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| Absalom Boston |
"We look at the big names when we teach history, and it is used to objectify the narrative of African-American history, to say that they stand out as the exception, and not the rule," according to Tonya Thames Taylor.
Thames Taylor is founding director of the West Chester University's African American Studies program and member of the executive committee of the Frederick Douglass Institute there and she spoke the above words last February during a talk at Pottsgrove Manor.
But as Thames Taylor emphasized, Black history is so much more than these great names and stories repeated over and over every February.
Because few enslaved people could read or write, their stories were not preserved by being written down, and so much of early Black American history won't be read in your average American history book.
But that's changing and thanks to a new initiative in the Pottstown School District, they will be part of the history and literature curriculum being taught.
The district is using Black History month to kick off an initiative to make the district's lessons more inclusive of its multi-ethnic population. It's a mindset LaTanya White-Springfield, the district's director of student services and a Pottstown High School alum, calls "cultural competency."
She outlined some of the efforts during a presentation at a recent school board meeting.
"It's a conversation we've been having for the last six to nine months, but it became more urgent after the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests," said Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez.
"And we recognize that casts a wide net, that our cultural sensitivity has to mean more than Black and brown students. For example, Hispanic and Latino can mean many things to many people," said Rodriguez, whose family comes from Puerto Rico.
"We've reviewed our curriculum and we're doing a pretty good job at this, but we could be better," said Rodriguez. "It's always been featured in different ways, but this year we decided we need to step it up a notch."
As an example he points to an American classic — "Moby Dick."
"We want to offer alternatives like Maya Angelou, authors and figures who are more relevant to our students and frankly, 'Moby Dick' is not all that culturally relevant to our Black and brown students," Rodriguez said.
But perhaps Absalom Boston is.
He too was a whaling captain, although a bit more successful than Captain Ahab.
Boston's father had once been enslaved and, in 1822, Boston became the first Black man to captain a whaling vessel with an all-Black crew.
Boston "led the Nantucket abolitionist movement and was a founding trustee of the Nantucket’s African Baptist Society and the African Meeting House in Nantucket," according to the school district's post.
Boston also "backed a campaign to integrate Nantucket’s public schools, filing a successful lawsuit to have his daughter admitted to high school."
Rodriguez, who describes himself as "something of a history buff," was introduced to Boston's story while on vacation.
He joked that "my wife says we don't go on vacation. We go on extended field trips, and it's true, whenever there is a museum I drag my whole family through it."
Rodriguez came across Boston's story in one such museum and "I found it fascinating, partly because the things he did were so extraordinary for a Black American at the time he lived" he said
Boston's story is the first post the district has put on its Facebook page and website in honor of Black History Month — something that will be done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in February.
Another such post will involve the remarkably relevant and timely story of a man named Onesimus.
Born in Africa, Onesimus was enslaved and purchased by famed Puritan preacher Cotton Mather, who promoted Newtonian science and is known for his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials.
Mather is also known for promoting inoculation during a smallpox epidemic in Boston, a controversial practice for which he ultimately earned honors; and one which he first learned about from Onesimus, who had been inoculated in Africa before being enslaved.
"So the COVID-19 vaccine can, in many ways, be traced back to Onesimus," said Rodriguez.
"We want to help our students reclaim their history and start to learn these important stories which are never told," he said.
In addition to "highlighting stories from those whose contributions aren’t always captured in the telling of our nation’s history," will also shine a "spotlight on what some of our classrooms are doing to honor Black History Month."
"I'm excited about this," Rodriguez said.
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