New Jersey Social Studies teacher and community activist Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele teaches Africana Studies courses at his school. Photo credit: Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele

There are many extraordinary teachers working with young people in our nation’s public schools. One of them is Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele, a Social Studies teacher from Newark, New Jersey.

Bashir teaches US History and Africana Studies at Weequahic High School in New Jersey. The population of the school’s 545 students is comprised almost entirely of African American and Latino students.

In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, Bashir is also a community activist and an active member of ASCAC, the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations. In fact, the respected educator was among the community activists and educators who took part in this year’s Amistad Commission’s Summer Institute, which was held at Stockton University’s campus in Atlantic City this past August.

One of the primary objectives of the summer institute was to improve the awareness of teachers in New Jersey schools of the state’s Amistad Law, which mandates that African and African American history be included in public school curriculums. The legislation, passed in 2002,  was the brainchild of two former New Jersey State Assembly members, William D. Payne and Craig A. Stanley.

“This law is leading the way to help abolish centuries of white supremacy ideology plaguing humanity in the classroom,” Bashir remarks. “The Amistad law cultivates the progressive and inclusive growth of our society by legally mandating the schools to teach the contributions Black people made to human civilizations in social studies classes and in subject area curricula throughout the state of New Jersey,” he continued.

To learn more about Bashir Akinyele, click on this link to a 2024 Op-Ed article he wrote that was published online by Patch.com. The title of the article is Stomping on Racist Education.