New course grew out of years of struggle

Backed by community demands, SRC member Dungee Glenn won support for steps to ‘infuse’ African American studies.

by Yulanda Essoka

More than 65 percent of the School District's students are African American. Yet despite the predominance of African American students in the classroom, a comprehensive curriculum reflective of their heritage has been lacking.

A resolution adopted by the School Reform Commission (SRC) last February has begun to shake up this status quo.

The most talked-about element of the SRC resolution is the new requirement that all Philadelphia high school students complete an African American history class, starting with the graduating class of 2009.

Philadelphia School Reform Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, who is African American, has been a driving force in the District's recent efforts to review its policy on the infusion of African and African American history in the curriculum.

Bolstered by years of pressure and protests from community activists, Dungee Glenn won the support of the District's School Reform Commission for a new set of policies – making Philadelphia the first school district in the country to require students to take an African American studies course.

Memorable protest in 1967

The effort to infuse African American studies into the curriculum dates back at least to the 1960s. Philadelphia was not immune to the wave of Black Power insurgence that washed across the nation during that decade. This was evident when 3,500 students walked out of Philadelphia classrooms on November 17, 1967, to demand an end to cultural exclusion.

That organized action was the most memorable protest for the teaching of African American history in the Philadelphia schools, as it provoked a police riot outside the School Administration building, in which many demonstrators were clubbed. Other demands of the students included the right to wear traditional African clothing and the renaming of several high schools after Black leaders.

The incendiary climate was indicative of many African Americans' expressed desire to affirm their cultural identities.

Concessions were made on the School District's behalf in 1968 when Superintendent Mark Shedd mandated the infusion of African American history throughout the curriculum. In the two years that followed, the District supported this directive by creating a nine-point implementation plan, an African and African American Curriculum Specialist position and an African American Resource Center. However, the intent of the policy was never fully realized.

According to Dungee Glenn, there have been “attempts to put African American history on the side, never as a central issue. It's never been infused in our curriculum.”

This failure motivated her to begin working on a focused African and African American history initiative three years ago. As an alumna of Girls High, she recalls being frustrated in high school when – no matter what the subject – little was included in class discussions about people who looked like her.

Dungee Glenn recollects her ninth grade world history teacher glossing over Egypt and providing no context about the “beige people” portrayed in the text.

As she visited schools throughout the city in her SRC role, the commissioner says she observed students' lack of motivation about their education and noted that “not much seemed to have changed.” She attributed this disconnect, in part, to a flawed curriculum that did not reflect African American students' existence.