The Rise of African Centered Education

The Civil Rights Movement and the integrationist efforts characterizing the 1950s and 1960s sought to equalize the education of black children with their white counterparts by placing them in white classrooms. Rather than addressing the very real issue of distribution of resources, middle class black leadership and their white liberal funders put other people's young black children (not their own) directly in the line of fire to endure the worst experiences a child could have--teasing, treats, abuse, psychological torture, etc.--to break down the race barrier.

These efforts to integrate education at all levels served the purpose of satisfying expanding U.S. service industries. The professional services required workers with more education than what was required by manufacturing. The creation of affirmative action policies and federal college grant/loan programs made people eligible to attend college who previously never had a chance. Although popular depictions of affirmative action present these efforts as race-based, in reality, these programs were designed to create openings for anyone who was not middle-class white male.

As the children of the integrationists grew older, they recognized that integration did not address their fundamental problems as African people. In regard to education, although the classrooms were integrated, the content of curricula, textbooks and other related materials had not been revised to reflect the histories or realities of black people. Black people continued to be portrayed as savages with truncated histories; offspring of slaves who somehow benefitted by this enslavement by being civilized.

The move to revise curricula and (re-)write textbooks emerged with the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Black administrators and educators sought to infuse missing pieces of history into their classes, black parents sought to have their children taught by black teachers, and schools posted black-affirming posters and wrote black-affirming songs. Black children spoke of black pride.

The African centered education (ACE) movement represented the next stage of development of Black Power-in-education. African centered educators recognized that the source of strength and culture of black people lay in Africa; black people throughout the diaspora represented the cultural continuum of their brothers and sisters throughout the continent of Africa. ACE educators sought to systemetize, institutionalize and bring order to the instruction of African children by creating African centered schools with curricula that were infused with African successes, wisdoms, culture, experiences, people, and events. The Council on Independent Black Institutions (CIBI) was created to bring schools claiming to be African centered under a unified umbrella to standardize curricular content and practices, as well as provide leadership, assessment and professional development in the field of ACE.

ACE schools prepared African children to be confident, proud, tough and rooted in a sense of who they are as black people. It evolved out of and in response to a need to address persistent inaccuracies in mainstream curricula and materials. ACE sought/seeks to produce African children with strong academic skills and a life's purpose that is rooted in 'giving back.'

The material conditions that gave rise to ACE are changing; so too must it change. The ACE that evolved within the 1980s and 1990s must permit a new stage of development to emerge that preserves the best of its predecessor, while releasing the things that no longer work. ACE educators and institutions must soberly assess mistakes and lessons and forge a path that will cultivate children with the skills and character to build a future of our own making.