By g.r. mattox

Today, with steadily growing street violence and a constant barrage of negative images in the media giving fuel to each other, Freedom Schools have reemerged to offer an educational and cultural solution to the widening breaks in our community.

The rebirth of Freedom Schools began in 1993 as part of a program set up by Dr. Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC). It evokes the spirit and tradition of sankofa, a West African word that translates to mean "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward." It also draws on the vision, philosophy and experience of those who conducted those schools in churches, on back porches and under trees during that summer of 1964.

Like the original model, CDF Freedom Schools are partnerships between the CDF and local organizations and draws connections between the students and the local community and the larger national and world context. The key elements of the CDF Freedom Schools are Educational Enrichment and Cultural Awareness, Parental Involvement, Intergenerational Leadership and Community Involvement and Social Action. Their purposeful mission is to recapture the self-acceptance, self-reliance and dignity of Black people and maintain the integrity of our community. CDF Freedom Schools are now being woven into the fabric of the educational landscape.

Plainfield High School

One was started six years ago by the late community activist Pepsi Charles and Veronica Taylor Hill with the Plainfield, NJ School District. Denise Shipman, a the Extended Day Coordinator for 13 schools in Plainfield, is Project Director.

"The first year we had Freedom School we serviced about 50 kids," Shipman, who is also a veteran of Desert Storm, explained. "The next year we were fortunate to gain the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, which gave us Federal funds to run Abbot School programs." This enabled the school system to expand both their after school programs and increase the number of those attending the summer Freedom School to about 140 students.

The structure of Freedom Schools includes an integrated reading curriculum that Shipman says is the meat and potatoes of the program. The mechanics of reading are not taught, but carefully selected books and activities surrounding them serve to illuminate, delight, inspire, and stimulate a love of reading. "The books are culturally related to our history," Shipman explained, illustrating an example that took place this year when the students read a biography of Ray Charles. "Each day the students would read a portion of the book, and by the end of the week they finished it. Part of the design of the class is for the instructors, or servant-leaders, to make the book come alive," she continued. This was done by encouraging the students to write poetry or short stories, perform skits, listen to Charles’ music and have discussions about what they read and relate the history of what they read to what’s going on in their life today.

After reading one of the weekly books about a young girl who wanted a good future but whose mother was on drugs, a student confided to Shipman that she was in that same predicament. "She expressed to me that she related to the young girl in the book," Shipman said. "She was really reaching out for help.We were able to provide that young lady with some support services that are not just from Freedom School. We try to support the child holistically to make sure the child is healthy and well-cared for."

At the beginning of each day in each CDF Freedom School there is the practice of Harambee, a time of informal sharing when children and staff celebrate and support themselves and each other. Harambee, which in Kiswahili dialect means "lets pull together," creates an energy force making for a positive atmosphere. "We’re motivating them," Shipman said. "That’s the one time during the day where we’re all together; singing the same songs, chanting the same chants, having a moment of silence to recognize that there is a great day full of opportunities to be taken advantage of."

CDF Freedom Schools programs are staffed primarily by college-age young adults who serve as positive role models and mentors. The training is designed to teach them how to put their leadership skills into action. They are then responsible for the day-to-day care and nurturing of the children, serving as facilitators in the classroom and as leaders of community outreach activities.

The Servant-Leader Interns also function as strong advocates for children by developing in them basic advocacy and team-building skills, and helping them become knowledgeable about the academic and emotional nurturing of children. "I try to interview graduates from Plainfield High," Shipman said; "kids that have experienced the same things that the students are going through now."

Bethany Baptist Church

This was the first year for the Freedom School operated by Newark’s Bethany Baptist Church, which opened its doors to 47 students. Site Coordinators Tynesha McHarris and Lawrence "Tory" Winn agreed that the consciousness of the participants was raised by the program, through activities that included social action projects including a neighborhood clean-up campaign or watching the screening of the documentary on the life and murder of Emmett Till.

The program also helped parents and students see that reading can be enjoyable. "The Freedom School allows the parent to take part in their child’s education in a fun way," McHarris said. Both site coordinators consider literature and leadership the bedrock of this program. "The books that we read in the program are about issues in our community, whether it be self-esteem for a young woman, or gang involvement for a young man or it may be our history like in the case of Emmett Till," Winn said.

McHarris agrees that the literature featured in the program makes the students look at themselves from another perspective: Through the literature the students become aware of the social and political issues that exist, and the servant-leaders are an example in themselves. "Because they have a sense of what’s going on in the world, and have brought their college classroom experience to the Freedom School classroom, their input makes the lessons more meaningful," Winn said.

Grace Baptist Church

This is the fourth year for the Freedom School at Mt. Vernon, NY’s Grace Baptist Church where Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson is senior pastor. Henrimae Bell, a former executive with IBM, came on board as director in mid-April. By the end of the month she was being trained to run the program in Knoxville, TN.

Bell believes that God put it on someone’s heart to put her name forward as program director. Explaining her motivation to become and remain a part of this program she said, "Someone needs to tell our children our story from the Middle Passage, through slavery and right through segregation and integration. My feelings are that a generation of our children who have neither experienced nor been taught this information about who they really are have missed out on a lot. We have a prime opportunity to correct that."

Bell recruited corporate entities like JPMorgan Chase, the United Way and the Mount Vernon School District to sponsor field trips and make presentations to parents. The 100 students attending Grace Freedom School ranged from Kindergarten through 12th grade, with high school juniors and seniors acting as Junior Interns, working along side the Servant-Leaders.

The classroom curriculum went from Monday to Thursday for five weeks under the theme "I Can and Must Make a Difference. All materials and related activities reinforce the weekly theme and how and why they should make that difference in each area. Fridays were set aside as field trip day. These “Fun Fridays” were spent learning various aspects of community building at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the New York Botanical Garden, and examples of history and culture at the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History.

Parental involvement is a key component of the Freedom School program The school partnered with parents in presenting weekly workshops about writing resumes, career building, being an advocate for their children’s education and strategies for managing their behavior.

One parent, Jacqueline Mason, says it was not only a rich experience for her daughter, 10-year old Amanye Bashiri, but also an invigorating change for her. "Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, its gets better," she said of the four summers her child has attended the program.

Mason took the summer off from her career in the financial services industry to volunteer with the Grace Freedom School. "In my spirit, it gave me so much," she said ."It was so much more than a traditional summer program, it was something the children truly wanted to come to and they didn’t want it to end. The program seemed so effortless, but you know that there was a lot of work that went into it at every level."
"It’s fun and I learned a lot of things that will help me later in life," Amanye said. I liked the art and the stories and going on trips, especially to the Botanical Garden, and I learned how to type on the computer."

Bell considers Freedom Schools the second Civil Rights Movement. "We want to strengthen our children to make them better people for what they choose to do in the future. Freedom Schools provide an opportunity to do that.
|"Everything we do is about passing on to the next generation," Shipman says. "We want them to know that we believe in them and want them to succeed.

Captions
Deacon Henrimae Bell, director of the Freedom School at Grace Baptist Church
Students and staff at Grace Baptist Church

Plainfield
Students from Plainfield Freedom School mine for gems at Cross River, PA
Servant Leader at the Plainfield Freedom School Jayson Hicks, a junior at Rutgers University, prepares students for a reading assignment.