PITTSBURGH — An online petition requiring all undergraduate students at the University of Pittsburgh take a mandatory Black studies course had more than 6,600 signatures Sunday morning.
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Started by Sydney Massenberg, the petition said she “felt as though my non-black classmates would benefit from learning more about what it means to be Black in America” and that a “lack of knowledge has negative consequences in university communities across the country.”
In a letter Massenberg attached to the petition, she said many students are able to graduate without having to take courses on Black history, racism and related topics. She said in the letter that “students of this country have repeatedly been denied an accurate and honest account of American history” and that it can be seen “playing out in real time.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER IN FULL
The chair of the Department of Africana Studies, Yolanda Covington-Ward, wrote an opinion piece for Pitt’s student newspaper advocating for more students to take Black history classes and asked “So, as you think about racial justice, ask yourself, have you ever taken an Africana Studies class? If not, why not?”
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