More than 60 years after the landmark ruling of Brown vs Board of Education, educational inequity persists in American public schools. In the 1960s, in response to consistent educational inequity, community members in Harlem pursued educational initiatives outside of the public school.
This exhibit explores the history and philosophy of the Academy for Black and Latin Education (ABLE), formerly known as the West Side Street Academy. ABLE relied on community and educational activism in order to promote social change. The exhibit will introduce the academy’s ideals and purposes, and discuss conflicts the academy had to face before sharing voices of students in order to reflect on the academy and its accomplishments.
Background
In 1968, West Side Street Academy started offering classes and tutoring to youth who had dropped out of the public school system. The academy was initially located in a storefront on 109 West 104th Street. One year later, in 1969, the academy was not only renamed to Academy for Black and Latin Education (ABLE), but also moved one block further north to 73 West 105th Street. Although located south of what is usually considered Harlem geographically, ABLE was a response to the educational conditions Black and Latinx students faced more broadly and closely collaborated and interacted with the Harlem community.
Although the idea of founding West Side Street Academy was initiated by a group of white residents, the program was intended to be run by the broader community, including Black and Latinx members. The academy was modeled after the Street Academies of the Urban League, whose members shared their ideas and approaches with the founders of West Side Street Academy during numerous meetings. West Side Street Academy meant to provide youths in the community with meaningful education, to get young people off the streets and motivate them to continue their education. West Side Street Academy emphasized that classes in Black and Latinx history and literature would be crucial in order to create a sense of pride in the students and ultimately criticized the lack of this history and a focus on a white mainstream perspective in public school curricula. The initial goal was to use education to interrupt the “cycle of poverty and welfare dependency” and offer meaningful alternatives in order to support individuals to become independent and self-sufficient community members.
[Previous caption: A report of the West Side Street Academy, later known as the Academy for Black and Latin Education (ABLE), that details intended aims and goals for the organization. The report summarizes ABLE’s hope for community, business, and academic contributions and involvement in the organization.]
Community Involvement
While the original group of founders were mainly white professionals, they sought out Black and Latinx community members who would do most of the actual planning and running of the academy. In addition, those involved had to be familiar with the community and the needs of the students.
Thus, both the director and the first streetworker at the academy were Black members of the community. Dave Walker, the director of West Side Street Academy and later of ABLE, was the former assistant director of Frederick Douglass Community Center and had been part of the community for a long time. Vernon Douglas had lived in this neighborhood as well and had attended PS 163 and JHS 54. Later, he struggled with drugs and eventually moved to Brooklyn in order to receive therapy. After rehabilitation, he moved back to the Upper West Side in order to live in his former neighborhood and help others, including those who were beginning to get involved with drugs. Thus, he was hired as a streetworker for ABLE. Streetworkers were community members who had left public school without graduating themselves who would try to connect with other young people who had just dropped out of school in order to motivate these youths to complete their secondary education in the academy.
While the academy started off bearing strong similarities to the Urban League Street Academies, this particular academy transformed quickly into a true communal effort, pursuing more radical ideas; this is also reflected in the name change from West Side Street Academy to Academy for Black and Latin Education (ABLE), embracing the students’ identities rather than focusing on the West Side. In order to keep their local autonomy and not depend on the Board of Education or large corporate donors, ABLE relied on fundraising, community businesses and philanthropic organizations to support the academy financially.
[Previous caption: A summary of an interview with Bobbi Mahoney and Vern Douglas discussing the origins, details, and needs of the academy. The program is looking for volunteers to teach 25 high school drop-outs. The document indicates that the program staff feel they need a black teacher and a teacher who speaks English and Spanish. They explain their mission as aiming to prevent school dropouts and drug addictions.]
Above: Able Summer Concerts
[Previous caption: A description of the ABLE summer concerts, seeking participants and performers, emphasizing the importance of community engagement.]
Organizational Approach
In addition to highlighting the importance of community involvement, the name change from West Side Street Academy to Academy for Black and Latin Education also speaks to the organizational approach of the academy. While the majority of those organizing ABLE between 1968 and 1970 had been white, middle class residents, the academy attempted to pursue a more egalitarian approach, including a diverse set of voices. Shortly after founding the academy, the organizers were looking for suggestions by the community on useful, relevant curriculum ideas and sources of free teaching aids and other materials. Instead of dictating what the curriculum of ABLE should look like, they attempted to include the community. The academy further intended to encourage broader involvement through a weekly meeting of all those interested, in order to continue a re-evaluation and improvement of the program. Thus, it is not a surprise that the academy’s name changed just one year after its founding, becoming more suitable to its student body and the academy’s focus.
This sentiment is emphasized in one of their first reports, in which ABLE’s organizers explain “that the effectiveness of the program was dependant [sic] upon black and Spanish members of the community running the program to meet the need of their community. It was felt that if the program was to be truly for the community it must in a very real sense be of the community.”
The inclusion of the community could be read as evidence that ABLE’s white members realized that their own lived experiences may differ from those of Black and Latinx people in the neighborhood. In order to truly serve Black and Latinx members, those voices needed to be heard and acted upon.
[Excerpt - p. 3] [Previous caption: A part of ABLE’s report detailing its intended approach and organization.]
Curriculum
The Academy for Black and Latin Education aimed to be both for and of the community. Consequently, the academy hoped that students who graduated from ABLE would return eventually in order to support others growing up there. In that way, the ultimate goal of a self-supporting, socially stable community could be achieved. Subsequently, the engagement of the community within the academy was an essential part of the curriculum. For ABLE, pedagogy, didactics, as well as interpersonal interaction was just as important as the content that was taught. Therefore, basic knowledge in English, math, science, history, and social studies formed the core of the curriculum, but all centrally incorporated Black and Latinx culture. In addition, classes were small and informal, including discussions rather than lectures, as well as a lively exchange of ideas. This exchange was not only limited to the classroom but continued beyond.
[Excerpt - p. 4] [Previous caption: A part of ABLE’s report detailing its intended curriculum.]
Black and White Relations
In the late 1960s, the relationship between Black and white activists was a contentious issue, as some white activists seemed to be pushing the struggles for civil rights in directions that differed from what Black leaders were then wanting. Consequently, there was a widely shared sentiment among Black and Latinx activists to distance their own struggles from those struggles fought by white activists. This was essential for many Black and Latinx activists in order to achieve true positive social change for their communities.
The following newspaper clipping from the West Side News, published on October 17, 1968, exemplifies this growing tension as it provides some insight into the opposing views of white and Black organizers on the philosophy, approach, and curriculum of ABLE. In the discussion depicted in the clipping, one of the white volunteers suggests William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner as reading for the academy’s curriculum. In reaction to Styron’s 1967 published novel, numerous Black intellectuals responded in an edited volume by John Henrik Clarke criticizing Styron’s representation of Nat Turner. They argued that Styron portrayed Turner as a coward and as prone to sexual assault of white women and thus reinforced a stereotypical picture of Black men. In the newspaper clipping, Vernon Douglas, one of the few Black members involved in the academy at the time, opposes this book for similar reason and adds that it reinforces negative stereotypes about Black people. He argues that the purpose of the academy should be to challenge these stereotypes and to teach Black and Puerto Rican children a different history.
Additionally, a white member of the planning committee suggests to move the academy’s curriculum towards vocational education, to which Vernon Douglas raises strong objections, arguing that this is what historically has happened to Black and Puerto Rican students–they end up in vocational programs instead of receiving rigorous academic education, thereby restricting their opportunities.
This newspaper clipping then raises the question of whether or not white people are (or should be) in the position of deciding what Black and Puerto Rican children should learn reflecting some of the problems and limits inherent in white initiatives for Black advancement. This example ultimately highlights the importance of Black community members running the academy and actually having decision-making power.
Conclusion
[previous caption: A newsletter written by ABLE’s teachers and students describing the academy’s ideals, goals, and accomplishments in both English and Spanish. The newsletter also has statements from former students as well as poetry samples from the summer’s workshop.]
As detailed in this teacher- and student-produced newsletter, students pursued research projects on their own neighborhood and background in order to understand broader structural conditions that influenced their lives. One of the students explained in this newsletter that “[ABLE] introduced us to a meaningful education that will someday help our Black and Puerto Rican people. Here at A.B.L.E. they have made us aware of our environment, its social make-up and its need for progress. Through our Community Research Program held at A.B.L.E., we have gathered an insight on the neighborhood’s social and economic problems and how they influence the lives of the people. We, the student body of A.B.L.E., hope that by our work with the community, we will make the people within the vicinity change their outlook of it, just as A.B.L.E. has made us change our outlook by not putting the blame on one another but on the society that oppresses us.”
Thus, students at ABLE realized that their own education was part of a collective struggle for social justice. This approach to education then also empowered students and helped them to realize that they had the power to change conditions in their community themselves. This particular student argues that they will pass on their knowledge to their community in order help create a sense of solidarity and highlight that they are fighting a collective struggle. This quote clearly reflects the political approach to education at the academy and highlights that education at ABLE went beyond content-knowledge, but instead focused on the importance of community, solidarity, and ultimately social change.