After someone secretly snapped photos of an assignment, a whistleblower exposed how the school forced children to celebrate “black communism” and hold a mock “Black Power” demonstration.
William D. Kelley School is ranked as one of the worst-performing schools in Pennsylvania, as only 13 percent of its students will reach basic literacy levels by graduation. Its student body is 94-percent black, and every single enrollee is categorized as “economically disadvantaged.” However, despite its abysmal academic quality and repeated failure at equipping students with basic education, the school seems to believe that there are more important qualities to teach young minds.
In the push for social justice, the public education system has adapted curricula to fulfill certain politically progressive standards. William D. Kelley School sparked controversy after a journalist received whistleblower documents and spoke to a school source that exposed radical lessons in which students were required to participate.
Last year, a fifth-grade teacher at the William D. Kelley School designed a social-studies curriculum to celebrate the political radical Angela Davis, praising the "black communist" for her fight against "inequality" and telling students to "define communist" in favorable terms. pic.twitter.com/zeUAs8vWZs
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 11, 2021
In a bombshell exposé, City Journal contributing editor Christopher Rufo published assignments allegedly required by the school, which included praising “black communist” Angela Davis and holding a mock “Black Power” rally. The 10- and 11-year-old children were told to pretend they were holding a demonstration to free Davis, who was once jailed on charges of murder and kidnapping before being acquitted.
Rufo explained that the children were instructed to march around and hold up signs which read “Black Power,” “Black Power Matters,” “Free Angela,” and “Jail Trump.” “They chanted about Africa and ancestral power” as they demonstrated on the school’s stage.
At the end of the unit, the teacher led the ten- and eleven-year-olds into the school auditorium to "simulate" a Black Power rally to "free Angela Davis" from prison, where she had once been held on charges of murder. The students chanted "Black Power!" and "Free Angela!" pic.twitter.com/oUYdHHvX8v
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 11, 2021
Rufo writes that the superintendent recently released an “Antiracism Declaration” vowing to tear down “systems of racial inequity” and outlined training programs that were segregated for white and black teachers.
Similarly, the local teachers’ union published a video condemning America as a “settler colony built on white supremacy and capitalism” that “lifts up white people” above minorities. The video goes on to explain that the only solution is to overthrow the “racist structure of capitalism,” provide “reparations for Black and Indigenous people,” and “uproot white supremacy and plant the seeds for a new world.”
Despite this abysmal academic performance, administrators have gradually abandoned traditional pedagogy in favor of political radicalism. They recently commissioned murals of Angela Davis and Huey P. Newton, who represent the Communist and Black Panther revolutionary movements. pic.twitter.com/AHbtMfPOUa
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 11, 2021
The children were allegedly given an assignment painting radical activist and former Black Panther Angela Davis as a black hero and freedom fighter.
- Describe Davis’ early life.
- Where did Angela Davis study?
- How did the Birmingham church bombing in 1963 of Davis’ childhood acquaintances contribute to her thoughts about violence?
- In your own words define the term injustice and inequality.
- Read the following quote from Angela Davis below: What do you think about what she is saying? (Q: “I am no longer accepting the things I can not change. I am changing the things I can not accept.” -Dr. Angela Davis)
The assignment made mention of Davis’ acquittal but glossed over the charges and allegations. It also asked students to answer the questions with a positive response.
“She spent 18 months in prison awaiting trial and pleaded not guilty and was eventually acquitted on charges of murder and kidnapping.”
The local teachers’ union produced a video denouncing the United States as a “settler colony built on white supremacy and capitalism,” which has created a “system that lifts up white people over everyone else.” pic.twitter.com/tmF3mG8NOQ
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 11, 2021
More than half of all adult Philadelphians are “functionally illiterate,” and now the students of William D. Kelley School are destined to join their ranks, thanks to the educators who claim to care so much about their future success.
At the same time that William D. Kelley School vows to combat racism and inequality, it is keeping its black students illiterate and ignorant. The school that claims to value blackness to the point of idolatry is carrying out the most racist abuse against its own black students, threatening to keep them perpetually unable to function in the world.
