Black History Month Has Left Mark on Curriculum, but to What Extent?

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

LaConya Gilbert conjures up all the indignation she imagines her heroine felt that day more than 40 years ago when, weary from a long day's labor, she was told to give up her seat to a white man and sit in the back of the bus.

"Don't miiiiiinnnnd me, Mr. Bus Driver. I done paid my fare," the 11-year-old recites with all the conviction Rosa Parks unleashed in her now-famous stand for civil rights:

"Now get outa my way

I gonna sit over there

Ain't no room in the back

and I'm too tired to stand."