The Panther Anti-Racist Union is among the various student-led efforts fighting back against bans on diverse educational materials
After an all-white school board in Pennsylvania issued a banned book list predominantly targeting voices of color, a student-led advocacy group helped reverse the decision through nearly a month of protests.
The Panther Anti-Racist Union is a racial and social justice advocacy group comprised of students at Central York High School, a predominantly white institution, per NBC News.
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In August, the Central York School District released a controversial ban on several educational materials about Black stories, including “Hidden Figures,” a book about Black woman mathematicians, the James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” and multiple titles by psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum including “Can we talk about race?” and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”
In response, the student group led classmates, parents and educators through about a month of “walk-in” protests, during which, participants “held brightly colored signs with slogans like ‘BLM’ and ‘Education is not indoctrination’ outside the school,” NBC News reported.
“We are walking together in opposition to the Diversity Resource ban instituted by the CYSD School Board,” organizers wrote on the union’s Instagram page in September. “The banned resources include books, videos, documentaries and articles that support diversity, Black history and cultural awareness and are written by primarily BIPOC authors.”
Source: Pennsylvania teens among students nationwide protesting book bans on stories of color
