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

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.

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.
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.”
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.”
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.

Education
Anti-Dei Push Trump does not stop the black Kentucky hails from the celebrations outside the campus

President Donald Trump, with a purpose to eliminate diversity initiatives at university campus, did not stop minority students from issuing their very own ceremonies after the cancellation of the University of Kentucky ceremony to honor their graduates who’re black or from other historically marginalized groups.
Do it as a lesson, easy methods to think strategically to get the desired result.
Several students, decorated with hats and dresses, fucked up on Wednesday in the focal point, when their families and friends cheered them at the celebrations outside the campus. Graduates were honored for the years of educational work and received special regalia, resembling the capital and strings, which they will wear at the starting of the school this week.
The speakers presented the words of encouragement to the graduates, at the same time guided by rainfall about federal and state republican efforts in favor of the end of the end of diversity, equality and inclusion programs.

“You are accused of standing on our arms and doing larger and better things,” said Christian Adair, Executive Director of Lyric Theater, a recognized Culture Center for the Black Lexington community, where the ceremony took place.
The “Senior Salute” program was organized after the flagship Kentucky University recently canceled the ceremonies for minority graduates. The school said that it will not host the “celebration of graduation based on identity or in special interest”, citing “changes and directives of federal and state policy”.
It was then that the members of the Historically Black Alpha Phi Alpha community performed and have become the driving force of organizing substitute celebrations.
“The message that I wanted to send is that if you want something to happen, you can simply do it yourself,” said Kristopher Washington member, a key organizer of the latest event and who’s amongst the students. “There is no waiting for someone to do it for you.”
Washington said that Great Britain’s actions were disappointing, but not surprising.
“I have already understood that the institution will probably turn to its financial well-being before thinking about doing something … for students,” he said.
Most latest graduates and audience members on Wednesday were black, although the event was settled as multicultural and open to numerous students – including those that are LGBTQ+ or certainly one of the first of their families who graduated from College. Ushers were David Wirtschafter, Rabbi Lexington, who wanted to indicate his support for college kids and praised them for refusing to just accept the lack of the guild.
“Recognition for them for taking over the initiative and leadership when these unfortunate circumstances developed to organize this event for themselves,” he said.
Throughout the country, universities were under the growing pressure to affix the political program of the Trump administration, which has already frozen billions of dollars in scholarships at Harvard University and other universities, which they did not do enough to counteract what, based on administration, is anti -Semitism.

Trump’s calls to eliminate each program, which treats students in another way due to their race, brought a brand new control of the affinity completion ceremony. The Education Department really helpful universities to distance itself from Dei by letter in February. It was found that the Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 banned the use of racial preferences in admission to studies, and in addition concerned such areas as employment, scholarships and ceremonies of graduating from school.
This yr, laws dominated by Kentucky adopted the provisions regarding the breakup of diversity, justice and inclusion to public universities.
In a recent film, defending his appeal, the president of the University of Eli Capilouto said that the decision appeared at a time when “each part of our university is under the influence of stress and control.” The school said in a separate statement that it will rejoice all latest graduates during official start ceremonies.
“We made difficult decisions – decisions that cause fears in themselves, and wounded in some cases,” said Capilouto in the film. “The cancellation of the ceremony for people on our campus who’ve not at all times seen to reflect in our wider community is certainly one of the examples.
“We have taken these actions because we think it is required, and we think that compliance with the law is the best way to protect our people and our continuous ability to support them,” he added.
But his cancellation of smaller celebrations to honor LGBTQ+, black and first generation graduates, drew criticism of some students and relatives on Wednesday. Events have long been seen as a technique to construct community and recognize the achievements and unique experiences of scholars from historically marginalized groups in society.
Brandy Robinson was certainly one of the many members of the family who cheered their nephew, Keiron Perez, during Wednesday’s ceremony. She said that it is crucial for relatives to share at the moment, and she or he condemned to chop off bonds with such events as “Coward movement”.

“To tear these moments away from them, it’s just very disappointing,” said Robinson.
Asked why the event was vital for college kids, the president of Alpha Phi Alpha, Pierre Petitfrere, said: “He gives students something to remember and know that even taking into account the circumstances of what is happening all over the world, they are still recognized for hard work and fight for many difficulties that could encounter all the time in college.”
The spokesman for Great Britain, Jay Blanton, said that the school recognized “how significant these celebrations were for many”, and student groups are welcome in events with the host.
“Although the university cannot continue to sponsor these events, we will continue to work so that all students feel seen, valued and supported,” he said in a press release.
But Marshae Dorse, a graduate who took part in the Wednesday ceremony, said that the UK decided to “swipe” to the anti-dei push, calling it “a bit like a hit in the face, because something like this is so harmless.”
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Education
Join the conversation and help build a Black Teacher pipeline

Black teachers have a great impact on black students. Join the discussion on the retention and recruitment of black teachers.
May 8, Center for the Development of the Educator Black (CBED) Commeminely the day of the Black Teacher’s recognition, organizing the online panel, “”Building a varied teacher pipeline. “
The panel of teachers, founders and politics leaders will conduct a vital conversation about the day of recognition of the black teacher, emphasizing the urgent have to recruit and maintain various teachers throughout the country.
“This internet seminar also emphasizes the flagship CBED, Asaching Academy (TA), double -mutual program, career and technical education (CTE), designed to support the subversification of teachers and improving academic results for all students,” CBED said in a press release.
The advisable voices are Ansharaye Hines, assistant to the director for profession and technical education and curriculum at CBED; Dr. AB Spence, head of the CBED training and implementation program; and a student of the Howard Jahmere Jackson University.
CBED organizes this event as a part of the #WeneedblackTeachers campaign. The day is dedicated to celebrating immunity, commitment and overwhelming influence of black teachers. He can also be used to the recognition of a black teacher sounds alarm about a critical shortage of black teachers in the United States.
Black teachers matter
Research emphasizes the influence of black teachers on the academic success of black students. For example, black students who’ve no less than one black teacher at primary school are 13% more exposed to highschool, and 19% more often enter studies.
This percentage increases significantly with many black teachers during their school profession. Despite the advantages, only 7% of public school teachers in the US discover as black, while black students constitute over 15% of the K-12 population.
Join the ceremony
CBED encourages individuals and communities to have interaction on the day of recognition of black teachers.
Shout a black teacher – He publicly recognizes the black teacher who influenced your life, returning to recognition in social media. Use hashtags #THankaBlacktecher and #weneedblacktechers
Share the story – Create a video, post or reel emphasizing the influence of a black teacher in your life.
Join the movement – get entangled in the political process regarding education regulations. A supporter of politicians who strengthen the retention and highschool diploma of black teachers.
Education
NAACP asks for a formal meeting after the Kennesaw State University program is completed

NAACP in Georgia asked for a formal meeting with Kennesaw State University after the school announced that it deactivates a handful of “low producers”, including the Black Studies program.
In a recent note addressed to colleagues, officials on the third largest university in Georgia announced that it could deactivate Black Studies, Filosophy and Technical Communication Sofors, effective immediately, Then AND Atlanta’s voice Reported.
According to WABE, the assistant of the KSU Vice President for Strategic Communication, Tammy Demel, called programs “low producers” on account of their low number of scholars. In E -Mailes obtained by The Atlanta Voice, university officials, making an allowance for the low registration of scholars, the programs were not needed after re -evaluation and made the best decision on “limited resources”.
General’s University System of Criteria In the case of “low production” there is lower than 10 for a bachelor program. While black studies and technical communication programs had lower than 10 students, WABE announced that the philosophical program enrolled 40 students on April 29.
The “two -year teaching plan” shall be implemented in order that students currently enrolled in programs can complete them. The faculty and employees will keep their positions to proceed to supply minors, general education courses and select.
However, the commercial shocked members amongst lecturers, the student body and more.

“The NAACP conference in Georgia is concerned about reports on the potential elimination of the Black State program at Kennesaw State University,” said the organization in Edition published to X This definitely condemned this decision.
“The Black Studies program is not only an academic discipline-it is an important space for intellectual investigation, cultural affirmation and historical telling of the truth,” the organization continued. “His presence reflects the university’s involvement in integration education and a representation of marginalized votes in the academic canon. District of such a program would be a deep harmful to students of all environments and a clear background in the constant pursuit of justice and justice in higher education.”
According to Atlanta Voice, employees query the move to deactivate programs as a violation of resolutions adopted by the RCHSS Program Committee in April 2024.
Although the reason given was the low registration of scholars, because Trump’s administration is addressed to Dei programs and rules in schools and institutions throughout the country, it is difficult to disregard some.
“We intend to talk about the behavior and full support of the Black Studies program and ensure that the university will maintain its responsibility for supporting the diverse and integration of the academic community,” said Georgia NAACP.

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