New series created to educate, inspire

By Taylor Mayad

At a time when schools are limiting the teaching of African American history and libraries are pulling books off shelves, the African American Museum, Dallas is launching a Freedom Schools series on Saturdays running now through Sept. 21. 

The Freedom Schools are part of a national effort by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) to counter the attempt by 22 state legislatures (including Texas) to prevent the teaching of accurate African American history in the nation’s public schools.

Open to the public, classes are free for students and teachers. The general public can also register by making a donation to the Museum.

The weekly programs, which will provide the public with an opportunity to learn African American history from its roots to present day, will be held every Saturday from 3-5 p.m. at the museum (3536 Grand Ave. in Dallas’ historic Fair Park).

The curriculum will focus on the following topics: African history; African American historiography; the African American experience in slavery, colonial and antebellum America; the experience of African Americans in the Civil War and Reconstruction; Harlem Renaissance; Civil Rights Movement; African Americans and the arts; Black politics; local history; and the Nadir of American Race Relations.

The weekly sessions will be taught by two of the Museum’s distinguished staff members and a guest educator. Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, the museum’s deputy director and chief operations officer, is a former UT-Arlington history department chair and African American studies professor. He is also the national president of ASALH. Robert Edison, the museum’s curator of education, is a Dallas ISD teacher of the year and Fulbright Scholar. Anthony Guillory holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies from the University of Massachusetts and is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at UT-Arlington.

After the State Fair of Texas closes in October, the Freedom Schools will resume with a second series from Oct. 26-Dec. 28 at the African American Museum, Dallas.

For more information and to register, go to aam-dallas.org. For questions, contact Dr. Dulaney at [email protected].

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