The Fight for Culturally Responsive Education
The fight for culturally responsive education and ethnic studies in K-12 education has been part of this country’s history for over a hundred years. Key victories and milestones in education justice are often not attributed to the parents and students who fought to make it happen. This timeline centers everyday organizing, led by youth and parents, so that we continue to remember the immense legacies and histories we stand on each day, and the possibilities within each of us.
New York African Free School (1827-1836)
In 1789, the New York African Free School for the city’s growing free Black population was established by the New York Manumission Society, a group of wealthy white Americans. Unlike white charity schools that existed, the school became a central point for the empowerment and aspirations of Black students. In the 1820s, Black community leaders demanded a say in determining educational policies at African Free Schools, a conflict considered to be the first struggle for community control of urban public schools in the nation.
Freedmen’s Book & the Freedmen’s Torchlight (1865)
Freedmen’s Book is a series containing biographies of African-American leaders and Freedmen's Torch is a publication of lessons that instilled African-American pride in students and spoke of the need to take control of African-American schools. They were developed by Lydia Maria Child, an author, abolitionist and activist for Native American, womens’, and African American rights. Both were used in Black schools in the South, exemplifying the use of culturally-responsive teaching and culturally relevant materials to support the curriculum.
Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Language School, South Dakota (1888)
Red Cloud Indian School, originally named Holy Rosary Mission, was founded by Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala tribe on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in partnership with Jesuit and Franciscan Sisters. In 2007, the Lakota Language Project was developed to revitalize the language and culture, resulting in four required years of Lakota language classes. The school also has a Spiritual Formation curriculum that reflects culturally responsive education and builds students’ self-esteem, and a Lakota Ethnic Studies curriculum.
Japanese Language Schools, Hawaii (1890-1920s)
The first Japanese language school was established in 1893, with encouragement from Japanese child migrants working as sugar planters and their parents, where students studied Japanese culture and language. The schools soon became embedded in controversy associated with growing national anti-Japanese sentiment. Japanese language teachers and principals were some of the first to be detained during WWII and the schools were shut down for fear they promoted “anti-American” behavior
United Bronx Parents, New York (1966-1989)
Frustrated with the lack of quality education for Puerto Rican children and other children of color, Evelina López Antonetty, a.k.a the “hell lady of the Bronx,” worked with parents to found United Bronx Parents in 1965. They organized and trained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of working-class Puerto Rican parents, and other parents of color, to demand quality citywide education, bilingual education, youth leadership programs, and much more.
African American History, School District of Philadelphia (1967)
In November 1967, over 4,000 African American students held a peaceful protest in front of the Board of Education Building to call for the teaching of African American history, increased African American teachers and administrators, among other demands. The Police Commissioner called hundreds of police officers to the scene who then attacked students with teargas and clubs. The protests created the groundwork for African American history courses and culturally relevant curriculum to be implemented in Philadelphia public schools. African American history was passed as a graduation requirement for all students in 2005.
Third World Liberation Front, San Francisco, CA (1968)
The Black Student Union and a coalition of other student groups known as the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), led the longest strike in U.S. history, at San Francisco State University (SFSU) for five months. They demanded equal access to public higher education, more senior faculty of color, and a new curriculum that would embrace the histories and cultures of all people of color. As a result, the first College of Ethnic Studies was established at SFSU in March 1969, creating the foundation of Ethnic Studies and a framework for future K-12 grassroots work for Ethnic Studies.
East LA Walkouts “Chicano Blowouts”, Los Angeles, CA (1968)
An estimated 15,000 Mexican-American students in seven East LA high schools organized a walk-out highlighting educational inequities. The students’ efforts forced The LA Unified School District to listen to their demands.This event was the catalyst to improved educational equality in the LAUSD including the A-G resolution, passed June 14, 2005, requiring by 2012 all entering freshman pass A-G courses (college preparatory courses) to earn their degree.
Lau v. Nichols Supreme Court Decision (1974)
In Lau v. Nichols, the parents of Kinney Kinmon Lau and other Chinese students filed a class action suit against San Francisco United School District president Alan Nichols and said they were not receiving adequate help and support in school due to their inability to speak English. The Supreme Court ruled that the lack of language instruction for students learning within a second language violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that school districts must take action to prevent unfair learning opportunities.
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975
Indian boarding schools, established in the late 19th century to assimilate American Indian children into white American culture, forced students to cut their hair, forbade them from speaking Indigenous languages and gave them new European names, among other atrocities. The Act, which resulted from over a decade of grassroots activism including the American Indian Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, led to the decentralization of students from large Indian Boarding Schools to smaller community schools and fueled the closure of many Indian Boarding Schools in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Hawaiian Language Revitalization, Hawaii (1982)
In 1896, Hawaiian language education in all public and private schools was outlawed. As the number of fluent speakers drastically declined, in 1982, a group of Hawaiiawn language educators re-established Hawaiian Medium Education schools that centered Hawaiian language and culture. Today a complete preschool to doctoral-level system in Hawaii is taught entirely using the Haiwaiian language.
Navajo Nation Culture and Language Curriculum (1984, 2004)
In 1984, The Navajo Nation mandated that all schools within their boundaries include Navajo language and culture studies in their K-12 curriculum. In 2004, an elementary immersion school, Tsé Hootsooí Diné Bi’ Olta’, opened its doors. The K-6 school teaches Navajo language and culture to its 133 students on the capital of the Navajo Nation.