It’s sad really, this ghastly ritual. Black people waiting for the courts to deliver some justice for our murdered children. Tick, tock, tick, tock. The jury deliberates. Tick, tock, tick, tock. We stand vigil demanding that the law affirm our humanity. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Anxiety rises. Words like unbelievable, depressing, angry, and scared proliferate. Tick, tock, tick, tock. If the hoped for conviction comes, what next? Another black child killed? Tick, tock, tick, tock. We hold our collective breath. Tick, tock, tick, tock. The verdict is read: betrayal, devastation, anger, tears, recriminations, quiet acceptance, rage, numbness, tuning out, silent prayer, unmitigated pain… We knew. We hoped for different. But we know…better.http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2014/02/

In 12 Years A Slave, Solomon Northrup describes the closing scene of a New Orleans auction in 1841:


“…The bargain was agreed upon, and Randall [a Negro child] must go alone. Then Eliza [his mother] ran to him; embraced him passionately; kissed him again and again; told him to remember her — all the while her tears falling in the boy’s face like rain.

“Freeman [the dealer] damned her, calling her a blabbering, bawling wench, and ordered her to go to her place and behave herself, and be somebody. He would soon give her something to cry about, if she was not mighty careful, and that she might depend upon.

“The planter from Baton Rouge, with his new purchase, was ready to depart.

“‘Don’t cry, mama. I will be a good boy. Don’t cry,’ said Randall, looking back, as they passed out of the door.

“What has become of the lad, God knows. It was a mournful scene, indeed. I would have cried if I had dared.”
http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2014/02/

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time have modified or blended with white culture and other cultures such as that of Native Americans.

There are some facets of African-American culture that were accentuated by the slavery period. The result is a unique and dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture, as well as the culture of the broader world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

Slave owners tried to control slaves by attempting to take away their African culture, but the isolation only helped them hang on to their culture and memories even more.

African culture, slavery, rebellions, and the civil rights movement have helped to shape African-American culture. The influence from Africa is seen in "politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion, cuisine, and worldview".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

West Africans believed that spirits dwelled in their surrounding nature. From this disposition, they treated their surroundings with mindful care. Africans also believed spiritual life source existed after death. They believed that ancestors in this spiritual realm could then mediate between the supreme creator and the living.

Many cultural elements have been passed down from generation to generation through storytelling. Folktales gave African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate each other.

Examples of African-American folktales include Br'er Rabbit and John Henry. The Uncle Remus stories helped bring African-American folk tales into the mainstream. However the author did not realize how complex the stories were or the potential for the lasting value on society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

The first time African-American culture was recognized was during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 30s, African-American music, literature, and art gained notice.

This was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. The United Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were both founded in the early part of the 20th Century. The Nation of Islam also started in the early 1930s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

The Black Power movement began in the 1960s and 1970s during the American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and displayed a more militant stand against racism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

"African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African-American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony." (http://en.wikipedia.org) African Americans brought together traditional European hymns with African elements to create great spirituals during slavery.

The 1920s are known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century hosted the first African-American Broadway shows, King Vidor's Hallelujah! and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R&B started in the middle of the 20th century. These genres were extremely popular in white audiences and influenced other genres, such as surf music. "Rapping" grew out of the South Bronx into the hugely successful cultural force known as hip hop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s incorporated the cultural dress with modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create African-American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. Festive woven patterns were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric is also in Western style t-shirts, bow ties and cummerbunds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

African-American hair is usually styled with tightly coiled curls. Some women straighten their hair with heat or chemical processes. Most men leave their hair natural.

As men age lose their hair, the hair is either cut short or shaved. Since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have grown to be popular.

Facial hair is prevalent to African-American men, more so than other males in the U.S. The soul patch is named after African-American jazz musicians who made the style popular.

African Americans practice different religions, but Protestant Christianity is the most prevalent.

14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are black.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

Some African-American couples still "jump the broom" as part of their wedding ceremony. The practice can be traced back to Ghana, but was not practiced by African-Americans after the end of slavery. However, it has recently been renewed in practice as some African American couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage.

The spirituality of death is extremely important in African-American culture. Clergy or religious leaders are usually with the family through the process. Death is seen as a transition, not final. Services are called home-goings, instead of funerals. It is believed that the person is going home to the heaven.

The cultivation of agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, are traced to Africa. African-American foods reflect creativity to responses of racial and economic oppression and poverty. During slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat the better cuts of meat, or were too poor to afford them after emancipation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture

Holidays are observed by African Americans widely and are also considered American holidays. The birthday of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr has been observed nationally since 1983.

Black History Month is another example of another African-American observance that has been adopted nationally and its teaching is even required by law in some states

“In the United States, race--perhaps more than any other sociocultural factor--is the most challenging and complex to understand.”

Brown, Keffrelyn D.; Brown, Anthony L. 2011.Teaching K-8 Students about Race: African Americans, Racism, and the Struggle for Social Justice in the U.S. Multicultural Education, v19 n1 p9-13. 5 pp.

Race plays a huge and powerful role in the U.S., but isn’t always acknowledged. Race is most definitely complicated and an extremely fragile and controversial topic to discuss. It is sometimes not addressed in schools, but it concerns all students, especially African American students.

Brown, Keffrelyn D.; Brown, Anthony L. 2011.Teaching K-8 Students about Race: African Americans, Racism, and the Struggle for Social Justice in the U.S. Multicultural Education, v19 n1 p9-13. 5 pp.

The curriculum limits what is historically discussed relating to this culture. Teachers are encouraged to implement certain practices to help students understand these important ideas and perspectives about race and racism.

Brown, Keffrelyn D.; Brown, Anthony L. 2011.Teaching K-8 Students about Race: African Americans, Racism, and the Struggle for Social Justice in the U.S. Multicultural Education, v19 n1 p9-13. 5 pp.

The University of Virginia plays an important place in the field of African American Studies. The University is a major funding source for graduate students and scholars who research the history, culture, and politics of African Americans. The University has been the setting of many important historical debates over the potential of African Americans in the world. It has a complicated relationship with the study of African Americans. The University contains a highly respected African American and African Studies program. Its model is an excellent study for Black Studies and its impact on knowledge.

Harold, Claudrena. 'Of the Wings of Atlanta': The Struggle for African American Studies at the University of Virginia, 1969-1995. 2012. Journal of African American Studies. Vol. 16 Issue 1, p41-69. 29p

Barriers that teachers struggle with include ones presented by the school, the pressures on new teachers, and misconceptions about African American families.

Hyland, Nora E. 2009. One White Teacher's Struggle for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: The Problem of the Community. NewEducator, v5 n2 p95-112. 18 pp.

"Black students are overrepresented in nine of 13 disability categories and
are more likely than their White peers to be placed in highly restrictive
(exclusionary) educational settings."

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

"Overt racially segregating schooling practices have given
way to largely under-acknowledged and more covert forms of racial segregation, including some special-education practices. Since the inception of
special education, the discourses of racism and ableism have bled into one
another, permitting forms of racial segregation under the guise of ‘disability'."

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

"As the practice of legally dividing students in schools
according to racial ‘difference’ was being challenged, dividing students
according to ‘disability’ gained greater acceptance. In comparison to public
rhetoric abhorring racial segregation, exclusion based on disability is often
seen as warranted."

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

"Disability has become a more socially accepted, even normalized, category of marginalization for
students of color."

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

"Examining these discourses of exclusion simultaneously
highlights how deeply racialized notions of ability are entrenched in our
culture so much so that segregation of ‘the disabled’ has also meant
segregating students of color."

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

The history between race and disability is a long and complicated one.
The two seem to overlap at times, they are also distinct. Each one is "situated in a time and place in which a confluence of interests coalesced to
attempt to forge significant social change".

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

Some support inclusion of students with disabilities, but may not necessarily see this
as connected to racial integration. However one can argue for racial integration
without supporting the inclusion of students with disabilities.

http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

White privilege and racial concepts of ability have
allowed parents and educators to use special education categories as a tool for continued racial segregation.

"Schools uphold and reinforce the dominant beliefs of society. As such,
they are examples of racism and ableism in practice, although they are
rarely portrayed in this way. The power manifested within them is masked
by purported neutrality. The ‘‘undesirability’’ of Black children and/or children with disabilities
in schools is indicative of the values of our larger society, which seeks to
deny access by containing individuals in markedly asymmetrical positions of
power. However, this legacy is coming under increased scrutiny, reflected in
recent research sponsored by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University."
http://mdestream.mde.k12.ms.us/sped/ToolKit/Articles/Cultural_Diversity/Fer...

“African American students, as a whole, have many more barriers to
overcome at home than other students in order to be successful."

http://imet.csus.edu/imet11/portfolio/smiley_k/WebQuest/Neely.pdf

African American
students also have to deal with the absence of a
father at home more often than white students.

Many African American students are,
“accused by their peers of acting white when they make good grades."

http://imet.csus.edu/imet11/portfolio/smiley_k/WebQuest/Neely.pdf

Teachers sometimes, especially those with little experience, need to be careful
about patronizing African American students.

http://imet.csus.edu/imet11/portfolio/smiley_k/WebQuest/Neely.pdf

This is most often
prevalent in the inner city classroom, when white teachers who take on the role of a missionary and see the student as a personal mission field.

The instructor “must refrain from accepting unconditionally the negative stereotypical portrait of black students presented by the media and assuming that all the students possess these characteristics."

http://imet.csus.edu/imet11/portfolio/smiley_k/WebQuest/Neely.pdf