Black Journal: Episode 34 | Digging for Black Pride

Black Journal: Episode 34 | Digging for Black Pride

Amid the rundown buildings and deteriorating streets of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section, young children under Project Weeksville are “Digging for Black Pride,” and coming up with artifacts which link them to their 19th century ancestors. Black Journal focuses on this project in the second show of the 1971-72 season.

Under Project Weeksville, black children are learning of early Bedford-Stuyvesant residents who held off white raiders during the Irish Draft Riots of 1863. With the help of historian Robert Swann and archaeologist William Harley, they are discovering that a highly organized, sophisticated self-sufficient black community existed in Weeksville during the early 1800s. Research shows that the community created and administered various social and economic institutions including homes for orphans and the aged and a community insurance plan. Oral history, provided by elderly local residents, reinforces Project Weeksville’s finds.

At Public School 243, black children with the aid of Project Weeksville are also reaching back to their African past and figuratively digging for black pride. Black Journal visits a kindergarten class, where Barbara Jackson teaches children about their African heritage. The children are seen learning African songs, and chanting “once upon a time all the black children in the world came from Africa.” “Black Journal” is a production of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

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This video used in this post can be found here – https://youtu.be/bQz35_ZCQs8?si=zJftOa4FgIAuS6vw