Black History Matters is an educational campaign that promotes African American history in our communities. I, Taylor Little, started the campaign last year during 11th grade, after I realized how negatively the omission of this history affected my childhood. I started connecting the dots about how the omission and often inaccurate or partial truth of our American history in classes causes our students to be unprepared to discuss current events, race issues, or even know where half of the things they own come from. I started a petition to the Kentucky Education Committee asking that require in-depth African American history in our American classes. This ensures that all students get this very valuable information. The campaign also works to promote history within the community by hosting events and doing local speaking engagements.
I am currently in the process of working on a proposal to the Muhammad Ali Center requesting that they will be the advisors of the program and house the Black History Matters Council of Students next year. Right now, I am the head of the foundation and am currently on my way out the door due to graduation. I am hoping to give the campaign to the Ali Center so that more students can get involved and be the new faces of the campaign, while also having a supportive adult administration.
My future plans for the organization is to host a professional development session for teachers across Kentucky to teach the history to them so that they can pass the word along in their classrooms. It will also highlight resources teachers can use in their classrooms. If all works out, this professional development session will become a paid for session by the JCPS school board.
The campaign has a website that gives supporters updates about what is going on. It also has a resources page that gives people links to information about Black history based on the topic because we cannot wait for government action and we must initiate the learning ourselves.