Black Lives Matter at School - Year of Purpose: Student Activists Highlight the Power of Empathy and Loving Engagement

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Dear Sacajawea Community,

This month, the Sacajawea’s Parent Racial Equity Team celebrates Barbara Johns, a Black youth activist in the early 1950s, along with present-day student activists who continue her work to achieve racial equity and justice. This month’s guiding principle focuses on engaging others with the intent to learn about and connect with them, as well as practicing justice, liberation and peace in our interactions with others. We share the determination of Barbara Johns, Thandiwe Abdullah, Jerome Foster II, and Marley Dias with the intent to encourage our community’s continued engagement with Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose. Our goal is to empower parents and students to do the necessary work to achieve racial equity and justice. 

Barbara Johns Powell (1935-1991) ~ I walked out of school this morning and carried four hundred and fifty students with me. 

Barbara Johns’ story is not well known, but it should be. In 1950, she was 15 and a student at Robert R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. Barbara grew increasingly frustrated with the sub-standard conditions at her school. She was well aware that Farmville High, the all-White school in her hometown, had modern-day heating, state-of-the art classroom facilities, a cafeteria, and an auditorium with sound equipment.

Moton High, on the contrary, was a small brick building hemmed in by temporary classroom structures made of wood and paper coated in tar. Students often referred to the ad-hoc buildings as chicken coops. Inadequate construction led to rain-seeping ceilings and cold conditions during the school year. Barbara discussed her concerns with her favorite teacher who rather than offering a solution, asked her a question: “Why don’t you do something about it?” she asked. 

Although Barbara felt frustrated and let down by her teacher’s response, she kept thinking about the conditions of her school and her teacher’s response to the unfair conditions. She also reflected on the everyday racial discrimination she experienced. She resolved to do something about her school. 

In 1951, Barbara gave a speech that fellow classmates described as “electrifying” and inspiring.” She led 450 classmates on a two-week strike that resulted in becoming one of the five cases in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Twenty-first Century Black Student Activists

Thandiwe Abdullah  ~ I want to transform the systems that we live under from ones that oppress us to ones that empower us.

@BLMLAYOUTH on Twitter

Thandiwe Abdullah founded the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Youth Vanguard, an advocacy group of kids that fights for justice for black youth. Thandiwe also helped to create the Black Lives Matter in Schools program, which was adopted by the National Education Association. She spoke in front of more than 40,000 people at the March for Our Lives and later at the National School Walkout, to remind crowds about the near-constant loss of Black lives to guns and how Black people are targeted for searches in a way that white people are not. After joining forces with the student advocacy group Students Deserve, she succeeded in ending random searches in 28 schools around L.A.

Jerome Foster II ~ Change starts in the streets and ends at the polls.

@OneMillionOfUs on Twitter

Jerome Foster II organizes and strikes with Fridays for Future to demand legal action on climate change. Jerome also founded OneMillionofUs, an organization dedicated to getting out the youth vote. He argues that his multiple projects to combat climate change are not due to his passion about the subject, but due to his fear for our future, and that we need to change our behavior at home and advocate for sweeping legislative change. 

Marley Dias ~ …We can become optimistic – in a realistic way – if only we knew that there really are people out here fighting, trying to change the world.

@iammarleydias on Twitter

Marley Dias started the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign to make stories with strong, Black, female leads available to students all over the world. Marley also wrote her own book, Marley Gets It Done: And So Can You!, encouraging kids to pursue their passion and use it to make the world a better place. 

“Frustration is fuel that can lead to the development of an innovative and useful idea.”

We encourage you to learn more about Barbara Johns and the student activists discussed in this newsletter. Young people are sparking political, environmental, economic, and social change by finding their voices, speaking their truths to those in power, and devising solutions to problems they didn’t create. Like Barbara Johns’ teacher asked her when she complained about inequality and injustice, these children responded with action to the question, “What are YOU going to DO about it?”

What ignites your passion and what steps can you take to initiate action?

Write a letter or call an elected official’s office, march in protest, gather petition signatures, post educated opinions on social media, or join an organization that supports furthering your cause.

What can you do and how can you learn more?

If you have 3 minutes, read Thandiwe Abdullah’s op-ed in Bustle, “What a Black Lives Matter Teen Activist Says #NeverAgain is Missing from the Gun Debate.”

If you have 4 minutes, read this article on Jerome Foster II: “This 16-Year Old is Taking the School Climate Strike to the U.S. Capitol” in Yes!

If you have 5 minutes, read “‘They just wanted us to read about a white boy and his dog’: Why Teenager Marley Dias Fought Back” in The Guardian. 

If you have 7 minutes, read “Overlooked No More: Barbara Johns, Who Defied Segregation in Schools,” in New York Times.

If you have 12 minutes, watch this segment from “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow” on PBS Learning Media: Barbara Johns of Farmville, Virginia

If you have 15 minutes, watch this conversation with Thandiwe Abdullah about youth activism and BLM: Patrisse Cullors and Thandiwe Abdullah on Bing Daily Digest 

Check out these books focused on loving engagement, empathy, and student activism:

The Girl from the Tarpaper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield (Ages 10-14 yrs)

Generation Brave: The Gen Z Kids Who Are Changing the World by Kate Alexander (Ages 10-15 yrs)

My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Christine King Farris (Ages 6-11 yrs)

March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World by Christine King Farris (Ages 8-11 yrs)

I Am Human: A Book of Empathy by Susan Verde (Ages 4-8 yrs)

A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara (Ages 3-7 yrs)

All the Colors We Are (Todos Los Colores de Nuestra Piel) by Katie Kissinger (Ages 3-6 yrs)

Can You Say Peace by Karen Katz (Ages 4-7 yrs)

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson and E. B. Lewis (Ages 5-8 yrs)

With gratitude,

Sacajawea’s Parent Racial Equity Team

Jennifer Sunami, Becky Beard, Dana Robinson Slote, Robin King, John Delfeld, Karla Sclater, Sophie-Shifra Gold, Lori Phipps, Jenna Buzzard, Ara Swanson

Article written by Becky Beard and John Delfeld

Unapologetically Black: If One of Us is Not Free, None of Us Are Free

As we come to the close of Black History Month, Sacajawea’s Parent Racial Equity Team is reflecting on how the stories we tell about our history shape the present. Black History Month is both an opportunity to explore the contributions of Black figures from the past, and an invitation to think about how their actions and experiences continue to change and shape our lives today. In this newsletter we are highlighting two towering Black literary figures and storytellers, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, as part of our continuing engagement with the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose (previous content is on the Sac PTA website).

This month’s guiding principle asks the question, “How can you share who you are without shame?” The principle of Unapologetically Black affirms that Black Lives Matter, without need for qualification, recognizing that freedom and justice for ourselves is a necessary prerequisite for wanting the same for others.

Two authors who embodied this principle are Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, who refused to compromise their expressions of the Black experience in order to appeal to White audiences. Their works illuminate universal truths while remaining grounded in specific identities.

Toni Morrison

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, and more, Toni Morrison explored the complexities of the Black experience with a distinctive literary voice, earning enormous critical and commercial success over her long career. Many of her books, including the modern classics Song of Solomon and Beloved, are explorations of how past trauma can reverberate into the present and future, and how the damage inflicted by racism warps our lives in long-lasting ways.

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde was a “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," whose prolific writings grappled with intersectionality and how our different identities shape how we interact with each other and the world. Lyrical and deliberate, Lorde used poems, essays, speeches, and activism to push for a world that would allow the free expression of the whole self:

"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not lead single-issue lives. 

Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone. 

What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities.”

- Audre Lorde

We encourage you to learn more about these two great authors, and ask how the stories we tell about history and identity shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

More resources:

If you have one minute, read The Work You Do, the Person You Are by Toni Morrison

If you have four minutes, watch ‘It Is My World’: Remembering Toni Morrison, Iconic Author of the Black Experience

If you have six minutes, watch this introduction to Audre Lorde from PBS Learning

If you have ten minutes, read this biography of Audre Lorde at Poetry Foundation, then explore some of her poems on the site

Check out some of the all ages books on this list, created by the Seattle Public Library, including:

• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales and Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales both by Virginia Hamilton

• Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes

• Women in Black History: Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience by Tricia Williams Jackson

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

• Black Girl Magic: A Poem by Mahogany L. Browne

Use The Essential Toni Morrison guide or 'Her Subject Is America': Teaching Toni Morrison, both from the New York Times, to help you get started on one of her books, or explore her life

Pick up The Selected Works of Audre Lorde for an overview of her writings

Black Lives Matter at School / Year of Purpose

Continuing with our commitment to the Black Lives Matter at School movement and the Year of Purpose, we turn our attention this month to the principle of Queer Affirming as we lift up an instrumental figure and unsung hero of the Civil Rights movement who often worked behind the scenes: Bayard Rustin.

“If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is therefore strengthened. And to the degree it is strengthened, it will thereby have the power to turn on me.” - Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was an important civil rights leader and activist who organized some of the most famous and impactful demonstrations in the mid 20th century. An advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped to start many Civil Rights organizations and was an influential writer. He often remained in the background in large part because he was a gay man as well as having an early affiliation with the communist political party. With a Quaker background, Rustin was heavily influenced by Quaker principles of social justice and was inspired by the ideas of non-violence taught by Ghandi. He fought for gay rights later in his life.

• 13 years before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider, Rustin was arrested for sitting in the front section of a bus. He was later involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sparked by Rosa Parks’ actions.

• Rustin was a co-organizer of the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947, the original Freedom Ride to protest racism in interstate travel.

• Rustin organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 to protest racial and economic discrimination. Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech at this event.

• Rustin organized the New York City school boycott, protesting segregation in the district and urging integration, attended by 400,000 New Yorkers in 1964.

• He died in 1987 at the age of 75.

 
Learn more:
 
For Students

• Online article: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Bayard-Rustin/632847

• Short video: https://blacknet.co.uk/community_videos/black-history-for-students-bayard-rustin-mini-biography-educational-cartoon/

• Book: Leaders Like Us: Bayard Rustin by J.P. Miller

 
For Parents, Teachers & Staff

• https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rustin-bayard-1910-1987/

• https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard

• https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/bayard-rustin

• https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/15/212338844/bayard-rustin-the-man-who-organized-the-march-on-washington

Heritage Potluck 2020

In the midst of a challenging year, we can still celebrate our school community remotely! Come to the Virtual Harvest Heritage Potluck this Thursday, November 19 from 6:30-7:30 pm, and enjoy fellowship and fun with other Sacajawea families. Join us on Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/SacPotluck2020.

Even though we are not sharing food with each other, we invite you to make a dish that is special to your family to enjoy while we are together. We will also have a few fun virtual activities for kids and adults, plus small group conversations where families can chat, tell stories, and maybe even swap recipes.

Just because we're apart doesn't mean we can't come together. We hope that you will join us this Thursday at 6:30pm! See you at https://tinyurl.com/SacPotluck2020

Equity Team Newsletter, October 2020

Honoring Indigenous People’s Day, Introducing Black Lives Matter at School and the Year of Purpose

Dear Sacajawea community, 

We at Sacajwea’s Parent Racial Equity Team are launching a new initiative this year in support of Black Lives Matter at School. If you are new to Sacajawea or aren’t yet familiar with our team, we are a group of parents, grandparents, and faculty who are committed to race and social justice. 

Our goals include:

• creating an actively anti-racist school community

• supporting families when a biased incident occurs

• encouraging respectful dialogue about our differences

• understand our own biases on gender, race, ability, and sex

• removing barriers and biases to truly provide equal opportunity for our children; and, 

• supporting equity work at other schools and in our wider community.

As we think about how we can support this mission, we are joining the Black Lives Matter at School movement this year, and participating in the Year of Purpose. This is a national initiative that calls on educators and families to reflect on our collective work in antiracism, continuing to challenge ourselves to center Black lives. 

Before we talk about this important movement, we also honor today, October 12, as Indigenous People’s Day. This is a day when we recognize that Native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas, including the lands that later became the United States of America.

Honoring and recognizing the indigenous people of Seattle

The Duwamish are the first people of Seattle. The word Duwamish means the "people of the inside," because the Duwamish have lived for thousands of years along the interior of the Duwamish, Black and Cedar Rivers - which are now Seattle, Mercer Island, Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland and other parts of King County. In fact, we are all living on Duwamish land right now!

One of the ways we recognize this fact is by opening our meetings, events (and this email!) by stating a Land Acknowledgement:

We at Sacajawea would like to acknowledge that we live and study on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

Another way that people living in Seattle can honor and recognize the Duwamish Tribe is by making a financial contribution to the tribe, through Real Rent Duwamish. Learn more about the Real Rent initiative, and consider donating today.

Black Lives Matter at School and the Year of Purpose

Black Lives Matter at School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education and first began in 2016 in Seattle. On October 19, 2016, educators around Seattle wearing shirts that said “Black Lives Matter: We Stand Together.” Many of Sacajawea’s staff and community participated in this event. Since then, this movement has spread all around the country and has spurred a national week of action in February, and now a Year of Purpose.

As this movement has grown, BLM at School developed the following demands for the movement:

• End “zero tolerance” discipline, and implement restorative justice

• Hire more Black teachers

• Mandate Black history and ethnic studies in K-12 curriculum

• Fund counselors not cops

Each month, the Parent Racial Equity Team will share information following the Year of Purpose programming, each month centering around one of the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

This month, our focus is on Restorative Justice. October 14th is George Floyd’s Birthday. Justice for George is a day to remember him and call for the defunding of the police and the redirecting of those funds towards social programs and education.

Guiding Principle: Restorative Justice
We are committed to collectively, lovingly, and courageously working vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people. As we forge our path, we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting.​ 

How can you support the Year of Purpose and recognize the Duwamish Tribe? 

1. Sign the pledge to support the Year of Purpose

2. Continue to learn, participate, and engage in the BLM at School, centered around the 13 Principles of Black Lives Matter. Read these emails, and talk your kids, family, and friends.

3. Support the Duwamish Tribe with a donation to Real Rent Duwamish.

4. Consider adding a Duwamish Tribe Land Acknolwedgement to your meetings and gatherings.

You can also wear your Sacajawea Black Lives Matter t-shirts, coming soon! The Parent Racial Equity Team will also reflect on key questions related to BLM at School, and share additional events, advocacy opportunities and other community events to support Black Lives Matter and racial equity at Sacajawea.

Additional Resources

Each month, we’ll share some additional resources and activities for you and your families to read, engage and learn more.

• Why the US Celebrates Columbus Day (Vox media )

• How to talk to your kids about what happened to George Floyd (By Gia Annette Washington, PhD)

• Black is Beautiful (By Kara Hinderlie, Illustrator: Kesha Bruce)

• Talking to young children about the Guiding Principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement (By Laleña Garcia)

• Teaching Young Children About Race: A Guide for Parents and Teachers (By Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards)

With gratitude,
Sacajawea’s Parent Racial Equity Team
Jennifer Sunami, Becky Beard, Dana Robison Slote, Robin King, John Delfeld, Karla Sclater, Sophie-Shifra Gold, Lori Phipps, Jenna Buzzard, Ara Swanson

P.S. -- We welcome everyone to join our next Parent Equity Team meeting, on November 4, 7:00 pm via Zoom. Email us for meeting details!