement be used to fund this Black History cultural initiative in order to bring about a semblance of cultural equity addressing the multigenerational miseducation of Black people

We further call upon all Black parents, houses of worship, sororities, fraternities, unions, elected officials, community based organizations, artists and concerned individuals to join us in support of this resolution and in launching a campaign to teach Black History to our children after school, on weekends and holidays.

We the undersigned students, educators, spiritual leaders, parents and other concerned community people thereby strongly support the passage of this Black Solidarity Day2004 Resolution which mandates Black History to be taught to ALL students