NYC pols want to revive, expand state panel on black history education in wake of Buffalo massacre
Last year’s Buffalo supermarket horror targeting black victims has prompted efforts to revive a state panel designed to correct and expand what’s taught about African-Americans in public schools.
State Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) told The Post on Monday that he partnered up with state Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman (D-Brooklyn) to revive the Amistad Commission after the race-hate attack that left 10 dead.
“He had absolutely no education in the school about African American presence in New York state, our presence in New York state,” Comrie said, referring to shooter Payton Gendron, a white 19-year-old from upstate Conklin.
“All he got was the basic, MLK, yadda-yadda, 2 minutes,” the pol said. “[Black-history education] needs to be more profound so people can understand the real impacts and the similarities between people.”
The commission, which was created 18 years ago, issued recommendations in 2016 on how to correct and improve black-history education in the state’s public schools, but the proposals only languished.
“It has now been seven years, and there has been no momentum at all” on the recommendations, Zinerman told Long Island’s Newsday, which first reported the effort.
Comrie and Zinerman’s bill would revive the commission by providing it new funding and moving it to the state’s Department of Education from New York’s Department of State, which is predominately focused on business licensing and other activities.
The pair introduced the legislation this year, but the bill did not make it out of committee, so they are hoping to resurrect it.
