Lessons on Liberated Learning: Oakland Community School ♥★

About this Offering

At the Black Teacher Project, we believe that honoring the wisdom of the past is necessary in creating a liberated future. Thus, we are thrilled to have the pleasure of hosting this event where Black teachers and educators can come together and learn from the goals and outcomes of the legendary Black Panthers’ Oakland Community School (OCS). In sharing their knowledge and experiences, our speakers will lift up the historical lessons of the OCS and guide participants in brainstorming ways to implement their learning in the upcoming school year. Our conversation will center this question: “What does the OCS legacy teach us about providing liberated learning communities for today’s young people?”

*Please note that this will be an interactive event where attendees will be asked to engage in discussion during two different breakout room segments.

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About our Speakers

Ericka Huggins is an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate and poet.

For 45 years Ericka has lectured in the United States, and internationally, on Restorative Practices and, the role of spiritual practice in creating social change.

Ericka speaks on campuses, and in community, about the importance of inclusive grassroots movements, past and present.

Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2011 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. At Merritt College, home of the Black Panther Party, she co-created and taught a course titled, “The Black Panther Party-Strategies for Organizing The People”.

Currently Ericka works with WORLD TRUST Educational Services facilitating conversations focused on Race and Gender Equity. In addition, she facilitates workshops on Radical Self Care for Women of Color.

Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest‘s work focuses on American History post-1965, with an emphasis on the Modern Black Freedom Struggle.

She is a graduate of Harvard University with a BA in Afro-American Studies and graduated from Stanford University with an MA in American History. The founding director of the Black Panther Party Research Project at Stanford, her work on the history of the Black Panther Party includes the history of women, the impact of gender in the Party and the organization’s community Survival Programs.

As the co-founder of the Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project, she is currently working on a documentary about the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School, one of their longest lasting Survival Programs.

Robert P. Robinson was a K-12 teacher for 11 years. He recently completed his PhD in Urban Education with a concentration in Africana Studies from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. His doctoral research is a history of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School (OCS) as a site for understanding Black self-determination and the Black radical imagination in education. Dr. Robinson is currently an induction mentor at Teachers College, Columbia and will be a Visiting Professor of Education at Grinnell College in Iowa this fall.

Micia Mosely, Ph.D., has dedicated her career to helping students reach their full creative and academic potential. A teacher, analyst and product of public education, she designs custom reform strategies that help educators and administrators increase equity while maximizing school performance. Mosely brings a wealth of classroom experience to her work, infusing bold strategies with real-world approaches that understand the burdens faced by educators and administrators.

She is an expert on leadership, cultural competence, data-based inquiry and school design. Mosely began her career as the Social Studies department head at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in San Francisco, CA and received her Ph.D. in Education, with an emphasis on Social and Cultural Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Julius Crowe Hampton grew up in Los Angeles, California, and was raised by a family of educators. He is a fourth-generation teacher in his family. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, he moved to the Bay Area to pursue his teaching career and graduate studies. For over 10 years, Julius has worked with youth in a variety of settings including youth theaters, summer educational access programs, museums, outdoor spaces, and public and independent elementary school classrooms. He currently teaches 4th grade in Oakland, CA. Julius is a Black Teacher Project Fellow and has worked on a team to organize wellness events for Black educators in the Bay Area and throughout the country. Julius also spends his time serving on the Outdoor Afro Leadership Team, an organization with a mission to celebrate and inspire Black connections and leadership in nature. In all of his work, Julius is passionate about advocating for racial and environmental justice issues, as well as seeking and creating opportunities to cultivate Black joy, healing, and liberation.

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Registration and Organizer Information

This event is a Black racial affinity space, if you do not identify as Black, please refrain from registering to honor the safe and sacred experience we are trying to create.

Please register through this Eventbrite page to receive a link to the Zoom video conference on the day of the event. The event will also be recorded (breakout segments will not be recorded).

Please note that this event has a registration capacity of 250. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. If tickets sell out, we encourage you to register for our waitlist so that we can email you a link to the recording.

While this event is free, we welcome and appreciate donations from those who are able to offer them. All proceeds will go directly back into our programming. During this pivotal time in history, lifting up the leadership of Black teachers is an essential function on the path towards liberation; any and all contributions help us continue this work.

The Black Teacher Project (BTP), is a program that sustains and develops Black teachers to lead and reimagine schools as communities of liberated learning. BTP’s vision is that every student will benefit from the diversity, excellence, and leadership of an empowered Black teaching force.