Teaching Black History

For this episode, we wanted to explore how Black history is being taught in Connecticut and in the Hamden and New Haven area. A new state law made Connecticut the first in the nation to compel all its secondary schools to offer elective courses in African-American, Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino studies.

Ryan Keeler talked to Paquita Jarman-Smith of SERC, the State Education Resource Center, who helped create the curriculum being used in these courses.

Ariana Davis spoke with Jennifer Vienneau, Director of Social Studies for Hamden public schools, along with history teacher Greg Trifone and his student Ashlynn, who gave us their perspectives on how this curriculum is being used in Hamden schools.

Finally, Mike Wheatley talked with Joy Burns, a researcher for the Witness Stones Project, an educational initiative that helps “restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved who helped build our communities.”

Transcript

Michael Pierry
 Hello, and welcome to the Hamden Library Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Pierry, and this month we're talking about teaching Black history. This is a controversial topic in America. For this episode, however, we focused on how educators are teaching black history in Connecticut and in the Hamden and New Haven area. Specifically, we wanted to spotlight Connecticut Public Act number 19-12, which mandates African American, Black Studies, and Puerto Rican and Latino studies as part of the curriculum for all school districts in Connecticut. To learn more about it, we talked to Paquita Jarman-Smith of SERC, the State Education Resource Center, who helped create this curriculum. We also spoke with Jennifer Vienneau, Director of Social Studies for Hamden Public Schools, along with history teacher, Greg Trifone and his student Ashlynn gave us their perspectives on how this curriculum is being used in Hamden schools. Finally, we talked with Joy Burns, a researcher for the Witness Stones Project, an educational initiative that helps restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved who helped build our communities.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 This is Ryan from the Hamden Public Library, and we have a great conversation today about the African American and Latino course of studies elective. Joining us is Paquita Jarman-Smith from the State Education Resource Center. Hi, Paquita, how are you today? 
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 Hi, Ryan. I'm doing great. Really glad to be here to share with you a little bit about the African American, Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino high school course of studies and what we've been doing over the past few years.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 We're very excited to have you and we'd like to start out by having you explain what the State Education Resource Center is and what you do there.
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 Okay. The State Education Resource Center, otherwise known as SERC is a quasi public agency, is established under state statute as served the Connecticut State Board of Education, and supporting educational equity and excellence. We do this by providing a variety of professional development and information dissemination in the latest research and best practices for educators, service providers, and families throughout the state. We also do in person technical assistance and training within schools, programs and districts. SERC was formerly known as the Special Education Resource Center, and became the State Education Resource Center. due to a change of the state statues, we continue to maintain the special ed Resource Center and the SERC library and support programs activities regarding early childhood education, and K through 12 Education.

In addition to what we do in terms of professional development, we offer resources for the community of educators through our library. So they'll be able to access testing materials for special ed, online journals, reference and research materials, and give you any kind of advice or expertise in a particular topic. We also have annual conferences, and one in particular coming up is our Dismantling Racism conference. And we hope that people will join us as we talk about and work on how we can better serve students and families here in Connecticut. What I do at the State Education Resource Center is primarily work in early childhood education, family engagement, and I'm the Lead contact for the African American and Puerto Rican course of study, among other things.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 And now that you mentioned that, we'd like to get into what the African American and Latino course of studies is, and why you feel that it's a valuable addition to the curriculum.
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 The course of study is a course that represents American history that's inclusive, rather than absent, of Black and Latino history. And that's important given you know, the time within America that we've not had this. So this is a one year course. It's integrated with both African American and Latino history. We explore, intentionally, the linkages to the accomplishments, the struggles, the beauty of black and Latino people in the US, and both North and South America, the Caribbean and around the world. Through the lens of these very unique histories, the students with the support of their teachers and educators, they have opportunities to make connections to their own cultural and racial backgrounds, and strengthen their understandings of what positive identity can look like, and sound like, and the importance of inclusivity of diverse perspectives.

We also give them the opportunity to explore social justice, and make informed actions within their own communities within the context of the course. I think that this is really important for students to see inclusivity and to hear the perspectives that each student is going to share with one another. From what I'm hearing about the students in the classroom, there's lots of healthy discussion. There's lots of debate, there could be some things that they have to work out and flesh out in terms of what they understand. There's some misconceptions that teachers work with them on. But really, the kids are excited about having an opportunity to be in a curriculum course, that is really hands on and exploratory.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 Absolutely. And when you were developing this curriculum, what desired learning outcomes did you have in mind, both academically and socially?
 
 Unknown Speaker
 Some of the desired learning outcomes academically and socially, through the coursework will provide students with tools to identify historic and contemporary tensions around race and difference, map economic and racial disparities over time, strengthen their own identity development, address bias in their communities, and contribute to their overall critical consciousness and civic mindedness competences. They also focus on the 21st century graduate, and ultimately facilitate students' interest in pursuing their future ideas in terms of ethnic anthropology, Human Rights Studies, as they move through their, you know, their own visions for what their future will look like. We have 10 course objectives that have been developed by our syllabus committee, and 10 essential questions. I'm going to share with you a little bit about what those learning objectives are.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 Sure.
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 So we've done great things like:

understanding the construct of race, and why and how it was developed.

Investigate the evolution and development of African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino identities, including intersections with indigenous and other identities.

Analyze how race power and privilege influence group access to citizenship, civil rights and economic power.

Examine the scope and legacy of resistance that has been integral to African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino histories.

Articulate the integral role, African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino communities have played in shaping us society, economy and culture.

Those were the first five and just the words that follow are really action oriented. Moving on: 

Reimagining new possibilities and more just futures for our country and our world.

Exploring local and regional African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino communities, and comparing and contrasting those histories with national and international.

Examine examples of actions of these histories in addressing issues that are impacting their own communities, identifying resources and opportunities for them to engage, actively take on civic responsibility, and use the social studies increased cycle to take informed action.

And this will look like project-based for the most part. You know, it could take the form of interviewing someone in the community, field trips are that they are creating, songs they're creating. It's just really open to the teachers and the students. So we're really excited about those goals.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 So we have to address maybe some misinformation that is out there, and the public has probably seen on the internet, or read in the news regarding what's called critical race theory, which this is not. But I'd like you to maybe address that kind of thing and your experience in dealing with that over the past few years.
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 In terms of critical race theory, I would say that it has a role in supporting, you know, scholars, educators, politicians, and others, who are looking at intersections of race, racial disparities, and those kinds of things and how it impacts the well being, the quality of life of people. It really disaggregates data points to see what's going on and what we can do as a society to improve. 

Over the past two years, there was misinformation that this course was critical race theory, and highly politicized in Connecticut. So I've been hearing about Board of Education meetings where the topic came up, and parents had questions presented at different events throughout the state about the course and any ties related to critical race theory. And I can say that this course is a history course with history standards, and expectations for students. It's a frame that people may use to inform their thoughts and their practices in their beliefs. But it isn't something that teachers in this course have a unit of study or a lesson that they dedicate towards that.

So we give our students the opportunities if they hear about critical race theory in the news, I'm sure the teachers will discuss it. But we just want to be clear that with -- we have 11 units of study and very diverse makeups of schools in Connecticut, that the teachers are really invested in the history and what history brings to students and their own context.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 Thank you. We're, we really wanted to make sure we got that in to clarify that for people listening. But we want to get to some more positive things. Now, if you could share, maybe some stories of success that you've experienced with the program.
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 Yes, I'm real happy and excited, because for the last two years, the Department of Education and SERC and all of the wonderful scholars who have helped put this course together have been training 200-plus teachers. We have had a summer institute last year, and quarterly training for the teachers. And they've been about two days, two or three days a week. The Summer Institute goes for four days. And we have speakers about specific content related to African American history. We have bought in historians who are firsthand authors. So we've had Dr. Close who's at Eastern Connecticut [State University], we've had Dr. Foster speak to the teachers and present. 

We've also bought in other groups like Blues and Beyond who share, you know, the history of gospel music, blues music, all the way up through the current hip hop. And the teachers are really digging into it. Coming up this year, we're going to be moving into our second semester for the Puerto Rican and Latino history, so we have another lineup of historians and filmmakers that are going to support the teachers.

Another success that I'm really happy about is the GoOpen CT platform. It's a virtual platform that now houses the Course Documents, and we hope that we'll be able to support teachers by networking opportunities in that platform for teachers to share resources, lesson plans, and assessments and other things. We also have students who've presented what they've learned over the course of the year. And last year, we had a showcase where we had 12 schools participate. It was virtual, and the students presented their art, their poetry, their songs that they wrote. They had testimonials of who they learned about one student was excited about and fell in love with James Baldwin in all of his writings. They've taken field trips from New York City to Puerto Rico. So it's just really exciting to see the students themselves sharing, teaching and really enjoying the work that they're doing.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 That sounds excellent. And the last thing I wanted to get to with you, because libraries, by their nature support, access and education. I wanted to know how you feel public libraries can help. And also the people listening at home, how can they make a contribution?
 
 Paquita Jarman-Smith
 We have also hosted assistive technology demonstrations. We also feel that, that the library can can be a hub for families with children. And I know that you're doing these things as well, but it's really great to see when children and their families are playing together exploring books together, learning about literacy and self improvement. So we're open to everything. Some families may have interest in terms of nature and those kinds of things. So just be open to families in ways that they find helpful to them.

And since we're talking about Black history, African American history. The collections, if you have any questions about some books, we've reviewed a lot of children's books, and the SERC library can help you to enhance your collection. We feel that having those catalogs are really important for families, I use it a lot, because a lot of times you can't afford the books. So I take my grandson to the library, and we take out books, and that helps him with his own identity development. I don't want my grandson -- he's seven years old -- just to only know about Martin Luther King, I want him to learn about the scientists. We do a lot of gardening. So we're going to learn about harbor and the astronauts and people who are architects, politicians, I wanted to know about those things. And libraries are great resources for families.
 
 Ryan Keeler
 Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us, Paquita.
 
 Unknown Speaker
 You're welcome. I really appreciated being here. And I'm just thrilled that the course is getting, and having an opportunity to tell our story about the successes that students are experienced in this course. And, you know, how much it's a value to the community here in Connecticut. So thanks again for having us.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 My name is Michael Wheatley, and in addition to having worked at the Hamden Public Library for 17 years, I've been affiliated with Best Video Film and Cultural Center here in Hamden since 1985. Needless to say, I love films. For a glorious period of time in Charleston, South Carolina, I ran a small Art Theater. I've been thinking this winter about the past, especially how films have shaped my life. I'm not a big traveler. The furthest West I've been is South Carolina, for the South, Kissimmee, Florida, just south, slightly south of Disney World. But I was only two. You get the idea. The movies have taken me to places and introduced me to people that I would never have had the opportunity to be familiar with.

There was a small movie theater not far from our house in Fair Haven, Connecticut, called the Pequot. When I was eight or nine, my dad and I were walking to the theater one day and I got tired. So he picked me up on his shoulders and carried me the rest of the way was one of my first theatrical movie experiences, although it wasn't a children's movie. I believe it was "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" with Gregory Peck, a 1956 American dramatic film based on the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, the film focuses on Tom Rath, a young World War II veteran trying to balance his marriage and family life with the demands of a career while dealing with the after effects of his war service, and a new high pressure job.

I mention this as an introduction to a discussion about film, and Black Heritage or history month. I grew up in a mostly white Irish Catholic neighborhood and had very little contact as a child with people of color. I wasn't unusual, and my middle class white background continued through an all-male Catholic High School in the early 60s.

The 1959 film "Black Orpheus" was one of my first cultural film experiences as a teen, although culturally rich, filled with black performers and set during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, it was directed by a white French director, Marcel Camus. I saw the film on our local public TV station and recorded the music off the TV speakers with a small reel to reel tape deck and played it constantly. I grew up watching Sidney Poitier and listening and watching Harry Belafonte. But as with "Black Orpheus", their films were mostly created by white producers and directors.

The earliest film by a black director or producer that I remember was "Shaft" with Richard Roundtree, directed by Gordon Park in 1971 when I was 24, with a brilliant score by Isaac Hayes. The theme song "Shaft" by Hayes won an Oscar for Best Original Song, the first written by a person of color to get that award. The movies "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song", also from 1971 by Melvin van Peebles, and "Shaft" are credited as two of the earliest terms Blaxploitation films.

Blaxploitation was coined in August of 1972. By Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was proliferating offenses to the black community, and its perpetration of stereotypes, often involved in crime. I still remember the controversy when Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for playing a bad cop in "Training Day" in 2001. All of this leads me to one of my favorite Hollywood actors, Danny Glover.

Ask most people about Danny Glover's film history, and they might mention the "Lethal Weapon" series, or maybe even the Oscar winning "Places in the Heart" with Sally Fields from 1984. Later, he starred with Gary Busey in the Sci Fi blockbuster "Predator 2" from 1990. He also played the violent husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation of "The Color Purple", directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985, and as Lieutenant James McPhee in the Peter Weir film "Witness", that same year, these are all fascinating films worthy of discussion.

Danny was earning over $7 million a film by the time he got to Lethal Weapon four in 1998. He could have just lived the Hollywood sweet life, but that was never Glover's style. Born in 1946 in San Francisco to two postal workers active in the NAACP, Glover trained at the Black Actors Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater. Because of his love of theater, he founded the Robie Theatre Company in 1994 and named it in honor of the actor and concert singer Paul Robeson.

My first independent movie experience with Danny Glover was the award winning "To Sleep With Anger", directed by independent Charles Burnett in 1990. Harry Mention, played by Glover -- an enigmatic drifter from the South -- comes to visit an old acquaintance named Gideon, who now lives in South Central Los Angeles. Harry's charming downhome manner hides a malicious penchant for creating trouble. Danny won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for "To Sleep With Anger".

Glover has also invested his talents in more personal projects, including his work with director John Sales, such as the blues filled film "Honeydripper" from 2007; "Bopha!", directed by Morgan Freeman from a play by Percy Mittwoch in 1993, in which Danny plays a cop who is forced to choose between his job and his son in apartheid South Africa; "Mandalay" from 2005, directed by the fiercely independent Lars von Trier, a story of slavery set in the southern US in the 1930s; "Missing in America", also 2005, in which Danny plays a Vietnam War veteran with PTSD, who bonds with a half Vietnamese girl; and the 2000 film version of Athol Fugard's play "Bozeman and Lena" with Angela Bassett.

One of his recent works is "The Last [Black] Man in San Francisco" from 2019 reviewed by M.N. Miller on the website Ready Steady Cut. To quote "There are moments in Joe Talbots visionary film that left me with the feeling of being positively giddy from a satisfying fulfillment and then heartrendingly broken the next. Talbots personally emotive take on tradition, love, family loyalty, friendship, community, gentrification, and finding your place is an epic achievement of the soul. All of this is woven into our future, our past and our present while remaining uplifting. 'The Last [Black] Man in San Francisco' answers the call for those craving something different, genuine, more authentic than the franchise fare, remakes, or reboots of the world. They don’t make them like this anymore." All I can say about Danny Glover is the same. They don't make them like this anymore.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Films mentioned in this podcast were "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit", "Black Orpheus", "Shaft", "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song"", "Training Day", The "Lethal Weapon" series, "Places in the Heart", "Predator 2", "The Color Purple", "Witness, "To Sleep With Anger", "Honeydripper", "Bopha!", "Mandalay", "Missing in America" and "The Last Black Man in San Francisco". Thank you.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Hello, my name is Arianna Davis and I serve as a library page at Hamden Public Library, and as a podcast contributor for the Hamden Public Library Podcast. I'm excited to interview today two educators of Hamden Public Schools and a student of Hamden High School. Dr. Jennifer Vienneau is the Director of Social Studies for grades K through 12. Mr. Greg Trifone, is a social studies teacher at Hamden High School in Miss Ashlynn, is a senior at Hamden High School. In 2020, Governor Lamont announced that Connecticut would become the first state in the nation to require that high schools offer courses on African American and Latino Studies. The requirement is the result of Public Act 19-12, signed the previous year. After approval from the Connecticut State Board of Education, the next step was implementation on the local educational level.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Dr. Vienneau, Mr. Trifone and Miss Ashlynn are here to speak and share insight on how Hamden its administrators, teachers, as well as its students are acclimating to this new elective offering. Thank you so much to you all for joining me today.
 
 Greg Trifone
 Thank you for having us.
 
 Ariana Davis
 So my first question, I'll present that to Dr. Vienneau: looking retroactively, were there any previous roadblocks that may have existed for teachers who noticed a deficiency in the telling of the Black and Latino narrative in public schools?
 
 Jennifer Vienneau
 In my time at Hamden Public Schools, there's always been a desire to ensure that our courses be it at the elementary level or at the high school and middle school level, to be sure that they're accurately reflecting on the experiences of people from all backgrounds, and not just when there is a heritage month to acknowledge. We are always looking for new materials to include that present diverse perspectives. However, time and money are always the roadblocks. It takes time to find appropriate resources to use in class. And by appropriate I mean ones that are accurate, and also accessible to students at the respective grade level, bringing down some very deep topics to a degree that a younger child can understand.

At the secondary level, we've experienced budget cuts over the years that have led to reduce staffing, which limits the number of elective courses we can offer. And so that always ends up being a roadblock. Limited time to cover a broad range of history and the scope of a US history or World History course means somehow we have to prioritize what content or what stories are taught. And of course, when you have a history to tell with which you're not personally familiar, or even historically familiar, it makes people question their ability to teach something effectively.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for expanding on that, and really going into providing that foundation of our discussion as to what was lacking, as well as what can now be offered to really fulfill that need that needed to be addressed. I'd like to ask a similar question to Mr. Trifone, in your teaching and social studies, specifically American history. Did you notice a deficiency or a difficulty in really being able to expand on studies and teachings of the minority population?
 
 Greg Trifone
 I would say absolutely a deficiency existed and still exists every year, constantly trying to -- I teach US history along with our African American, Black, Puerto Rican, Latinos studies course. And the deficiencies that exists in our US history courses today are existent and obvious. Everything is still taught with a Eurocentric view. Now we incorporate -- and we've been working very hard to incorporate -- more stories, more narratives and different perspectives into our US history courses. But ultimately, when it is coming from a Eurocentric view, the addition of those narratives are going to sound just like that: additions instead of the core of the curriculum. So that's constantly a battle that we're trying to correct within our curriculum. And I would say that's one of the greatest things that teaching this course has given me, is an increased background knowledge on the stories of African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino history.

Going back to your question to Miss Vienneau, I would say one of the greatest deficiencies for teachers looking to increase those stories within their classrooms is unfortunately a lack of their own prior knowledge, because the same school system that taught us had those deficiencies present. So unless you were actively going out and searching those stories, there was going to be a lack of prior knowledge that needs to be filled in order to properly tell the stories of our whole population.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for explaining that in providing that important perspective. My next question is, was there a collective mood or response from the Social Studies department after the initial passing of the law? For example, were there any concerns about possible backlash from parents or members of the public in general?
 
 Jennifer Vienneau
 So absolutely, teachers across Connecticut were concerned that if they were teaching the course, they would fall under a spotlight and be open to all kinds of public scrutiny. And these are teachers who were even very thrilled that this legislation were passed. Teachers were concerned about things being taken out of context: what if a student shared a personal story or an opinion in class and others took offense to it? How would that reflect upon the teacher? There were also questions about what other new courses could be mandated after this one. And with the limited resources mentioned above, how would we structurally make that happen?

However, I think what was important to know is that this course is mandated under Public Act 19-12. It's state legislation. It doesn't matter how anybody outside "felt about it". This was happening. And I think from my perspective, I felt supported by the State Department of Education where Working with the State Education Resource Center, also known as SERC, to design a curriculum document with a committee that included not just high school teachers, but college professors and other community and historical members who had that content background and expertise that many of us lacked.

The goal was to ensure a more complete history, accurately capturing experiences of the people being discussed with as many firsthand accounts as possible. And the training that they provided with that in the content and how to open these conversations started in the summer and continued throughout the school year. We were lucky enough in Hamden to pilot the course last year as well. And I have to say that it just for me, as an outsider looking in, I felt like our district is going to be more prepared than I thought. And once I had Mr. Trifone taking the reins, I really was confident that we were going to have a fantastic course.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Wow, thank you for providing that insight into the work that went into the development of the curriculum. And it's always good to have that confidence in the educators that you have in place to be able to really teach this important information. I asked a similar question to Mr. Trifone. How did you feel about teaching this particular course, it really in setting a precedent for how this course would be taught in future years through Hamden public schools?
 
 Greg Trifone
 I was very excited to teach this course once Miss Vienneau told me that I would be. I had heard from students over the years, and I saw myself that the lack of Black and Latino narratives being told within our history classes was existent. So being able to be a part of the solution to that problem, really excited me. My biggest concern was one that I just shared: that my own deficiencies in my prior knowledge would impact this course. And I really wanted to make sure that the students taking this course, that I've fulfilled what they wanted to get out of it. Luckily, I have Miss Vienneau here to support, this state has done an excellent job providing a curriculum and then providing training on that curriculum. So any concern that I had beforehand was quickly resolved, because of the support of my school district and of the state.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you so much, to both of you for entertaining that question. My next question is, do you believe that teaching Black and Hispanic history will replace ignorance with cultural understanding? And if so, why or why not? And Dr. Vienneau, would you like to consider that question first?
 
 Jennifer Vienneau
 Sure. On its own, no, it will not. But I think it's start. I think this material needs to be taught and courses outside of the one high school elective. Similar to Mr. Trifone's earlier comments, I've seen some of those deficiencies in our other curriculum documents, and there's so much in this elective courses curriculum that I would love to feed into our core curriculum classes. I think too, you have to consider as an elective, only a small number of students will be taking this course. And sometimes it's students who don't need to have any more cultural understanding, maybe our audience isn't always who we really wish it would be in some of these elective courses. I think that, again, being a start, we have other legislation that was passed in 2021, mandating model curriculums K through 8, and bringing African American, Black, and Hispanic studies, as well as Native American studies, Asian American Studies, LGBTQ studies, racism into our earlier grades.

And between that and the state's work on our new social studies standards that will be coming out soon, we're really trying to focus on agency, representation, justice, inclusivity. And that means embedding some of these specific content examples for different grade levels at the appropriate time and the curriculum accessible to those students. And if the histories and experiences of all of these people are included in our classrooms, beginning in kindergarten, then we are making those steps that again, high school alone, it's going to make some changes, but not as much as it could earlier on.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for providing that line of thought the importance of being able to start early and and to really have that foundation to build on when it comes to what is taught in history in public schools. I'd like to turn over the question to our student, Miss Ashlynn, who is a senior at Hamden High School. What is your perspective? Do you believe that teaching Black and Hispanic history will replace ignorance with cultural understanding for the youth population?
 
 Ashlynn
 My answer is very similar to the last answer. It's a No. Because this course for one year in high school alone will not replace ignorance with cultural understanding. And a lot of the times to really understand more about what's going on, you have to do that research outside of school. And like the answer that was started before, maybe if courses like this were placed in schools before high school, as young as, as we say, kindergarten, things of that nature, maybe it would help more, but for it to be placed in -- as an elective at that -- for one full year, my answer is no. And the fact that it is an elective and not a required like civics, modern world history, US history, that means the issue because why is talking about Black culture, Latino culture an elective? And I feel like everyone should be educated, you know, no matter what race you are, where you come from. So my answer to that question will be no.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for providing that important perspective and explaining how really, again, starting from starting from the beginning, and having something to build on really has an impact on the education and cultural understanding of students. State data shows that only about 10% of all educators in Connecticut are non white. Dr. Vienneau, do you feel that the race of the educator teaching the class has an impact on the overall student learning experience?
 
 Jennifer Vienneau
 So from a content perspective, I would say no, and the reason comes with a story, I had a friend who is a black male educator tells me that he himself didn't know most of this history that was being presented in the African American, Latino electives curriculum. And he said, he himself had never been taught this in high school classes, and he only learned a handful of it when he enrolled in elective courses at the university level. And so I think in some ways, it's false to assume that just because a person has a background similar to that of the people being discussed in a course automatically qualifies them. However, I think when you're discussing a lot of these issues, and the impacts that historical events have had on various groups of people, it really helps when students have somebody of a similar background to share their ideas, to bounce opinions from, somebody who can really understand what that might have been like, we all have to acknowledge that our interpretations of historical and current events are shaped by our own personal experiences. And I would never be able to understand the experience of somebody who's of a different background than me. And that I think, would definitely offer a teacher from a minority background an asset, definitely have something that they could offer the students that I cannot.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for entertaining that question. And sharing that personal story as well. I offered the same question to Mr. Trifone. How did you feel about being able to take the lead in offering this course, and being able to have an impact on the overall student learning experience in this particular elective,
 
 Greg Trifone
 it was definitely a thought of mine of whether, you know, it was almost hypocritical of the school to have a white male teaching African American and Latino Studies. However, I've often found that students just want to learn, and that as long as you are there, and you're genuine, and you show them that this material, and this course and their learning experience matters to you, that's what most students want out of a teacher. Now, every student experience is going to be their own, and it's going to be based on the individual. So I'm sure that there are students who would rather this course be taught by a person of color, and quite frankly, I don't blame them. But I have loved teaching this course. And as long as my students know that I'm doing the very best that I can. That's all I can ask for.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for answering that difficult question. And That's a perfect segue to my question for Miss Ashlynn -- always important to get that student feedback. Are there any experiences or any other perspectives that you'd like to share? Since beginning to take this course, and what you have gotten out of it, and how you have benefited?
 
 Ashlynn
 I think at Hamden High, nine times out of 10, your teacher is going to be white. So when I saw on my schedule that I got this class, and I, I already knew Mr. Trifone, right. I knew who he was as a teacher. And so as a teacher, if it was anyone else, right, as a teacher when teaching a class like this, your approach has to be different. His approach to civics can't be the same approach with a topic or a course that he may not be familiar with. So I say that because in our class discussions, we're all we're all chiming in. And it can't just be him saying, this is the work, this is what you guys need to do. As he's guys, we're also educating him at the same time.

So it's, the classes are very different, versus civics and African American history, things like that. So it's all about the approach. Now I have an English teacher who is white, and she does teach African American and Puerto Rican literature. But to me, I'm not looking at your skin color I'm looking at how do you? How are you handling talking about certain heavy topics? What is your approach? Are you willing to hear others' ideas, because not -- just because of your teacher doesn't mean you also can't learn, right?

So his approach with the class has been very great. I love, I'm always a person who loves like, share my ideas and whatnot. So I love having these class discussions. And I think that when teachers are in a position to teach a course that they aren't familiar with, you got to make sure that they are the type of person who is open to hearing other's ideas. And they are the type of person who's open to being educated. And they don't just come in thinking they know everything.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you for sharing your insight, you definitely speak with words of wisdom. And I'm sure that that is also music to Mr. Trifone's, ears, too, to hear a student really showing appreciation for the work that that you put in into teaching that class. I'll also offer that question to Dr. Vienneau as well, if there are any experiences that you would like to share since the inception of the African American History and Latino course in Hamden Public Schools,
 
 Jennifer Vienneau
 I can say that from having observed that class both last year and this year, as Ashlynn had mentioned, the energy is different. It's discussion, it's sharing ideas. Once you get past the basic content, everybody is just as much a learner as they are a teacher, to make connections between their personal lives between past events and current events.

And it's just exciting to see the course grow from the pilot year, where we had about 23 kids to now our second year, where we have two classes of it. So over 40 students, and it's definitely as Ashlynn mentioned, a course that I'd love more students to be part of I wish I had funding so that we could mandate, get another teacher on board. And I think, as a state, we're moving in the right direction. And maybe we'll see more of these courses, maybe we'll see a mandated course on women's history, on LGBTQ history, on indigenous history, and at the same time, help people start to see that all of these histories, they're all of ours, we don't need to label them as distinct. They don't live in their own space. It really is all together our history.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Wow, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed interviewing you, Dr. Vienneau, Mr. Trifone. And Miss Ashlynn. I also would like to extend another final question as well to Mr. Trifone to get your input as well.
 
 Greg Trifone
 Teaching this course has been very unique in my experiences with every other course that I've taught, as Ashlynn kind of touched on. This has been the course that I've learned the most from students, and every single one of my courses, I feel that discussion is one of the greatest tools for learning because it allows for different perspectives to be shared between students and between teachers.

And so often while teaching this course, I've had an entire class go by where I've barely said a word. And that is simply because the students are dominating the classroom. And the students are dominating a classroom in a way where they are bouncing ideas off of each other. They are disagreeing with each other. They're challenging each other's ideas. And it's such a student led environment that I simply sit back and I take in everything that the students are saying.

So, as a teacher, it's been so rewarding, being able to hear all the different perspectives being talked about in this course. And one of the less -- the messages that I would want to get across is, most people would think that this course, during the discussions, would all be everyone sharing the same ideas, and the same perspectives. But it couldn't be farther from the truth. Every student has a different perspective, regardless of their race, regardless of their gender. Every student has their own individual experiences that drives their own personal worldview. And the discussions that we are able to have on topics as important and as deep as we do in this class, I think, has been not only rewarding for me as a teacher, but I hope rewarding for the students as well.
 
 Ariana Davis
 Thank you so much for expanding on that in to all of you for entertaining my questions. I know that many will enjoy listening. And perhaps there'll be students who will be interested in taking the course who may have not been initially. So thank you again for your time, for your consideration, And I wish you all a wonderful rest of the school year.
 
 Jennifer Vienneau, Greg Trifone, and Ashlynn
 Thank you.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Good afternoon. My name is Mike Wheatley, and I'm here with Joy Burns. She's a researcher for the Witness Stones Project, is a member of the Amistad committee and Yale and Slavery working group. And good afternoon, Joy.
 
 Joy Burns
 Good afternoon.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 It's so good to talk to you today about the Witness Stones project. Can you tell us what the witness stones project is and how you became involved?
 
 Joy Burns
 So Dennis Culliton founded the Witness Stones Project in about 2017. At the time, he was a middle school teacher in Guilford, and he decided to do some lessons with his students about enslaved people who had lived in the town of Guilford. And a friend of his gave him the idea of placing the stones in Germany. They're what's called, I think, stumble stones that are in places where Jewish people had lived at the time of the Holocaust. And so Dennis got this idea and had stones manufactured. And the first stones were then placed in front of churches and colonial era houses in Guilford. And that's how Witness Stones was born.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Oh, that's awesome. And you got involved? How did you just hear about it?
 
 Joy Burns
 So I was talking to one of my friends who's a teacher at the Cold Spring School in New Haven about research that I had been doing about enslaved people and about the oldest houses in New Haven. And I was able to find information about a family that had lived at the Pardee-Morris house, which is now owned and managed by the New Haven Museum. The teacher went to the New Haven Museum, spoke to the education person who at the time was Khalil Quotap. And we did a project. Khalil invited Dennis and that's how we did our first project at the Pardee-Morris house in New Haven, in Morris Cove,
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm doing research for this and the researcher. This interview, I saw the witness stone has been involved in a number of collaborations with local schools and historical societies all over the state. Can you tell us about someone that you've been involved with? You mentioned when we were talking before about Cyrus Gibson and the Hamden project, can you tell us more about that also?
 
 Joy Burns
 So, I kind of did the same thing when it came to Hamden. I said, Where are the oldest houses, and did any enslaved people live there? And so as it happened, Judge Simeon Bristol, had enslaved what they would call servants. And one of them, her name was Rose, and she's actually mentioned in one of the Hamden Centennial books as having had a child, Cyrus, who was born in 1795 in that house, in Simeon Bristol's house.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Oh, wow. Yeah. So, is there an ongoing project with that?
 
 Joy Burns
 Yes. So, yes, we're in the process of doing a project with teachers at Hamden Middle School. And the things that we've been able to find out about Rose and Cyrus are just fascinating. Rose was married to Isaac Kirkland at the Congregational Church in Wallingford on October 30, of 1794. And then Cyrus is born November 8 of 1795, which leads us to think that Isaac Kirkland was probably his father. In 1812, Cyrus obtains a seamen's certificate. And we were able to find this in the records of the seamen's certificates at the Mystic Seaport records. And so Cyrus grows up and he gets on a ship and he travels the world.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 He travels. Yeah, so was he was he freed when he was traveling?
 
 Joy Burns
 Um, so we're right now we're assuming that he was freed when he reached the age of 21.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Yeah, the complications of children to enslaved people. I just, I was blown away by reading more and more accounts of that, and hadn't even thought of the, you know, I mean, yeah. We think of slavery as a southern issue. I mean, up here in the North.
 
 Joy Burns
 Right? Yeah.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 It definitely was not. How can our listeners find out more information about the Witness Stones,
 
 Joy Burns
 So you can go to www.witnessstones.org, and that's the website. There's also an Instagram page for the Witness Stones Project that posts about upcoming events and collaborations with schools and churches and historical societies. The Hamden project is a collaboration between the Mount Carmel Congregational Church and New Haven -- I'm sorry -- and Hamden Middle School. And so we're very excited. We've already met with the teachers once. And we look forward to the stone installation, hopefully this time in this spring, in a couple of months from now. Yeah, in the springtime.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Oh, that'd be great. That'd be great. I saw that Wallingford did quite a bit during, you know, their centennial during the -- well, the, I guess -- 350 years or so plus, you know, two or whatever. And their founding and that there, is there still an ongoing exhibit at the Noyce house and in Wallingford?
 
 Joy Burns
 I'm not exactly sure, there certainly may be because Choate, and a group of alumni and students are still working on a project that they're going to premiere sometime later this spring as well. Exploring the lives of other enslaved people in Wallingford. There were many very wealthy landowners who had enslaved people on their properties, and so they're very rich stories to tell in Wallingford as well.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Is there anything you'd like to add, I'm going to open the kind of forum to, for you to say anything that you want to, to our listeners.
 
 Joy Burns
 So the goals of the Witness Stones Project are to restore the history of the enslaved quite frequently, when we're walking around towns and cities, nothing in the built environment tells us that they ever lived there existed. You know, nothing tells us that they built Connecticut Hall, on the campus of Yale University. And so the Witness Stones Project aims to restore their stories. To research the histories, of enslavement, research the histories of their descendants, to tell more about how these folks exercised agency and how they came to be emancipated, to engage students who want to know this history. When we look at the testimony of students for educational justice. That happened a couple of years ago at the Connecticut State House and led to the legislation that said that Black and Puerto Rican studies will be taught in the state of New Haven. It was the students who brought this to us and said, We want to know this history. And so our aim is to bring it to them.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Yeah, that's that's really interesting. And it's really opened my eyes to a lot of the history of this area that I wasn't aware of wrote before and just, you know, doing this interview and became, I've become very interested in it. And I know that also on the Witness Stones Project people can donate to the project. You know, there's levels of as little as like $15 or, or so you know, anything I'm sure would help.
 
 Joy Burns
 Yes, anything is appreciated. Clint Smith, the author of "How the Word is Passed", recently wrote an article in which he mentioned the Witness Stones that was published in The Atlantic, and he also mentioned the Witness Stones Project in an interview with Christiane Amanpour, on her show. So that's brought us a lot more attention and donations, which we greatly appreciate. Of course, yeah.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 Yeah. That's great. That's great. We'll have more information. I'm going to try to put some links to on our website about the Witness Stones Project. I think this is a really fascinating project, and, you know, well beyond the time that it should have happened. So I really, really thank you for all of your attention to this.
 
 Joy Burns
 Oh, my pleasure. And so glad to talk to the, my, the town I live in about this, this work that we're doing.
 
 Mike Wheatley
 All right, thank you so much Joy.
 
 Michael Pierry
 That's all we have for you this month. Thanks again to our guests and to our interviewers. The Hamden Library Podcast is produced and edited by me, Michael Pierry. The movie segment was written and produced by Mike Wheatley. Transcripts of our episodes are available on our Buzzsprout page. Our transcription editor is Rebecca Coates. If you enjoyed this episode, please pass it along to someone else you think might enjoy it as well. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next month.