Good evening. It is 5 35, and we're, I'm calling the June 5th meeting of the LCPS Equity Committee to order. And we are going to start by asking, is there anyone who would like to have public comment? I didn't have a sheet over there, but I am open to anyone who would like to have public comment. You can start to prepare yourself. Okay. Glasses For the committee members. You receive the minutes as a part of a communication from, uh, the administration.
Um, do I have a motion to approve the minutes or were there some corrections noted. Tom Ketchum. All motion to approve. I have a motion. Do I get a second? Cassidy Kavanaugh. Second. Thank you. It has been properly moved and seconded that we accept the minutes of the meeting from the May, um, meeting. And, um, so we will of course file them with the school board for the next five years. Okay? Mm-hmm. Oh, I'm sorry. All in favor of, of accepting the, the,
the minutes that were approved. Let it be known by raising your hand. Okay. We have a majority of the members. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. See, that's what I need you for. Uh, Okay. Our next item on the, um, agenda is tonight's presentation, which is the celebration of Juneteenth. I want you to know the committee to know for those. There were some of you at the meeting, but at the last school board meeting, we actually gave a proclamation for Juneteenth 2025.
And I'd like to share that with you because our panel is going to be talking about Juneteenth. Whereas Juneteenth observed annually on June 19th commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas were informed of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. And whereas Juneteenth represents the triumph
of freedom over slavery, the strength and unique historical experience of African-American, African, and black Americans, and the ongoing journey toward justice, equality, and civil rights in the United States. And whereas in 2021, Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, becoming a symbol of the nation's commitment to reflecting on the past
and building a more inclusive future. Whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday in 2020 as a celebration of black culture, history, resilience, joy, and freedom, which are American values. And whereas the Loudoun County School Board acknowledges the importance of teaching history in the full complexity and truth, including the legacy of slavery and the contributions of African Americans to our nation.
Whereas African Americans make up 8.2% of residents in Loudoun County and 7.3% of students in Loudoun County public schools. And whereas LCPS is committed to fostering inclusive learning environments that honor the dignity culture and contributions of all people, and to empowering students to become thoughtful, inform citizens who value diversity and justice. And whereas, especially on Juneteenth, we acknowledge
and highlight the many achievements and profound contributions made by African Americans, Africans, and black Americans, to the economic cultural edu educational and political development of Lauten County, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States. And now therefore be it resolved that the Lauten County School Board recognizes and honors Juneteenth as a day of reflection, education, and celebration within our school community.
And an opportunity to engage in learning that will ensure improved relationships and respect and improved collective sense of belonging and freedom from prejudice and hate, be it further resolved that the school board encourages all students, staff, and families to engage in meaningful learning experiences, classroom discussions and community events that commemorate Juneteenth and promote equity awareness and unity.
Having given that proclamation, I want to introduce to some and present to others, um, our facilitator for the, I forgot our facilitator for the evening, pastor Michelle C. Thomas. And we know that she is the president of the Lauten branch of the naacp, but we also know that she lives her culture every day. She lives her community every day. And so it is that I've asked her to facilitate this panel.
And if you note, we had panels for the past two months, and this month we have a panel for Juneteenth. May I introduce to some and present to others, pastor Michelle C. Thomas. Alright. I'm a pastor. I like this mic. You want this? You wanna see here? Yeah, sure. Then I'll keep the panel together. I just thank you so much for having, uh, me here tonight. I also wanna recognize that I am the, uh, founder and CEO of the Loudoun Freedom Center. The Loudoun Freedom Center is a education hub dedicated
to preserving, protecting, and promoting African American history. We also have a new initiative in the last, I think three years, um, to creating opportunities for underrepresented people to get into it. So, uh, that's the breadth of the Louder Freedom Center. Uh, I see many faces that have taken our trips, our field trips, or pd. If you've taken our pd, raise your hands or your kids have been on field trips with us, raise your hands. And so I'm so happy to be with you tonight.
Uh, I wanna introduce our esteem panelist, um, starting for the very end. That is the baby of the bunch. Um, former Woodgrove High School student. You guys may know, um, uh, Phil Thompson, attorney Phil Thompson. He was the past, uh, president of the NAACP branch, um, former Commonwealth Attorney Budda bi. And, uh, your Esteem member, equity member Robin Burke. Can you just give him a hand? I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't give the, I just said the baby. Okay.
Um, so the baby of the bunch is Peyton Arnette, um, and she's a graduate from Wood Grove High School. Uh, what year was that? 2023. 2023. And she's a current Tuskegee University student and doing very well. So we're excited about it. Um, I'm gonna jump right into the panel. Let me just tell you how the rest of the night is gonna go. We're gonna have about 30 minutes of a panel discussion. Uh, we are literally taken from the theme, uh, Juneteenth Freedom, deferred Truth preserved, Juneteenth Freedom, deferred Truth preserved.
And so we're gonna talk about a couple of segments that just discuss the nuances of Juneteenth. And, um, then we're gonna break out. And it is hard to divorce Juneteenth from our history because, uh, it is so much misinformation around Juneteenth. As a matter of fact, it's a sad, um, state of affairs that Juneteenth is after kids get outta school because they won't have the privilege to really, um, dig, do a deep dive into Juneteenth.
Um, so let's open it up. We'll just have opening, uh, remarks from our esteemed guest. Uh, I wanna hear about what you know about Juneteenth. What do you know about Juneteenth, Peyton? Good evening, everyone. Um, well, Juneteenth is the oldest national celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States of America. Um, we know about the Emancipation Proclamation general order number three as its other known that was given on January 1st, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln that announced the freedom or ending of slavery
of the enslaved African Americans in the South, um, at the time during the Civil War. And then we know Juneteenth to be on June 19th, 1865, because that was when general, um, Gordon Granger is his name, major General Gordon, Gordon Granger, um, arrived to announce to the last group of enslaved African Americans that they were free, and that they were able to, um, uh, operate in the status of humanity and operate in the status of personhood rather than what they had formally been known as is, um, just objects
and things to be traded and sold To push us to we record. Oh, okay. Okay, okay. That, that's what pushed us to become, I mean, to have this holiday, um, it's a weird holiday. And I, and I say that because, you know, people don't know what to do. You know, we have a lot of events like this where people talk about black history and all that, but you know, what really is, is, is Juneteenth about, and it's about freedom, you know, plain and simple. Just like, just like 4th of July. It's about freedom. So I think it should be a little bit more celebratory in
that aspect that, that, that we're talking about the last, the last individuals that were enslaved were actually freed at that point. And, uh, freedom's a very important element because I don't think people in this country understand that everybody didn't get their freedom. On 1776, the, the original inhabitants of this country, I worked, I represented a lot of Native American tribes, Apaches, uh, uh, Arapahoe, uh, and worked in the Native American area for 35 years. People don't know that they couldn't vote until 1920 till 1920s.
The original inhabitants couldn't vote in election until the 1920s. They didn't get their freedoms until the fifties when, you know, policies started to change and people were able to leave. You know, the reservation system was a little bit, was, was, was, was lacked up. Uh, people don't know that, uh, the Japanese Americans were interned, locked up like prisoners of war and they get their freedom back until 46. So I think that when you think about Juneteenth, and we understand, you know, what happened with African Americans, but you gotta think about across the board what, you know,
everybody didn't get their freedom. And I think that's what's important with this, with this holiday. And I think we, I should be a little bit more celebratory on the aspect of, of, of gaining your freedom and what that means. Good evening. So it's interesting, and, and thank you Phil, for making mention of the fact that, but for the murder of George Floyd, I sure as heck wouldn't have known what the heck Juneteenth was. I grew up in New York City, I went to, and there was a history buff, all these things. Never heard of it. George Floyd murder occurs. And then all of a sudden now we're starting to look at history in the broadest sense.
And we realize as a country we have laws, but the laws are not for everyone. And this was a great example to show that this law was in the books, on the books, it was made public. However, it wasn't made available to everyone. That was very important because of the fact that as, as, uh, most of you know, my background is the law. And I tried to associate everything with wanting to make sure that we are aware of what our rights are. Because if you're not aware of what your rights are, you don't have rights. Let that sink for a minute.
Because until we know what we are entitled to by law, we can't act upon it. And if we don't act upon it, then it doesn't exist for us. And if we don't act upon it, then we can't use it for our fellow citizens, for them to be al also be able to live by and be protected by the laws. So Juneteenth was a huge eye opener. 'cause again, it, it's, and, and George Floyd changed a lot of things for me because I realized over the course, and it's definitely a matter of age, not that I am OLD, but I'm getting there. It's a matter of this. The more the older you get,
the more you realize I don't know a hell of a lot of things. And I get annoyed and I get perturbed. 'cause I, as I said, I was a history buff. I take my classes, I am actually, you know, I'm a student. How come there's not an asterisk in my history book? If you don't wanna gimme a whole dag on chapter on this, why don't you gimme an asterisk point that says, by the way, back in 1865, this is what occurred. We didn't even get that. And we, I'll bring in another example of that. When, uh, the movie came out, hidden Figures, and it was about the, the, uh, the US going up in space, And The women who were behind making that possible
were African American women. For starters, one women, holy shucks, we are actually part of history. African American women, holy shucks, we are part of American history. And that was not made known because again, it's a pa fact that, that what we not introduced to it, were we not open to it? Were we not interested in it? I don't know. My life is a progression, but I'm hungry for it because I wanna know why we did certain things at certain points in our history, because we're revisiting a lot of these same things now. So for me, Juneteenth, it was
a maturation process because I got introduced to it to understand it a little bit more fully. But now it's also how do we apply it to our current events? So for me, African American, I attended Howard University, so HBCU, um, and that's when I began to realize the history behind Juneteenth. So, uh, growing up on the East Coast, like you Butta Connecticut and New York, um, when we would have these family gatherings, especially with African Americans, there was always something red present. So we had like red velvet cake or watermelon or something.
They'd be like, well, this is for Juneteenth. And I just thought it was because the cookout was in June. That was, I, I didn't know the correlation, honestly, until I was 18 years old and a freshman at Howard University. Um, am I embarrassed by that? Yes. Um, because that, that juneteenth or that celebration wasn't introduced to me in school at all. Never mentioned, um, African American history. Growing up on the East Coast was a footnote at best. Um, so my introduction to Juneteenth
and African American history was through my family oral history. I'm a direct descendant of the Hemmings family, the largest family enslaved by Thomas Jefferson. And so imagine me, I'm in second grade in Ridgefield, Connecticut, uh, African population, probably less than 1%. And when we get to the topic of Tomber, just I'm related. Everybody was like, excuse me. Yeah, no, you're not. I'm my dad. So, so you can imagine even introducing those topics, how, um, it, it, it would make me feel.
So I kept that kind of to myself. Um, also beauty, you mentioned Hidden Figures. So I knew the story. My grandparents went to West Virginia State College with Catherine Johnson, so I knew those stories. So there, um, that, I think that's where being African American, especially at my age and at this time, it's interesting to say the least interesting. And as my role now as the executive director of the Loudoun Freedom Center, I mean, my mind is blown. Every day stories that I thought I knew and had buttoned up
and had checked all the boxes, the box opens again. I was like, whoa, I didn't even know that. And that's what I'm experiencing even now with Juneteenth teaching. Sorry, is that okay? The teaching of African American history and other, um, parts of the African American experience must be normalized. And I will say that, um, Loudoun County Public Schools have gone through great lengths, um, to really revamp their teaching and to stamp out things that are, um,
problematic or incorrect. Um, they've gone through several iterations of curriculum, uh, reviews in fourth grade and sixth grade and seventh grade. Many of those I have personally worked on. Um, 11th grade, the adoption of, uh, field trips, um, uh, the journey to Freedom, heritage Field trips, um, trying to find support for teachers to help teach difficult content. Uh, but around the issue of Juneteenth, we see that Juneteenth is constantly being billed
as a Unity event, as a unity. Have you guys kinda seen that, that it's kind of being marketed or diluted as, or co co-opted as a Unity event? Uh, do you guys agree with that? Do you agree that Juneteenth is a unity event? Yes, ma'am. I, I would say, um, and I will say to from what everyone on the panel spoke about in knowing Juneteenth, I am blessed being the baby of the group to get the experience. And I'm only 20, and I've, a lot of people may not know,
but I've worked alongside Pastor Michelle on a lot of these projects, and I was in the LCPS system, so I saw the changes as they happened, live time going from fourth grade, we did our Jamestown trip, and Juneteenth wasn't even a thought to graduating and being a part of the start of the African American class, African American history classes and those things. So I'm blessed to be in the seat of receiving the information, but I do, um, completely agree, pastor about, um, seeing Juneteenth is, um, I try to find the words to put it, but I say that it's often that when it comes
to certain things within the African American community, unity is the priority. But when it comes to other minority groups, they're allowed to focus solely on themselves. So when you see a holiday like Juneteenth, you see, oh, it's the freedom of the African, of the last enslaved group, but unity and how can we, as a community, how can African Americans partner with other groups to help us all succeed? And I think it's a beautiful thing to focus on Unity, but it's important to also acknowledge that no, the African American community was separated and isolated for so long.
So in this day and age, yes, Unity's important, but it is just as important to spend a moment to focus on, this is our history and this is how it plays into America. But it is not, oh, it is not to be overshadowed by the fact that it is within American history, that they are both important individually and collectively. You know? Uh, and you know, when she says she was able to see this as a young person at my age, when I was her age, we didn't see nothing like this. There was nothing. Absolutely. I mean, and for a lot of African Americans, especially,
you know, my age and older, even even talk about slavery was not very kosher because we didn't want to be known. You know, you have to understand, African Americans were coming out of Jim Crow and they were trying to get their pride in the seventies. You know, say it loud. I'm black and I'm proud. And we didn't look at slavery the way we look at it now, or as, as an institution. We were trying to get, say, Hey, we are here, we're proud. You know? So it wasn't big then to talk about slavery. And I think that all changed. You know, I'm old enough to remember that that roots blew our minds
because Roots was the first time you saw this content put there that starkly, you know, we hear from, you know, I still hear the story my mother tells me about her great-grandmother who dropped something, uh, when she was a slave. And the slave owner put a hot coal in her, their hand, and held it in their hand to teach her not to do that ever again. So, so, but you know, your parents are telling you this and you're young. It's like, yeah, whatever, you know, it's like my father telling me about World War ii. It's like whatever. You start to see it with roots. And I think Roots was a roots was was the first time you
ever saw this type of abject violence and the, and the, and the, and the pulling families away from each other and that kind of stuff. So I, I guess I got a different, different aspect on Juneteenth. Again, I think it's, I think it should be more of a celebratory aspect because, you know, I tell people, tell my kids all the time, somebody decided to stay alive instead of jump off a boat or succumb to disease on a, on a slave ship, somebody decided to not run away or not, you know, survive these horrible aspects
for you to be here today. People had to survive things. So I think if you have to celebrate the fact that people survive slavery, it isn't so much slavery was imposed on us. It's people survived this horrible, uh, institution, and we are the byproduct of that survival, uh, that they survived. And now we do what we do and able to do what we do. And I think that to me, it should be more of an aspect of, of juneteenth, of people getting freedom. And that's the first step for you to get to where we are today. So we know most holidays somehow become commercialized.
We know that. I mean, Christmas, come on. Um, um, so I think that's kind of what's happening, um, with Juneteenth. However, as we celebrate, especially at Christmas, the Birth of Christ, people under understand the history behind that celebration. So before, I hope, uh, my hope is before it's completely commercialized, that everyone is educated and understands the purpose or why we commemorate, I don't know necessarily celebrate, but commemorate Juneteenth, um, uh, I believe as,
as far as that commercialization, I remember when it became a, um, national holiday in 2021, uh, Walmart had the brilliant idea to make Juneteenth ice cream. Anybody remember that? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We weren't having that. No. That, that got canceled. That's what is it? Cancel culture. Yeah. That got canceled very quickly. So my hope, I mean, it became a national hol holiday in 2021. I think at least a decade needs to be spent on educating the nation on the purpose.
And why we commemorate before we commercialize my, my lenses Was not that it was a unifier, mine was more as it was an opportunity to educate. Mm-hmm. Um, and I still see that even today, now we're in our fourth year of actually commemorating it, um, is, is really just learning more. Every time that I go to an event or every year, we have something to learning more. Again, how did we get to be there at that moment that two years had to pass before, ultimately somebody said, no, we're not gonna let the the intentional ignorance continue,
but we're gonna do something about sharing the information. Um, so that, that was my perspective. I wanted to circle back because I'm an Atlanta girl, so you would think, you know, black history is in my bones. Um, but I just wanted to be fair about this conversation that everybody, uh, that is African American or grew up in the South, they may still have some misconceptions about, um, Juneteenth. And so education, as we, uh, continue to adopt this and bring this into our mainstream, um, we have to be cognizant that everybody doesn't know, um, Juneteenth.
So in Atlanta, you know, black history is very important. I would not be honest if I didn't say that. I didn't know, uh, the fundamentals of Juneteenth that was top. The celebration was not growing up. There was no celebration of Juneteenth. You had Dr. King's Day, you had all the other days, you even had Kwanza. But I think I was probably in my nine 19 or so. I'm 54 now. I, I was old when I heard about Kwanza for the first time. Um, and so, uh,
there's still a gap if it feels like you guys are left out of the Juneteenth conversation. No, you're not. It's a lot of people learning together. So don't, uh, feel as if you know you have missed out on something. So I wanted to kinda level set there. Um, the idea of Juneteenth being a day to celebrate unity, we need to be very clear and honest about what happened, right? So people get hurt when they're unintentional. Ignorance that happens. So, uh, there can be no unity celebration without truth.
And the truth of what happened, um, for Juneteenth is two and a half years prior to June 19th, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. And that was on, actually, it went into effect on January the first, 1863. So imagine in Galveston, Texas, a population of African American people who are enslaved, um, just did not become aware of their freedom.
That is challenging to me, um, challenging to the point where as I began to research, I wanted to figure out, well, why didn't they know? Is it, was it because they couldn't read or write? Because that's the story that is often told, um, that African Americans couldn't read and write. It was not it. They actually have recordings of people who were enslaved that spoke to their ability to read and write during that time. That's a God's honest truth. You can Google it, bingo, or whoever you subscribe to. That is true. They have these recordings.
So it wasn't a matter of ignorance, it wasn't a matter of literacy. It was a systemic orchestrated, um, willful intention to continue with slave labor. They were more beneficial to those persons who owned them as property, then enslaved. Then they were free. And, you know, at that time, the enslavers were looking out for what they thought was their best economic interest.
And that meant not making people aware of their rights and their freedoms. The question that I have, and I'm gonna, this is the last question for the panel. And then, uh, you guys, uh, those who are in the audience can ask questions as well. Do we have systems, um, in place that willfully keep groups of people, um, oppressed? And what do we do about those systems? We understand that a general had to go all the way to Galveston. Read a, you know, article that says that, you know,
enslaved people are gonna be free. And then after that, if you read the article, oh my Lord, have mercy. It's something, there's a lot in that article, it was a lot that was said that freedom wasn't free. You're not free to stay around. You're not free, you're not free to do it. You know, it, it wasn't just free. And, you know, and here's a way to start your life. It was a free, it was free. And don't you do anything else? Or you're gonna be locked away. And that was unfortunate. Do we have systems in play today that, um,
do not purport the full poten participation of citizens? And I'm sure my colleague to my right will speak of that. I would say the prison system. So prior to during the time of enslavement, do you believe black people were in prison? Just show of hands. Raise your hand if you believe they were in prison. That answer is no, be They weren't humans. They weren't human beings. So they never had a trial. They never had anything. They were property.
So that was like putting a dog or a cat or a horse in jail. So they were not in prison at all prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. However, soon thereafter, prison population went through the roof. Why? Another form of enslavement. So you see the chain gangs and you see them now being leased out to these, uh, southern farms and, and doing the work of the enslave modern day slavery. I think that is happening today. The incarceration rate of African Americans is higher than any other population.
I may be wrongly speaking, but it seems that way. Um, and I, I believe, I believe that is, is probably the largest system that still enslaves our community, mind, body, and soul. So I'm gonna tag on that. So you've got the incarceration and the conviction system within the criminal justice system. And then now move to the next level, which is then the disenfranchisement of voters. 'cause now when you go through the criminal justice system, unless your rights are restored and you're convicted of felony, guess what? You don't get to vote. How do we excuse you
or excise you from your ability to be able to participate in your communities in any effective way? We don't allow you to vote. So that would be the, the add on to, uh, what you just said. Robin, thank you. Go ahead. No, You go. Uh, I would say, um, going a, a slightly different direction, but I definitely agree on the prison system and criminal justice areas. But for me, speaking from a student's perspective, it's the education system as well. 'cause we've talked about, you all have mentioned directly not being taught about this at all
and being in the space of coming from Loudoun County where I, we have great high quality education system up here. This is a great county to be in to learn, to establish, to matriculate through. But I do attend a historically Black College Institute in Tuskegee University. Uh, I love my school, but I attend the university. And a lot of different students that I've, we all come from different places. You have people from New York, Texas, west Coast who they're coming from entirely different systems. And a lot of the knowledge and intelligence that I'm blessed to bring, they've never heard of some of the things I talk about.
So when you go in, see we're, we're at the number three HPCU in the nation at some, we're, we're at the highest level of edu one of the highest levels of education. And we have students who don't know certain information, at least historically or don't even, they can't tell you about the three branches of the government. They can't break down what legislative, executive and judicial do. They can't tell you what the president versus a congressman does. Um, and you have that conversation. You see, wait a minute, if you don't understand how the government works to, um, Ms. RA's point, you're, if you don't know
how the government works, then what are you voting for? You don't know. I am blessed to be a, a registered voter. I did vote in the last election, but I was aware because I came up and understood what it was that I was voting for. I knew how to file for my absentee ballot. I knew how to do my mail-in and all these different things. But when you have education system that disenfranchises minority communities, and then when you have students who are in a position such as myself, where I'm in, I'm not in a disenfranchised community, but there are still hurdles I had to jump to make sure that there were teachers
and educators who didn't want me to be in honest classes 'cause they didn't think I could handle it. That was proven very wrong. But when you have a perspective that's these, they are incapable of doing so, which ties back to what Pastor Michelle spoke of with literacy. Of course, you're gonna have students who are disenfranchised, who then what do they do? If you're in an inner city area or area that has gangs, they think, I'm not gonna succeed. I'm not gonna be able to go to college. So let me go work with the dudes who make money on the street. Okay, now you pipeline them into the prison system. So it's like the cycle is created
where if you're not in a community that's gonna give you at least a little bit more access than somewhere else, it's almost like you're straight shotted into, um, an unsuccess rate. And even in the prison conversation and you're looking at incarceration when they come out, they're not given the keys to succeed post. So it's like, well, if you're not given the keys to succeed, once you completed your time, you're ultimately gonna end right back up there. Which is what we see with, um, situations like the Central Park five, or excuse me, the exonerated five. You see that story. And my mom's from Brooklyn, New York, she knows that story like the back of her hand.
'cause she saw it firsthand and she talks about how they were pipelining through back and forth 'cause they were not able to do anything but that because they're not handed the, they're not even not even asking to be handed, but they're not given the opportunity to do otherwise. So for me, coming from a student perspective, if we're not learning what it looks like and what it can look like, then we don't know any, you don't have a way to dream of doing better if you aren't taught that that is an option. The biggest inhibitor for African Americans in my mind, in this country, is between our ears. You know, all you have to do is look
and see what people do every day. Uh, Loudoun County is, is is an example. You see African Americans that do everything, fly airplanes, litigate cases, work on computers, doctors, lawyers, engineers. So you can't say that success is not there. You can't say that you can't get there. A lot of it's in people's heads. And that's the, that's one of the byproducts of, of slavery and and oppressing people, is that they get in their own minds that they can't secede. Uh, when we should, you know, more focus needs to be on that. Again, I come from the, I was a child,
a child coming up in the sixties and seventies and it was said loud, I'm black and I'm proud. It was James Brown. We don't want anything. Just open the door and we'll get it ourselves. That message got lost with a lot of what we see today, which is, oh, it's, the systems are stacked against us. It's terrible. It's bad. It is bad, but it's not insurmountable. And that's, I think, the story that we have to tell. What do you think those slaves thought when they got, when they got freedom, you think they wanted to sit down and tell you about how bad, bad slavery was? What they wanted to do was celebrate.
And if you go down to Oklahoma and Texas where this originally occurred, it was a celebration. They had parades, they celebrated somehow. We've twisted this into, not twisted, but somehow, because I think the way it became forward with George Floyd and the national dialogue, we've lost the idea that this is a celebration. What happens when you get free? What do you do every 4th of July? What do we do? We blow up fireworks, we scream, we wear funny clothes, we barbecue, we do all these things. And for some reason, this holiday, we can't do that.
When that's exactly what it was. Somebody got free and we gotta get back to that point. People got free and they did not, they did not mourn and, and look back, they were happy. One of the largest, what we don't teach in, one of the things we don't teach in this school, one of the greatest growth for African American in this country was reconstruction. You had people went from slave fields to Congress to Congress. So to say, you know, we've, we've somehow we've gotta get a little bit more positive in our message and say that there are things that can be done. You know, this lady down here and, and,
and myself, we didn't take no for an answer on anything. You know, I I I was kind of not used to sitting on this side talking 'cause I was usually on that side yelling. So, you know, it's, it's, we just gotta start working a better message. A different, not a different message, but additional message that slavery and our history was bad. But look where we are today. I'd like to open the floor for any questions that you have. Juneteenth related, education related. Yes ma'am. I don't really have a question, but I did wanna piggyback off of, um, the oppressed groups back to the prison system and also education.
As far as the prison system, that is one of the biggest, and I say that, um, my father was just released last year after serving 27 years. And they do not give them the tools now, luckily I have my own business. So I was able to employ my father and give him the support that he needed to do the things that he dreamt of doing. When he got out, he wanted to be a truck driver, but they told him he had to work a part-time job. So how are you gonna work a job and try to go to school to get your CDL? Mm-hmm. So the support, like they don't have it.
There's no way you're gonna have these kids locked up at a young age. 'cause my dad was locked up at, in his twenties. So lock these kids up at a young age. They can't do much when they get out. Sometimes they get their GED in there. Sometimes they don't. But again, that leads back to education. Even in the school system, when you have kids still being told in this county that they can't do things because of the color of their skin. Yeah. They, they're, they start to lose their self worth. Like they don't believe that they can do those things. Yeah, they see other people do it, but they're constantly being talked down
to in their own schools. Mm-hmm. So that's definitely something that we need to work on. But also education starts at home. So again, like you said, between your ears, it's our jobs to educate our kids at home, regardless of your race, of everything. And with any other holiday or anything that happened in the past, people always bend and shape things to their own narratives. So there's always something out there that's going to be conflicting with what we really know or what really happened.
So thank you. Questions? Yes ma'am. Good evening. Um, with education, I was raised in ton dc It's one thing DC did. They taught us black history. If they ain't teach us nothing else, the schools I was in taught me black history. In fact, I lived maybe two blocks from Douglas home. As a kid. I used to have to clean this house. 'cause my girlfriend's grandmother was a caretaker and we couldn't go out and play until we helped her dust the house. So also when I moved down here,
I lived in DC I moved down here with my grandchildren and we started talking about black history. Well, a lot of things they didn't know. I'm like, now wait a minute. What, what's going on here? They went to school. Most of the down here, they only went to school in DC for elementary school. And once they got down here, they kinda lost the black history. So, like she said, it started at home. So I had plenty of books, still got 'em. And I used to take them downtown to go to Metro and visit all the places downtown. They carried their little snacks on the back because I wasn't buying nothing downtown. But we went to all the museums. We went to Frederick Douglas, we had a car with theater,
went up on New Street so they could see these things. So what the young lady said is, should we do have to start at home? We can't give everything to the public and to the teachers as parents, we have to start educating our children at home so that when they do go to school, they know things. But you can't depend upon the board of education to do everything. I just want to, I want to piggyback on that. Uh, you know, at our, our time when we grew up in public schools, Lincoln freed the slaves. In 1863, that's all we were taught. Lincoln freed the slaves.
We never, we never talked about what slaves did. We never talked about the economic system. We never talked about anything. Lincoln freed the slaves. And by the way, there was this little war between the states and, you know, it was about power and all that. So my mother taught us all that. My mother hammered us, hammered us on our history, hammered us on our knowledge, hammered us on what happened to her people. And again, I think in our community we've lost that. You know, we lost those stories and we lost those messages and we lost, you know, kids sitting down,
we've got a different world and everybody goes through it. Our our kids don't, you know, they, they, they wanna do this and they don't wanna listen to what we say, or at least our oral history. So I I I piggyback on what she said. You, you gotta, you gotta teach the history at home, number one. But you also have to have a community in schools that will understand that everybody's not getting this at home and they need to have some of this taught in the schools. Um, oh, Yes ma'am. I just want my comment. Um, what I'm concerned about today is, is that there is such a, um, there is so much to, to,
to erase our, our history. Um, at least that's, that's what I'm reading. So I'm really concerned that, um, the government, the way, the way it is today is, is not, um, promoting the education, um, that everyone is talking about. Um, I I would say, um, yes, that is the case. Um, a lot of the time in what we're seeing, um, I won't say erased, but they're rewriting it in a way that it can be received well and that it
or not received well, but received where it makes everybody seem like no one was inherently wrong, no one hurt anyone, but that everyone was able to succeed in some way due to slavery. That is just not the case. That's not the truth. And I'm a byproduct of parents who never played about that schoolwork, that black, during black history month, every week a report was due. And it wasn't, it was a non-negotiable. If I wanted to have a life, it was required. Um, I worked alongside Pastor Michelle in restoring
and, um, the African American burial grand at Belmont Co. And sickling, um, writing those projects, watching her advocate that no, this is history that needs to be established, recovered, protected, and shared. And part of the issue, I think is that where we are today to Mr. Thompson's point, phones are everything. I hate to say it, especially as a Gen Z, who I do like a phone break myself, but phones are everything. Um, but one thing, at least in my case, 'cause I have two younger sisters, they're turning 14 and 15 this year. I find ways to tap into them through what they like to do.
So if they like to be on that phone, I'm gonna send you a video on YouTube that you can play in the background if you want. If you don't wanna read a book, there's a Kindle. If you don't wanna do it in, like, I think part of our, um, disconnect in education is that with other areas of education, fine to, um, what's the word? Were, we're fine to allow it to become more, to modernize it. That's what I was looking for. But with black history, we refuse to find ways to teach it in the setting that we're in. But I think with black history, especially if we take the time to write the curriculum
and put it in a manner that you see us on Chromebooks for every single class, everything you do is on a Chromebook. We don't have to, everything doesn't have to stay how it once was. Progress, progress is necessary for history to be maintained. So it's also in the, it's in making sure students have access to it. Not just oh, through a book, but okay, let's put that book digitally so that way we can make sure these students have it. If you don't wanna go to the library, well here it is right in front of you. See, you can't avoid learning about it or try and say it's too hard to get to. I think that's one thing in my experience,
I just wanna say one thing, pastor. This is gonna be a project for, for this committee and maybe the schools. Do you guys even know what land this was? Do you know what plantation it was under? Or, you know, how many slaves worked this land where you sit right now? And it could be, it needs to be a project where you, they figure out what was this on, what was this piece of property right here? More than likely it was a plantation and more than likely it was worked by African Americans as enslaved people. And so as we sit here, you're sitting on top of history that we don't even know about. Pastor's been uncovering it, Robin's been uncovering it,
Peyton's been uncovering it over time, you know, in different locations. But right here, what is this, what is this area right here? And who was here and what, what were they doing? That should be a project that, that the school school should look into to even know where their, where their, where their own school sit. You mentioned as far as the, um, current, I'll call it historical crisis as far as wanting to undo history, change history, erase history, whatever phrase we wanna do, wanna use. And it's a hundred percent accurate. And it tags a little bit with what Peyton was saying.
And it might be because certain individuals are rejecting the ancestral contribution to the harm that was back then. And, and what we have to look at is this, we have to own it. Historically, bad things have happened. Doesn't mean you are a bad person 'cause you've come from that lineage, but you have some responsibility and ownership to say, okay, how do we do the following? Which is, as we build community, make sure we have unity, right? Don't come from a place of scarcity. We all do better when we all do better.
I mean, I don't wanna be trite about it, but that's really what it is. I Can't worry about your success as it is impinging upon me. No, I'm old school. I'm gonna come to the field, I'm gonna come to the, to the sporting event and I'm gonna play my best game. And today I might win and tomorrow you might win. But it doesn't mean I try less because you are in a position to compete against me because competition works, but it's opening the door and give somebody the opportunity to come through that door and do what they can do for the best. But we do have to watch what's happening to the history because we can't let anybody in any direction undo it.
Because, and again, all these trite phrases, I am getting old, God darn it. You know, if we don't understand history, we, we, we run the risk of repeating it, right? If we don't follow it, we're gonna repeat it. And there's certain things that happened in our history collectively we don't wanna repeat. But that's a great point to be made. Just a final comment. When we talk about Juneteenth, we're talking about, um, in Texas, it took two years for those pe enslaved people to understand the emancipation proclamation of 1863.
I think there's also a lot of misunderstanding that every African American was enslaved until 1863. Um, I know from my family history, especially on my father's side, that as an African American, the last enslaved person on my father's side, um, was freed in 1792. So for three generations before the Emancipation Proclamation, they were living and doing as freed people. So I think that that is a huge, when I mention
that in a history class, I think there was a lot of assumptions that every African American in the nation was enslaved until 1863. Not true. So there, there's a huge level of education that really needs to happen, especially in Loudoun County public schools in Virginia. So the the one, the family that I'm speaking of, we're residing in Virginia two hours from where I live right now. Crazy, right? Mm-hmm. So I'm Passover to Pastor Michelle.
Question, have you ever seen this game? No. Do you own this game? No. Anybody own this game? No. No, no. Anybody ever seen this game? If you've seen this game, please raise your hand. Yeah, seen it. Why didn't you buy it? Uh, I love it. Good cook. I'm sorry. We're Still creating this, Huh? The Leesburg op, this is made by the town of Leesburg. Leesburg ly is ma I think I Saw it in that Virginia shop.
In the Virginia shop. Alright, would you like to see what's in Leesburg op? I do. Alright. Just like Monopoly has your game. Anybody know what this is? The instructions? Mm-hmm. Everybody know bootleg way of play a monopoly? If you ever read these instructions, it would really blow your mind. I didn't know I was playing it wrong, but this board piqued my interest. I went around the board, I purchased the game. I couldn't wait. Leesburg op,
this is gonna be a history lesson in Leesburg and I bought it and I was out done. Dina, there is no mention of African American history in the entire game in the entire game. There's no, I went through all the deeds, no mention of African American history. I went through the chance in community treasure. No mention of African American history whatsoever. What was my alternative? Make your own. Why would you think that?
Why would you think it? Because you know me Because you know me. But what would, what would you think the alternative? I I'm telling you I was hurt. I'm not gonna, you know, um, I just, I just felt left out. I felt like this is advertising for Leesburg. This is advertising for Loudon. This is a way to get the Leesburg story told, the history told. And we have done so much work in the community that we were past something like this. I thought, I think that's where my hurt came from.
So what do you think I did? I built my own game. I built a game called Freedom ly that will share the African American experience and give the history, codifying it so it can never be lost again. Here's the board. Let's go through the board. I think everyone has that. Can you guys see the board? No. There Should be one on your table. No, it's right there. Here's the board right here. The towel. I'm Sorry. It's on the table. I'm sorry. Do you see the board? If you wanna get closer, you can.
Every single thing on this game is dedicated to African American history. This is what the box cover looks like on Juneteenth. You will see these hopefully in stores. Got a lot of work to do. If not, you can meet me at the back of my trunk. But it's, it just, the cover of the board is kind of self-explanatory. What do you see when you look at this board? Because you should never start educating when you open a box. Education starts on the outside of the wrapper.
What do you see, Dina? I see the um, the burial Ground. Burial ground. That's the first, that's the first thing that you saw. What do you see? Arvin? I see settle in cabin Settle. Dean Cabin ine cabin is South Rod. South Rod's original, uh, historic name was Conklin. What do you see? Journey to Freedom Marrow. That's right outside of the Loudoun Museum. It tells the history of, uh, people, um, escaping enslavement and using what we know
as Riverside and that River Creek, um, to make that escape down the Potomac onto Maryland and eventually Pennsylvania. What do you say? The courthouse. The courthouse were members. African Americans were actually hung and quartered on suspicions of murder or other frivolous. They stole something they thought. No due process, no justice, anything. What do you see? Oh, there you go.
It's subtle, but if you know, you know, so you see the map, um, of Loudoun County. It's subtle. But if you, you are a teacher, so you know, you see the Douglas School, so you're learning right from the top. And then you have instructions that some people read and some people do not. But you have this game and in the game it goes around the entire board telling the history, telling the history of Loudoun County. It starts off, off
and it goes to the Willard community. Anybody knows what the Willard community is or was? Raise a hand. Willard. What's Willard? Ah, What's Willard? Dallas Airport Airport. Dallas Airport. Oh, I didn't. Dallas Airport. The good news is if you get the game in parentheses, it's gonna say Dulles Airport, right? Good. It goes from Willard and then it goes to, uh, Arcola. So what area is that? Prosperity Baptist Church. Settle Dean's Cabin. Now we're over in the south riding.
Alright, then you leave that area, you go to Waterford. What's in Waterford? What Black history is in Waterford Second Street school. What else? The John Wesley. Anything else? The cemetery. The segregated. The segregated. Still segregated. Cemetery. Do you see how this is working? And people are learning fast. They have deeds that tell all the history. Would you like to hear a deed you actually can buy as a property? A old location for poll Tax. What's poll? Tax
Voting. Voting station. And what was the poll tax? It was a tax that was applied if you wanted to vote. Many times applied a tax. Oh, a tax that was, uh, applied if you wanted to vote, many times a tax that you could not afford. So if you could Not pay this poll tax, you were not given a ballot and could not vote. Only African Americans were subjected to the poll tax. This is the deed for the poll tax. It actually has an example of what a poll tax looked like.
And then if you buy the property just like Monopoly, you can commercialize it, you can sell it, you can upgrade it, that sort of thing. But the history is on the back of the deed. This is the really, I think, crux of the game. That the history will remain intact. Let's read, uh, what the history says on poll tax. Under the 15th Amendment, African Americans were guaranteed the right to vote. White Southern politicians look for ways to prevent African Americans from voting in their states. A popular technique required a advanced payments of a poll tax, making it difficult
and too expensive for poor African Americans and many whites to register to vote. As a result, many blacks were legally disenfranchised because they could not afford to pay the, to pay the tax. Do you think that's good information? While we're talking about Juneteenth, someone would say, well, what does this have to do with Juneteenth? The reason why people don't know what to do with Juneteenth is because they don't know the history of Juneteenth. As soon as people realize the history of Juneteenth, they wouldn't have a problem celebrating freedom. Because when one is free, all is free.
And we're not all free until everyone has that opportunity to for freedom on this game, uh, one of the spots that you can la land on is the Leesburg volunteer swimming pool. Our history is so important. It's not just Juneteenth that people don't know about. Most people don't know the history of Loudoun County and Leesburg and this game and other games like it. And digital content and digital ways of communicating. That's gonna be the new way for people to become interested
in, um, history again, or languages again, you have to make it applicable. If you stopped on the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Station, what do you think you'll learn? What do you think you'll learn That the filling up the concrete and rocks. Okay, Let's rate it. On June 23rd, 1965 for African American children went to Leesburg swimming pool opera operated by the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Department and were refused entry. A suit was filed on their behalf.
And in May, 1966, the court ruled in their favor, but the pool remained closed and the firemen filled it with rock and cement rather than integrate. Leesburg did not have a public swimming pool until 1990. Was that idle league? I I wanna add one thing, uh, to that I was four years old when that happened, so that it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, wasn't ancient history. 'cause I'm not ancient, you know, but I was four years old when that happened. So that tells you what the thought process was, even,
you know, not too, not too long ago. Did you have a comment, a question? Any question? A comment? I'm just gonna take one more. I think this history is really important. Um, this is a first edition. I would imagine we would just go all throughout Northern Virginia just trying to codify the history to give people a chance to record it. Um, but what you guys must know is that this is not done in a vacuum. It's done in partnership with students.
So students are helping to create the game. They're helping to proofread, they're helping to research. We created this game in conjunction with the African American history class at Freedom High School over a period of three years. It's been three years since kids have been working on this game, and it's just now ready to be published. I'm gonna go over the last one. It's the Daily Cabin. Have you ever seen a part of the underground railroad in Loudoun County. Do you believe that there is some sort of relic
or you could see a part of the Underground Railroad in Louden County? Do you believe that? Have you ever seen it? Never. Never. You haven't seen it? No. Alright. Have you ever been to the Potomac Rehab in Sterling? The Potomac Rehab in Sterling is across the street from the Nova, uh, Virginia campus. Yeah, it's the Sterling Rehab. Don't you don't wanna be there. If you're there, you're sick.
You pass it on seven on the right hand side, going down right east. Alright, so, um, unfortunately my father had a stroke and I had been trying to found the Underground Railroad in, um, Leesburg. I mean, I'm sorry, in Sterling. I heard about it, I knew it was there, and I had entered the property several times and never been able to locate this. And my father had a, a stroke and he was being rehabbed at this Potomac. I sat down to lunch with him and looked out the window
and lo and behold, what do you think I saw? I saw, uh, something that was put back together. It really was, you know, what was left? It was the ruins of the Daily Cabin. Let's hear the story of the Daily Cabin. The Daily Cabin, the historic Daily Cabin was believed to be part of the Underground Railroad in Loudoun County. The cabin is located in Sterling Signal Hill, Potomac View area, with the key Underground Railroad features necessary in assisting Freedom Seekers escape enslavement. A ridge runs along the back of the original parcel.
And ridges were often used by runaway slaves because of the shelter they provided, as well as a view of the surrounding area. Imagine right under our noses. If you ever shopped at Burlington, you passed it. If you ever went to the Ford dealership in Sterling, you've passed it. If you ever went to the Cocos where I shopped sometime at the international market, you've passed it. If you've gone to DC and to Tysons Corner and took seven, you've passed the Underground Railroad and it's hidden in plain sight. No narrative to think of.
This is the opportunity that we have before us to be able to tell the untold stories, to be able to celebrate those things in our community. That, uh, speaks freedom. That is a testament to resilience and brilliance. And it's up to you guys. And a part of this equity work that you have to bring to bear is products and, um, you know, different offerings that we can give our students that will educate them. So when they are in their twenties and thirties
and fifties, they're not, they're not gonna be saying what we said. I didn't know anything about it. I grew up, nobody said anything about it. That they'll be educated and ready to be global citizens. I'm gonna leave this time for questions. Yes, I was gonna, I did wanna hop in. Um, one thing, again, I'm a, uh, LCPS graduate from Wood Grove High School. Um, and a lot of people know if you have a student or, uh, for my educators, you know, seniors have to do a capstone project. So part of the reason why, and I'm so grateful to see it fully in fruition, I was able to, for my capstone, I knew what I was doing.
I was working with Pastor Michelle. It was without a doubt. So in 2023 when I was getting, I was a couple, about a month or so out from graduation, I said, all right, so do you want me to do? And funny enough, my entire African American studies class, 'cause we took a field trip with her a couple months before, was like, so what can we do with you? Because we wanna work with her just from off of a field trip, getting to experience it. So a couple of my friends who I still speak with got to work directly on the game. And I think that's one thing that I wanted to just talk about was also like, making sure you,
when we talk about making sure that my generation and those beyond us don't sit here saying the same things. This is one of the ways where it's like partnering with the Loudoun Freedom Center, or finding ways to have us involved, because I know all of us speak to that. This is, this is an experience we will never forget. Having to not only seen and learned and researched the history, but to say we had our hands in creating more history. 'cause this is, this game is, its first of its kind. It'll be able to be bought and played and experienced for years to come. Assuming that additions are made, we all can say
that we established a piece of that history. So for us, it's not just another notch on our belt or a dash on our resume, but something that we poured our hearts into. So that's a, just something to think about. And consider making sure when we're talking about continuing to share the history that moments like this and organizations like the Loudoun Freedom Center are avenues in which to do that. And it's making sure we jump on those avenues. And I'll just add, since this game was developed in concert with, uh, Loudoun County Public Schools students, Loudoun County ha Public Schools has made a commitment
to purchase the game and have that available in in many schools. Yeah. Any questions? Any final questions before we end today? Or, or comments? Was it helpful? Yes, ma'am. Um, yeah, I would say it was very helpful for me. Um, I participated in a meeting at my son's school a couple of days ago. They were talking about he's going to the fourth grade and mentioned that the fourth graders learned Virginia history and my stomach dropped and I think I have to get my countermeasures in place. So it's really exciting to hear that this might be available.
Hopefully it'll be available for elementary school students too. But then I also wanted to say, I'm growing up in DC um, and feeling like I was exposed to a lot of African American history. I was not exposed to Juneteenth. So my first time celebrating that was actually a few years back at the Freedom Center. Um, and that was a really great event. But I think there is a disconnect, which you spoke to also, which is trying to connect. If you weren't raised to feel connected to slavery or to feel discomfort with that, shifting the narrative from celebrating, you know,
we're not slaves anymore to, they survive to the end. And I think that's really powerful to think. 'cause I'm not a fan of that narrative of we're not our ancestors, you know, whatever. I think that does have a disservice. But the idea that there were, there was a population that made it through that horror successfully and were able to see what was on the other side of that is definitely worth celebrating. Yeah. Perfect. Any comment? Yes, ma'am. Um, just a question for the panel. Um, where do you think the balance lies between respecting the journey
to freedom while avoiding commercial exploitation with the desire to celebrate Juneteenth The balance? Yeah, but between like avoiding commercial exploitation and versus the celebration. I got It. Truth, authenticity of history. There could be no unity. There could be no celebration without acknowledgement. You have to know the history. You have to share the history. He that does not know his history is destined to repeat it. And so the way that you honor, um, the resilience, the way
that you honor the bravery and all those things that it takes to make it through, uh, such audacity time is to tell that story, to recount that story and, and acknowledge that this is happening. Not, and not only did you, uh, survive enslavement, you survive the prolong institutional enslavement. I mean that's, it's one thing. Sometimes, you know, people can make it to a point. But that extra two and a half years, what does that do to somebody's psyche?
What does that do to somebody's psyche? Imagine being held, uh, unfairly for an addition additional two and a half years, assuming that nobody in the community knew. Do you think that's believable in a community where people could read and write that nobody in the whole community knew? It speaks to the fear, the terrorism, the intimidation and the lack of resources to just get up and leave. That you gotta wait on freedom and pray that it comes.
That's amazing. That's amazing. I don't know if I could have done the extra two and a half. And also when you talk about commercialism, let's, let's go back to the Walmart ice cream. Alright. It was just Juneteenth ice cream. I probably would've purchased it if the story of Juneteenth was on the back. So I'm a capitalist, sell your thing, but in, in, while you're commercializing, make sure you're, it's an educational component. You know, I've bought a Juneteenth t-shirt, why? Because the date was on it. Information on the back was on it.
So as I wear it, I'm, it, it's a commercial item that I purchased. But as I wear it, people are reading and being educated. So I'm not saying don't do, don't sell anything with Juneteenth, but being mindful of what you're producing and who will see it and why you're doing it. I think one, one Is also for everyone, I I'll just say, say this, freedom is for everyone. Freedom is for everyone. And when you have freedom, the oppressor is free as well. The oppressor is free, not just the people that are in bondage, but the oppressor is free as well.
Freedom is for everyone. And once we start telling our stories, once we start putting the truth back into the history, then we have also the freedom to heal from it. We really can. Pastor, I want to add something to that. Um, all of us sitting here, the African Americans, we, we learn European history, we learn European history. And I see every day African Americans get on airplanes and fly to Europe and go, oh, I was in Berlin. Oh, I was in Ferris. I was here. We learn your history. You need to be a little bit more open-minded about ours and everybody else's history.
You know, that's, that's the crux here. You know, people feel like, oh, I don't have to learn about Juneteenth 'cause that's not me. We learn about your history, we learn about, you know, uh, the Magna Carter. We learn about all that stuff. But take some time and learn about ours. The Native Americans that were here, uh, other people's history and out, out, out out west is the, the, the, the, the, the Chicano Hispanic culture was big out west before America took over. And even in even then. So learn about other people's history. Be have an open mind about it.
Because if you just sit there and you're negative, not negative, but you're just like, well that's not us. I don't have to listen. It is you just like European history is our history. 'cause our country is built on European principles. We have to learn that. And we learned it, you know, and so other people should learn. I learn other parts of history too, and that's all we're trying to get across. One, um, thing I'll add to that, oh, one thing I'll add to that question, um, is cover up. Is it to cover up or to like, are we here to cover up the history
or are we commercializing for education? That's kind of where the balance, at least in my perspective sits. Um, are you doing it and is it commercializing to just put a price tag on it and make it another thing you successfully sell? Or is it that we want to create a conversation with what we're doing? Um, and I think that's kind of where I fall in that area. It's not wrong, but if you're doing it to get a check, that's pointless, in my opinion. Somebody, Um, so I think that, um, I love, love,
love the game so much. And I think that students in Loudoun, that was, I was gonna ask if it was gonna be distributed in the schools, but my frustration is that, um, the African American history class, my understanding is it was just vetoed again as a graduation requirement. So it was supposed to be a graduation requirement, and it was vetoed by the state as not being, so lemme Clarify, it was never intended to be a graduation requirement. I had asked, um, uh, delegate read, uh, to offer that as a option, a graduation option.
Okay. So It is a option to be included for graduation because we wanted to free up students so that they can, you know, take other classes. So you have African American Students, underrepresented Students that's taking Black American history or African history. And what they wanted to do is have some more options. Yes. No, I'm so sorry. Um, they wanted to have more options that would give them flexibility in their schedule. So, uh, it wasn't to actual be a requirement, but for those people
or students who are choosing to take African American history, we wanted them to get graduation requirements so they could save that slot for history and move it to it or whatever else that they're interested in. But they will have fulfilled that, um, graduation requirements through that, um, uh, social studies class. Okay. Okay. Yep. And yes, he did veto it. He absolutely did veto it. And so we know the redress to that is to bring it back.
There are sessions every year. We have to wait to next year it will come back. Well, I just think about what, what you were saying, and, you know, there's not enough of that information and the fact that you're a Loudoun County student and you go to Tuskegee and, but you actually knew more it seems like, than a lot of the people around the country. So we are not even, you know, we, and I think we are farther than most countries, but think about how far we have to go everywhere else too. Well, we're only farther because we fought harder, right? And this is a recent, right. So if she was, you know, 30 years older,
she'll be in the same boat with everybody else. But because she graduated, uh, a lot and has worked with the Loudoun Freedom Center, I mean, she's at the core of this. We're doing this together at night. We're burning the midnight on together. So in all fairness, she does have a little edge of, uh, of everybody else. But to be honest with you, um, I've been doing field trips in this, uh, county for the last 10 years. I've been doing, uh, curriculum rewrites in this county for the last 10 years. Um, our students, I will tell you, our students are head
and shoulders above the rest. And it's because of the work that we do and the addition to the capstones and working with LCPS so that the African American History course is not just a regular course, it's a honors course. So they get a designation, they have a capstone elsewhere in the, um, in the state. It, they don't have a capstone that go along with that. That makes a big difference when students are able to do project based sort of learning. Yeah. Alright. Can I just, um, I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation today.
Um, I've been to the burial ground. Um, I brought my kids, now that I've learned about, um, the Underground Railroad in Sterling, I will be stopping over there as well to take a look. So I appreciate, uh, that information and just, just a little information. I mean, I grew up in New Jersey. I grew up in the north and I had, uh, extensive, um, history. I'm a history person, but, um, when I was growing up, I, in my history classes, there was extensive, um, uh, they talked about slavery and, and civil war extensively.
But I will tell you, they did not mention Juneteenth. So, um, I will tell you that I did want to learn more about it. Um, and I'm very, and, and thank you so much for your, uh, presentation today. So I just wanted to put that out there to you. Thank you. Thank you. And if you'd like to learn more, please join us on Thursday, Juneteenth, uh, at 10:00 AM at the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse. As you will hear more information, education, food, celebrate celebratory, uh, event, please come out.
As we're kind of wrapping up here, I just wanted to touch on a word that was mentioned earlier, and that is intentionality because I think that's so important, as you mentioned with intentionality in, in having an informed mindset and an educated mindset around this. Because as we've seen throughout history, mindsets and culture are the things that really overcome a lot of our challenges as progressing just as human beings and, and in society. And knowing the history, because as you mentioned, not all slaves were released on that date. Um, some, as early as 1792, New Jersey was the last state
to actually outlaw slavery. That was after Juneteenth happened. Juneteenth is a great date to celebrate it, but we still had slavery in the United States passed that date. And I think it was the Creek Nation that was actually the last place of the United States where it was actually finally truly abolished. And in the same way that, you know, July 4th is arguably not even the right date to celebrate that either, but Juneteenth is a great date to celebrate it. And so I really appreciate that. But I just wanted to, to end on this notion of an intentionality because I was appreciating the fact that you tied the issue of voting
and the criminal justice system together. Because I think we have to look for the intentional sys, not necessarily systems that were intentionally set up in this way, but we have to intentionally look for things like gerrymandering and even smaller things like the location of DMVs throughout, not only the Commonwealth of Virginia, but throughout our country that make it difficult for people to get IDs or update IDs in order to vote. And those things, those are just some examples. But even, you know, for this committee and inside of this group to look intentionally
for the things where we just assume because they've always been there, we've always done it that way. Are we really doing it the right way? Are we doing things unintentionally that are, uh, suppressing people, suppressing uh, people's rights, suppressing people's access to things? So we can, can certainly make it, you know, an ongoing job of this committee and for all of us personally as well to intentionally look for those things, intentionally try to move the ball forward. My name is Steve Burke and I've been ancillary around the meetings and this is great. I, I wanna piggyback on what you're saying.
The gentleman right there about intentional. Anytime we do a meeting, we should always have a call to action, a thing to do. This is a really simple one. The call to action is when you go to these different places, bring a friend, bring somebody else who's not in the room. That's the way we can start change, be intentional about bringing other people along so they learn as you learn. That's all. Thank you. Thank you panel. Thank you for ending our year on a note of something that I think taught the group something as well
as all of us. Yes, yes. I learned a lot about Robin's history. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to thank you and I want you to know, I don't want you to think that I'm doing this differently because it's Pastor Michelle, but, uh, the other panels that we've had, I did not know ahead of time who the panel members were, how many there were, et cetera. So I have a little thank you symbol for each member of the, of the panel today. Check. And, and, and, and, and the check is coming. Okay.
The check is coming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I just want to say that even though this is our last meeting for the year, uh, for the academic year, we will resume our meetings in August. And um, just stay tuned. Um, we may not get it in August 'cause there's gonna be so much staff development going on. We don't know we're gonna get here. But you will hear from Helen. Helen is, Helen is consistent. Okay. Linda, what are we doing? So Helen will let you know.
And for that, Helen, I am grateful. Um, we also want to acknowledge Dr. Mark Bergen, who is here. And we want to thank all of you for coming out this evening, but we want to engage you to come out and help to set a path for the equity committee. Be intentional about that. At this point, the equity committee was designed by a group that included Pastor Michelle and Ms. Burke, uh, as an ad hoc committee. They have done their due, the committee has fulfilled the ad hoc duties.
So that is the reason that we have sort of been floundering. We have to wait for the full board to give us a different designation other than an ad hoc or a select committee. And the board is working on it. And we hope to have that done before, uh, I roll off the board so I can vote or pinch April next to me to make her vote. Okay? So I just want you to know that the floundering is not because of any reason other than the fact that policy
dictates what we do. And so because of that policy, we have been sort of, um, hand tied for a few months, but we want to thank the panel. Can, can I say something on the, for, for the board, I want to thank the, the Loudoun, uh, school board. Uh, I haven't participated as much as, as in the past because it was a knockdown drag out for about 20 years, trying to get the board to do a whole lot of things that this board just does in their sleep. But I want to thank this board for being one of only two in the Commonwealth that stood up to, uh, youngin and, uh,
and, and the president on DEI. And so, Well for that, we say thanks to the community for supporting us in it because, you know, we still gotta go to the grocery store and we get some of that feedback at the grocery store or even at Brewster's Ice Cream shop one day. Uh, so I just want you to know that, um, I am proud to be a part of the, of the Loudoun County School Board at this time. And I am proud to serve along beside my school board members who are sending the county in a direction
that is positive for students. And I also want to say that this piece about intentional, intentional is something that I want us to do in this county as it relates to parents as well. We have a high level of parent participation, but we need someone to help guide that high level of participation such that it is positive for all students. And I say that as an individual, not as a board member, but as an individual. Because my dissertation was on parent participation.
And when I roll off the board, I'm gonna pick that up and run with it. Okay? The June 5th meeting, uh, do I hear a, do I hear a motion to, to, uh, dis dismiss? Second. Anyone all who are in favor, the members, aye. All who are opposed? The June 5th board meeting is open. Uh, committee meeting is over at seven 10 in the evening.
Thank you so much for coming.