Students here said they believe they’ll perform better academically if they have knowledge and pride in their culture.”
“I participate more in class, I do better in the classroom, because I know who came before me and what they expect of me,” said organizer Christine Johnson, a student at Boys and Girls High School.
“It makes me feel more comfortable in my color,” said Yemisi Onayemi, a student at Boys and Girls High School. “It makes me feel like I can express myself more.”
Emmanuel Gay recently began learning about black history. He said it’s changed his whole outlook.
“Olaudah Equiano, he wrote the first slave narrative,” Gay said. “Just to hear that somebody who was a slave, somebody who wasn’t supposed to learn how to read or write, was able to write a whole entire narrative, that alone influenced me and made me just want to do better.”
While they wait for money to be set aside for this initiative, they’re asking the community to help launch a campaign to teach black history to students after school, on weekends and on holidays.
– See more at: http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/news/208852/group-calls-for-black-history-to-be-taught-to-all-in-city-public-school-system#sthash.Yiry39LR.dpu