Newark Teacher Advocates for Expanded Black History Education in Classrooms
Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele, a history and Africana Studies teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, New Jersey, is championing the integration of more comprehensive Black history into the curriculum. As he enters his third decade of teaching, Akinyele, who is also a community activist and a member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC), emphasizes the need to correct historical inaccuracies and biases. He highlights how ancient Kemet (Egypt) is often misrepresented as a European or Arab civilization, despite historical and scientific evidence confirming its Black African origins. Akinyele also points out the significant lack of education regarding powerful West African Empires like Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, which predated European colonialism and made substantial contributions to human civilization, including early forms of democracy such as the Manden Charter. 
