The Black Curriculum


The Black Curriculum is a British community interest company whose mission is "to address the lack of Black British history in the UK curriculum".

History

The organisation was established in 2019 by Lavinya Stennett, who conceived the idea while studying for a degree in African Studies and Development Studies at SOAS University of London and reflecting on her own education in south London where Black History Month covered slavery, Martin Luther King Jr. and the American Civil rights movement but had taught her little about black British history.

Report

In 2020 the group produced a report, written by Jason Arday, on the lack of black history in the current UK National Curriculum. The report "explores how the current History National Curriculum systematically omits the contribution of Black British history in favour of a dominant White, Eurocentric curriculum that fails to reflect our multi-ethnic and broadly diverse society".

Government snub

They hoped to discuss the report with the Secretary of State for Education but their request for a meeting was rejected, the government stating that the existing curriculum was "broad, balanced and flexible, allowing schools to teach Black history".

Black lives matter

The Black Curriculum was one of the two causes chosen by Jen Reid to receive any profits if the statue of her by Marc Quinn, erected in Bristol in July 2020 on the plinth of the toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, was ever sold.