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Hillsborough County Schools to spotlight African history in curriculum

"I would like to see the African-American students have a history before slavery,” said school board chair Lynn Gray.

TAMPA, Fla. — A well-rounded education helps students understand the world around them and their place in it. And, this week, Hillsborough County Schools moved forward with plans to incorporate more African education into its curriculum.

"We have to know about our roots,” said local historian Fred Hearns.

It’s a move supported by Hillsborough County Schools’ board chair Lynn Gray. She has worked with a special task force comprising of district and community leaders and historians like Hearns to make this happen.

"I would like to see the African-American students have a history before slavery,” she said. “We now are putting a curriculum out there from kindergarten to middle school to high school, putting absolute avenues of teaching lessons that share with the students, their history, their culture.”

Hearns said ethnic studies courses focusing on African American history will soon expand to also focus on African history.

"We know a lot about slavery. We know a lot about what happened after slavery during the Civil Rights movement up to the current time,” said Hearns. “But the more we can teach our students to learn about African history, I think the more we will be able to appreciate our glorious past."

Hearns says Western education often excludes African history — and that can breed misunderstandings about the continent, its people and descendants across the diaspora.

"So much of what we know about the positive things in life actually started in Africa - those great universities of Africa that we know very little about. And so, it's very important that we learn this history and make it a part of our everyday conversations,” he said.

School board chair Lynn Gray says the district will soon expand its curriculum to include more Hispanic heritage as well. She says none of this has to do with critical race theory--but a true focus on helping people of all backgrounds expand their understanding of different cultures and history around the world.

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