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The sculpture park provides an uncompromising look at the faces and lives of enslaved Americans

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Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind along a winding path past artwork depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historical exhibits, including two cabins where enslaved people lived, before reaching the massive monument.

Stretching almost 4 stories up, the National Freedom Monument pays tribute to the thousands and thousands of individuals who experienced the brutality of slavery. The monument includes 122,000 names that formerly enslaved people selected for themselves, as documented in the 1870 census after emancipation at the end of the Civil War.

The sculpture park is the third space created by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, to take an uncompromising look at the nation’s history of slavery, racism and discriminatory policing. The first two sites – the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to those killed in racially motivated terrorist killings; and Heritage Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration – opened in 2018.

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Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
“Black Renaissance”, Rayvenn D’Clark, bronze, 2023 during a media tour of the Equal Justice Initiative’s recent Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Montgomery, Alabama (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

The sculpture park, which opens on March 27, brings together art installations, historical artifacts and personal narratives to explore the history of slavery in America and pay tribute to the thousands and thousands of individuals who experienced its brutality.

After opening the first two sites, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, said he still had quite a bit of work to do. Most of the plantation’s tourist attractions, he said, focus on the lives of the family that enslaved them. His goal was to create a spot where visitors could “really honestly experience the history of slavery.”

“I see it as a space to tell the truth, a place where we can confront parts of our history and paths that are not usually taught,” he said. But he also believes that ultimately it’s “a place full of hope.”

“If people find a way to create a family and a future despite the horrors of this institution, then we can do something comparable in our time to create a future less burdened by these histories than I think,” Stevenson said.

The 17-acre site is nestled between the winding banks of the muddy waters of the Alabama River and railroad tracks, two transportation mechanisms utilized in the nineteenth century to bring people to the city’s slave markets. Visitors will give you the option to reach by boat, essentially following the same route used to move stolen and trafficked goods.

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The park opens as some politicians, including in the Deep South, attempt to set parameters for a way race and history are taught in classrooms and during staff training sessions. Stevenson argues that such denial has at all times accompanied progress.

“I see this as a form of desperate act to keep up the silence, the established order and the burden of bigotry that we have now handled for therefore long. And I just do not believe it is going to succeed because the truth is powerful,” Stevenson said.

The sculpture park features major works by artists similar to Simone Leigh. Leigh’s Brick House, a 15-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman, is a robust presence of force at the entrance to the garden.

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In Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s work entitled Mama, I Hurt My Hand, a toddler dragging a bag of cotton reaches out to indicate the injured hand to the mother who’s balancing a basket of cotton and a baby strapped to her back. Next to them sits an exhausted, drained man with scarred skin and a broken leg.

Exhibits include two 170-year-old cabins that housed enslaved families on a cotton plantation, a whipping post, chains used to carry human traffickers, and replicas of a transport wagon and slave pen. Interspersed amongst the exhibits are first-person accounts of enslaved and formerly enslaved people about their lives.

Alison Saar, a Los Angeles sculptor, has a chunk in her garden that “relates to runaway slaves and their ability to survive and thrive on their own,” she said.

“I think all of this is incredible and needed more than ever,” Saar said. Visitors to the park will come across sculptures that depict “not only the horrors of being enslaved, but the truly beautiful stories and glory of the people who somehow escaped it and created a life of their own.”

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The centerpiece of the park is the National Freedom Monument, whose name comes from the 1870 census by which formerly enslaved people reported their names.

Visitors can walk up, find their family name and touch it, seeing their very own faces reflected in the polished granite – an experience Stevenson himself experienced recently when more names were carved into the stone.

“I came in, saw my name and was surprised by the impact it had on me, even though I had been planning it for two years,” he said.

EJI is a legal organization perhaps best known for its work to free those wrongly sentenced to death – which is the subject of the 2019 film starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, based on Stevenson’s best-selling book “Just Mercy.”

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The organization erected the first historic markers in downtown Montgomery years ago to mark slave market and lynching sites throughout the South.

Stevenson said truth and confrontation with history are key to America’s progress, likening it to an alcoholic who must acknowledge the harm he has caused through abuse to be able to move on.

“I feel there’s something higher waiting for us. I feel there’s something that’s more like freedom, equality, justice. But I do not think we will achieve this unless we break down the barriers and burdens that our silence about history has created,” Stevenson said.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Education

Students, teachers and content creators are fighting to maintain a black story alive among Dei attacks

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As the month of black history approaches, among the Trump administration, which is stopped by the federal government recognizing the “months of identity” and the fundamental corporations and retail sellers withdrawing their efforts Dei, a lot strives to maintain black history.

School districts in Arkansas, Florida and South Karolina Ma Limited research African American Studies. Meanwhile, according to Education WeekFrom 2021, about 40 other states have introduced bills or took steps to limit the critical theory of breed and discussion about sexism of their curricula.

However, students, teachers, historians and content creators develop into creative in recent months to learn each online and outside.

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After the parents nervous in Florida that the curriculum didn’t teach the black history of Florida properly, they began Collecting highschool students on Saturdays on the Culture Center and teaching their additional lessons. Other groups have been able to organize similar lessons in recent times.

“People who are interested in developing the history of the African diaspora cannot rely on schools to do this,” said Tamieka Bradley Hobbs, head of the African research library and culture in Broward County. AP News. “I think that now it is even more clear that there must be a level of independence and self -determination when it comes to conveying the history and heritage of our ancestors.”

This movement was not powered by highschool students who also want to balance and complement their studies. Many adults are also at stake.

If this affair did not happen, Harlem's Renaissance could never have happened

At the top of January, the University of Hillmantok appeared online. The virtual university began a case when a professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has published a welcome message to her true introduction to African -American studies at Tiktok. The film, which presented the curriculum at its actual course, received almost 4 million views. A number of days later, after healing 1000’s of interesting comments, she continued the reading list and from there a virtual school was born.

“I was just looking for a way to get involved, but it fired something that is much larger than me,” said Leah Barlow, a professor NBC News.

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Shortly after Barlow’s initial movies, other content creators began to add their very own spin and send their very own lessons using the Hillmantok University tag. Many topics have been discussed, from history, to grain, through women’s health to makeup and more. The movies have develop into so visible that some confusion had arose whether the Hillmantok University is real.

Hillmantok receives its name from the famous black classic sitcom “A ince World”, which followed the group of College Coeds at the fictional University of Hbc Hillman.

Barlow said he was occupied with why he thought Hillmantok, the way it had ABC News The trend gave people an “agency, autonomy and property.

“I think that in many ways we think that to do something, we need a permit – and I think it’s not that,” she said. “No, right? We can teach. We can educate. We can activate in a way that goes beyond politics. “

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Anipalterate Connecticut College Freshman Capid Hartford Board of Education

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Miami High School, Classroom, Education

Miami High School, class, education

Freshman at Connecticut Counts Hartford Board of Education and City of Hartford after receiving a highschool graduation diploma without Possibility of reading or writing.

Aleysha Ortiz, who attends the University of Connecticut, tries to maintain up together with his peers. Born in Puerto Rico, Ortiz moved to the United States on the age of 5. English just isn’t her first language.

“I didn’t know English very well. I didn’t know the rules of schools. There were many things that they would tell me, and I allowed myself what the teachers would tell me because I don’t understand anything, “said the 19-year-old.

As Ortiz has gone to the extent of rankings, he claims that she has not received the relevant information or assessment to assist her succeed. She said that she relied on speech text applications to speak and learn, leaving her underamed and unrecognized.

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“I am a very passionate person and I like to learn,” said Ortiz. “People took advantage of me, and now I’m in college and I want to use it because it’s my education.”

In May 2024, before graduation, ORTiz spoke on the City Council meeting, revealing conditions wherein she learned and revealed her illiteracy. Then the officials entered to seek out resources for her.

Testing later revealed that he has dyslexia and fights with phonika, fluidity and understanding of reading.

According to the National Literary Institute, 21% of adults within the USA are functionally illiterate, and 34% of them were born outside the country.

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Because Ortiz was born outside the United States, and its first language just isn’t English, its designation needs to be “a student with many language”. The designation is to configure controls and balances to assist students overcome the language barrier.

The technical education and profession system in Connecticut defines a multilingual student as a student “whose dominant language is different than English, and whose proficiency in English is not sufficient to ensure” equal educational possibilities “in a regular school program.” These students require additional support To fully take part in the instructions in English.

ORTIZ experience suggests that she has not received this support. It just isn’t clear whether he’ll proceed higher education, because its lack of basic bases K-12 is a big barrier to success.

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(Tagstranslate) Education (T) University of Connecticut (T) Literary

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Decatur City will now download tuition fees for K-5 students

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Black History, New York City, Students

Annual tuition: almost $ 8,000.


Decatur City School System, the most effective school systems in Georgia, currently downloads tuition fees for admission to some students. The decision was made on the meeting of the Education Council on February 11.

Representatives of the Decatur Municipal Schools sent a press release to WSB-TV with the intention to make clear the conditions. Students from the district will proceed to receive free admission to local schools. However, students of K-5 who live outside the college district will pay almost USD 8,000 within the annual tuition feature

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The school system said tuition fees The rate changes annually based on expenses and revenues.

The school system said: “The opportunity to develop our strategic accelerator of the organization’s effectiveness and perfection, as well as the opportunity to handle more students in our amazing schools.”

The change was proposed to resolve the decline in entries and assistance in compensating budget deficits. According to the proposal presented on the board meeting, about 60 students will generate the obligatory revenues of USD 472,980.

Decatur City is in Dekalb and has about 5,700 students living in town. The taken city is home to the Virtual Institute and 10 K-5 schools.

Applications for applying for tuition spaces will start in April. The district said that in May in May he reported a lottery or selection process.

School officials also said that if obligatory, they plan to activate the waiting list.

Rankings of college systems for Decatur can attract families willing to pay a high price. According to World Population Review, Georgia ranks thirty first within the country for education.

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For parents considering moving to get well educational options, they’re waiting for a visit. The five highest rated education states are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and New Hampshire.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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