In October, Lawrence Wishart in collaboration with YHP and Meera Shakti Osborne published three school resources as part of their Radical Black Women series. To celebrate the launch, Lawrence Wishart hosted an event at the 198 Gallery to engage in a discussion on how publishers can work together with educators, activists, academics, and artists to better arm schools with the tools and resources to teach Black history.
The Radical Black Women series is about Black women who have made important contributions to organisations for justice and racial equality in Britain over the past 100 years. It features women such as Amy Ashwood Garvey, Claudia Jones, Jessica Huntley and Gerlin Bean. Their stories are all being published in books that have already been released by Lawrence Wishart or are coming out soon. Excitingly, A. S. Francis, a long-term member of YHP, will be publishing a book with Lawrence Wishart on Gerlin Bean in 2023.
We were honoured to be invited and listen to the panel chaired by Jumanah Younis (Editor at Lawrence Wishart) featuring Kaitlene Koranteng (Archivist and Project Coordinator at YHP), Nydia A. Swaby (Caird Research Fellow, Royal Museums Greenwich), Shabna Begum (Head of Research, Runnymede Trust), and A. S. Francis (Consultant Historian of YHP and PhD student at University of Chichester).
The discussions featured conversations about the archives and the time and emotional labour it takes to conduct historical research into Britain’s anti-racist history, and integral to that history are the radical women of the 20th century from the Caribbean and Africa. There was consensus amongst audience members that teachers are often time poor and do not have the time to access the archives in the way historians might do. This illuminated one of the ways historians could support teachers who often want to teach more diverse histories but lack time to change schemes of work. Alongside this, we also discussed the role in which archives play in ensuring these histories are coherently translated in their entirety (as much as capacity allows) in educational resources. We also discussed how the curriculum could encourage children and young people to seek histories from their grandparents and other family members so they too can begin to see themselves in the histories they learn about.
As members of YHP, we spoke about our experiences of the British education system and our mixed experiences in studying or not having the opportunity to study Black history at school level. There was wide consensus that taught history in Britain, particularly outside of cities, scarcely mentioned Black history in the British context. Furthermore, audience members including Martin Spafford, former History teacher and founding member of the Black and Asian Studies Association, Dr Hannah Ishmael, archivist at the Black Cultural Archives and historian Dr Kesewa John, insightfully contributed to the discussion. A key reflection from the event was the power of sharing research, knowledge and skills for the bettering of today’s education system. Currently, 70% of state funded secondary schools follow the suggested non-statutory topics suggested by the Department for Education’s national curriculum for History. Only once is the term ‘empire’ mentioned. There is scarce mention of countries in South Asia, Africa or the Caribbean.
By collaborating with other activists and institutions to create resources for students, these resources not only affirm Black students that their history is part of Britain’s history, but they can affirm teachers that there are accessible materials available to use within schools. Between archives, publishers and educational institutions, it is clear that we can work together to create effective interventions into the learning of our young people in Britain through the History class.
The educational resources produced in collaboration with Lawrence Wishart are available to view and download on the YHP website.
Before we attended the event, YHP met for lunch and spent time getting to know each other as it was the first time many of us had met away from the virtual world that is Zoom! We had a great time exchanging stories and eating Ethiopian food.
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