Under the Amistad’s law in New Jersey, a new initiative was announced by the New Jersey Education Board that the teachers and educators will visit the historical sites in the US that have a significance in the slave trade era. The teacher’s union in New Jersey has vowed to expand and improve the current course on black history.
La Amistad was the name of the ship carrying slaves from Cuba to the US in 1839 and had a major influence on abolishing the slave trade.
One of the teachers, as reported by the Philadelphia inquirer, explained how her visit to Ghana changed her perception of the current syllabus on black history. Now she is determined to change the way of teaching black history. She cited,
There are a lot of students who have no idea about black history, the real African American story.
Amistad Journey to enrich the black history teaching
The New Jersey Teacher’s union director told that soon the union will come up with a list of 20 teachers that will go on the ‘Amistad Journey’ next year. The visit would take these teachers to the major slavery sites in the US like New Orleans or South Carolina. Later, these teachers would also visit Ghana’s infamous ‘door of no return’, from which Africans would board the slavery ships.
The idea for the visit came from an earlier model in which teachers were sent to Europe to see and visit historically significant sites associated with the Holocaust and genocide. This was done to expand improve the Holocaust education in the state.
According to the New Jersey’s Education Commissioner Lamont O. Repollet, it is mandatory for all the districts to work towards a better and expanded education on African-American history. As the state’s very first black education chief, Repollet feels that this project is very personal and close to him.
It is a basic requirement for graduation in states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the students to study history and learn about issues like African American history or the civil rights movement in the US.
Featured image from Pixabay.
