The virtual program Pride in Literacy Project is a safe learning environment created to offer an Ethnic Studies presentation of the Black lived experience.  The focus is on the history, movement, personalities and contributions, of the Black community, which are often left out of the traditional K-12 curriculum.  The students were now able to be gifted the reading list books to build their own personal libraries.  The goal of the Pride in Literacy Project is to inspire literacy/reading and instill a sense of knowing and connection to those who labored in creating opportunities for excellence indicative and foundational to the Black lived experience.

The books will be read, analyzed and share reading the books and lessons.  The books this grant has allowed us to purchase are for elementary school girls and boys, as well as middle school girls and boys.  Just a sample of the amazing library we now can share from coloring books like To My Sisters Coloring Book for all girl participants, to I Am Enough and Skin Like Mine for elementary girls and What will I Be? and The Stars Beneath My Feet for elementary school boys.  Middle school and high school girls and boys will now be able to read Stamped From the Beginning and Black Mental Health Matters, while girls will read Becoming and The Hate You Give.  Middle school and high school boys are reading and analyzing among other books The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Dear Martin, The Willie Lynch Letter.

With the L.I.F.T. Teacher Grant we will continue enriching young Black lives through literature and provide them with a true perspective on history and the roles Black lives play to shape our country, communities and the world.