'You. Me. We.' - Manchester schools launch long-awaited Black history AP course
Mar. 22—Mackenzie Verdiner hopes the days of history classes glossing over contributions of Black people to America's story are a thing of the past.
Verdiner, a junior at Manchester High School West, has been fighting for an African American Cultural Studies course in city high schools since her freshman year.
Now she gets up early and catches a bus across the Merrimack River to Central High School, making her own history as a member of the district's first such class, offered this spring as an Advanced Placement pilot course at Manchester High School Central.
Asked why someone would fight so hard, and so long, for such a cause, Verdiner appears incredulous.
"Wouldn't you want to know your own history? Why is it important to take any history class?" Verdiner asks. "There's a history that is completely, completely, left out of our regular curriculum. You. Me. We. We come from different places, but we have a shared history that's important and necessary to be taught in the schools."
Over the past few years, students of color and community members have advocated for a culturally relevant course that better reflects the identities of the district's students and cultures.
John Alade, a senior at Manchester School of Technology, has been involved from the start.
"I've been to a couple school board meetings over the years," Alade said.
Verdiner quickly interrupts. "A couple?"
"OK, a lot," Alade answers, laughing. "I've spoken quite a bit advocating for the class, constantly pressing the board, asking when is this class gonna happen? We had a massive group of students and parents going to the meetings, supporting the class, repeating the same things — we want the class because we want to learn about our history."
"We've heard the same stories since elementary school about Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln, who's not even Black," Verdiner said. "This class is an opportunity to see the truth, essentially, of what really goes on in this country and who we are as a people."
Tina Kim Philibotte, chief equity officer for the Manchester School District, and Curriculum Director Jillian Corey worked with representatives of the Manchester NAACP, Youth Organizers United (YOU), Manchester Community College and the New Hampshire Black Heritage Trail to create a class that focuses on the state's Black history and students' life experiences to connect to other cultures.
The course is being offered first to seniors at Central High School as part of a pilot program. The course has no specific requirements or barriers to enrolling.
'Mix of perspectives'
Philibotte said the course has taken some time to come to fruition.
"I mean, I think when I was here in the '90s, we were asking for some form of class, and I think back then it would have been like a multicultural kind of thing," Philibotte said. "Then when I came back working here, in 2021, the YOU kids — maybe within the first couple board meetings after I started — started coming and advocating for more representation in their coursework.
"And it wasn't just like one or two — there were a couple of times where they would fill that boardroom and it was just such a joy to see. "
The class is offered in the Manchester Community College catalog but held at Central.
Students completing the course earn three college humanities credits in social studies and a half-credit of social studies. The course is offered at no cost to Manchester schools and their students.
The curriculum includes historical context, race constructs, power structures, justice, community, New Hampshire-based history and the human experience, with space in the syllabus for topics that are important for students in the classroom, Philibotte said.
The course is taught by Manchester Community College's Alicia Robinson. She says students with YOU spent "well over a year" fighting to make sure the course came to pass.
"I would say generally, that the class — the students, the feedback — has been really positive," Robinson said. "I've started getting to know who the students are, what their cultural context is, who and what their heritage is."
Robinson said the class has 17 students, representing a "very diverse group."
"From students that identify as African, native to the continent, to students that identify as African American, born and raised in Manchester," Robinson said. "I have some students that are of the Latinx community, some students — actually three — who are from Iran. And just last week, my newest addition was one White student.
"So it's been a good, good mix of perspectives."
'More engaged in this class'
Shams Muqdad, a Central freshman enrolled in the course, said it has been a great experience.
"When I came in everyone was nice, I felt welcomed," she said. "I'm not Black or anything, so I don't have similar experiences, but learning about their experiences makes me realize we're the same and want to learn more. In some classes the teacher just talks the entire time, but I feel like in this class students are more involved."
Mia Rose Taylor, a junior at Central, said the class features an "open dialogue."
"We sit in a circle with all the desks, so it's easy to build a community and connect with others," Taylor said. "I think I've been more open, more engaged in this class."
Verdiner hopes the pilot becomes more than "an elective that you can take at Central."
"It should be one of your history credits that you have to take."
Robinson said one of the things she does with students is highlight "This Day in Black History," one of many activities planned for the course.
"The first major assignment that they are submitting is an 'I Am' poster to highlight their past, their present and their future, telling their own personal stories," Robinson said. "I think that one of the goals behind this is to really give them an opportunity to learn storytelling from their own personal perspectives."
The students will deliver an oral presentation about a poster they create, divided into three different sections — their past, their present and their future — with three elements to each. They also will produce a written summary about their lives and stories.
"This again is a culturally relevant approach to finding out who they are, and what they are bringing to the table," Robinson said.
'A long time coming'
Robinson said students recently played a game of bingo with Black history facts. The class discussed Willis Johnson and his invention of the egg beater — "what we call a whisk now."
"So they were excited to be like, 'Wait, I use this and, like, somebody that I didn't even know created this?' And so these unfamiliar names that they are coming in contact with, they are having an opportunity to hear about these people, and then share reflections."
Colleen Jennings, program chair for Liberal Arts & Sciences at MCC, said the feedback about the program has been positive.
"Just to have a space in which these conversations can happen inside their high school curriculum has made for very reflective, very sometimes vulnerable, self-effacing types of conversations for the students," Jennings said. "So that's been fantastic."
In the future, Philibotte hopes to bring more culturally relevant classes like Latinx and Asian American cultural studies to the school curriculum.
Robinson said when students learn about people who "look like me" and their contributions throughout history, the connection is "powerful."
"It's just enlightening," Robinson said. "The privilege of being able to even sit in a classroom with a woman of African descent, who many of them have not had a chance to engage with before in their educational journey — I have a few students who have said I'm their first Black teacher — that is really empowering for them."
"This has been a long time coming," city school board member Peter Argeropolous said. "It's really cool for our students in Manchester, where our student population is so diverse. When they're in there talking about these concepts and topics, it's going to bring so much more to their own lived experiences."
Making the Grade is a reporting effort dedicated to covering education in New Hampshire, including Manchester and the challenges students face in the state's largest school district. It is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and is funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Northeast Delta Dental.
