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CASPER The University of Wyoming Black Studies Center will host a virtual symposium on July 2 called What to the Slaves Children is the Fourth of July? focused on anti-racist education and the national debate around the teaching of critical race theory in American schools.
The virtual event draws national academics from Columbia University, University of Chicago, San Francisco State University and others to deconstruct the phenomenon of current exclusionary educational policies in America to through the prism of Frederick Douglass’s speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Following the one-day event, the Black Studies Center will be hosting a month-long virtual book study on Ibram X. Kendis How to Be an Anti-Racist, which will begin on July 8.
We thought providing a series of culturally competent forums would align and improve some of the things we have already been able to do, said Center Director Fredrick Douglass Dixon.
The center was formed about a year ago, after the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
As one of the few such centers in a rural area, UW’s Black Studies Center has a responsibility to contribute to the national discourse, Dixon said, which is why he believes virtual programs that enable national participation are so important.
We are very intentional about this responsibility and we believe that the more we continue to provide these platforms, the more black studies in rural areas … it shows its value, he said.
The event will begin at 9 a.m. on July 2 with a discussion on deconstructing the neoconservative movement to erase critical race theory from public education, followed by a conversation on strategies for teaching the harsh realities of history. American.
Panelists for each of these discussions include law and history professors, equity and inclusion experts in higher education, and social scientists from across the United States.
The program comes as lawmakers across the country, including one of the residents of Wyoming, attempt to block the use of federal dollars to teach a history curriculum derived from the New York Times 1619 Project.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book tells the story of how slavery shaped American history. Named for the year that African slaves first arrived in North America, Project 1619 received both praise and criticism, and its accuracy has been debated by curators and some historians since its publication in 2019.
The US Department of Education referred to this work in April when it announced a grant proposal for educators to teach from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic perspectives, a step that apparently reignited debate.
Republican lawmakers, including Wyoming Superintendent of Public Education Jillian Balow, have denounced the proposal and critical race theory more broadly.
Balow issued a statement last month calling the proposal an attempt to standardize the teaching of controversial and politically fashionable theories on the history of the Americas.
Some Republican-held states are also pursuing legislation to prevent public money from entering schools that wish to teach the 1619 curriculum.
A handful of federal lawmakers hope to do the same.
Wyoming Junior Senator Cynthia Lummis signed the Preservation of American History Act on Monday, which would ban the use of federal funds to teach the Project 1619 curriculum in K-12 schools.
Students and teachers should have an open and honest dialogue in the classroom about our nation’s history, Lummis said in a statement. However, Project 1619 advances an anti-American agenda and a warped revisionist history with hard-earned taxpayer money. I am happy to join my colleagues in opposing this waste of federal money.
Dixon said this national focus is exactly why the Black Studies Center should be having the conversation.
I think whenever there is a socio-educational and political phenomenon, then higher education and especially a research center should find it important, Dixon said. The conversation is important now because it is in the law. It’s in the common vernacular of American society right now. So having this conversation is only what we should be doing.
The one-day virtual symposium is free and open to anyone, but participants are kindly requested to confirm attendance with Dixon at [email protected]. Those interested in studying the book can register online. The group will meet virtually at 10 a.m. each Thursday between July 8 and August 5.
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