By Felician Masumbuko

February 20 marks the start of a two-day African and African-American Diversity Conference in McKinley High School.

Crystal-Boling Barton, the principal at McKinley as well as the conference chair said, “Unless young folk are taught they will never know about all of those movements and organizations that came before."

Barton said that although the school district has many qualified teachers, very few have taken courses about history of people of colors or African-American history courses and that in itself makes it difficult to teach that material.

“People can’t teach what they don’t know,” said Barton

Topics for the conference include:

• “The History of the Civil Rights Movement,” by Henry Durand
  
• "Religions Roots in African-American History,” by the Rev. Darius Pridgen
  
• "Politics and Its Impact on the African-American Community,” by Anthony Neal
  
• "African Americans in Cyberspace,” by Pharra DeWindt
  
• "The Negro Leagues in Buffalo and Western New York,” by Joe Marren

(Click here to learn more about the conference)
The main guest speakers will be:

• Clyde Barrow, director of circulation for the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest African- American newspaper. He will present, “Discovering America from an African American Perspective”
  
• E. Dorian Gadsen, retired administrative judge and author of “Resolving the Dilemma: Closing the Divide and Progress against the Tide.” He will discuss “Diversity in America: it is not a melting pot, it's a stew!

According to Barton, so many things have been written about African-American history, but as years go by, people discover that some parts of African-American history never made it into books. The great danger is that whatever was actually written is being forgotten every single day.

"Minute by minute, hour by hour, we lose our history, we lose our power,” Barton quoted an African proverb.

"Diversity is fine, but it is a problem if you want everybody to do the same. People in different cultures do things differently and it is fine. That is what makes the world so beautiful,” said Florence Flakes-Rozier, liaison person for the African and African-American Infusion, a curriculum being developed to allow a clearer understanding of African history.

"Most people believe that lots of Jamaicans are Rastafarians and they are not,” said Shaun Scott, a 12th - grader and one of the student presenters.

"Folk have come together for the purpose of learning and teaching,” said Barton,
“Until a lion writes its own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” she added.