A group of elementary school students put on a series of performances Wednesday at the Greenwood Cultural Center to highlight what they learned during a summer program based on The New York Times’ 1619 Project.
1619 was the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in America. The project’s educational offerings, meant to drive home the impact of slavery on Black communities, have been controversial. Critics say the project oversimplifies concepts and sometimes lacks context.
The program at the Greenwood Cultural Center is a pilot and exclusive to Drexel Academy Elementary students. Organizers hope more programs like it can be arranged elsewhere in the country.
“The way that the Black experience, or Black history, has often been told, even up to the present day, it’s very lacking,” said Timothy Butler, a grant writer and one of the coordinators of the program.
Children attending the camp not only learned about the history of slavery in America, but also read poems from well-known Black writers and experienced African dance.
Butler said programs like this one are important in Oklahoma.
“Many people don’t even know about the rich history here in historic Black Wall Street,” he said.
Oklahoma House Bill 1775, passed in 2021, disallows schools from teaching material that could make students feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.”
The law ignited concerns about educators being forced to whitewash history and is currently awaiting a ruling in federal court on its constitutionality.
Along with historical education, Butler said the program is a way for kids to learn and grow outside of the regular school year.
“For minority children, cultural enrichment and understanding are key to their wholeness,” he said.
