Kentucky group striving to help educators teach Black history

A new Kentucky organization is striving to support educators in teaching Black history to students, expanding young people’s knowledge of the Bluegrass State natives who have made significant contributions to the African American community and beyond.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky, which was formed in December, wants to develop programs and training opportunities for teachers, as well as curate more locally relevant lessons for them to use in their classrooms.

“The goal is to really think locally about history across Kentucky,” said executive director Chaka Cummings, “and where the lens of Black Kentuckians can be integrated” into that history.

Created in collaboration with the Muhammad Ali Center, Kentucky State University, Berea College and the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, the association is forming an advisory committee of educators to broaden its work with the state’s teachers. It has already launched a website where instructors can access lesson plans on Black history.

“We want to expand the opportunity for students across the commonwealth to engage in Black history in a way that is more robust and curriculum-wide,” said Cummings, the Courier-Journal reported.

He cited the state’s new mandate that educators use source documents, such as speeches, in their lessons as a strategy to incorporate more Black history. The order allows them to focus on a figure “whose story has kind of gone by the wayside or hasn’t been able to be lifted,” Cummings said.

Teachers will implement the requirement in middle and high school courses for the next academic year. 

It is “an opportunity for us to consider where we can supplement” current lessons, said Cummings, according to the Courier-Journal, and determine “how we can support educators in incorporating Black history within those mandated standards.”

The efforts of the Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky come at a time when teaching Black history has faced opposition in places like Florida, whose Department of Education has blocked an Advanced Placement course on African American studies.

The association’s goal is to help students develop a stronger sense of community after learning about the contributions of Kentucky residents such as Garrett Morgan, who, in the 1920s, patented the first three-light traffic signal, which included a yellow warning in between green and red. The group also hopes its approach will keep the study of Black history from being restricted to February.

“Continuing to improve education in the commonwealth to reflect the complexities of current events and their historical context is critical,” according to a release from the Ali Center, the Courier-Journal reported. It added that such improvment, “should include awareness of the Black experience in Kentucky.”

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