First published on Caribbean Life
Author Nelson King
A Bronx Assemblyman has proposed an amendment to New York State Education Law to include the history of the Garifuna people.
Assemblyman Luis R. Sepúlveda announced his plan during the 6th Annual Abrazo Garifuna in New York and in the New York State Assembly, according to the Bronx-based Garifuna group, The Garifuna Coalition U.S.A., Inc.
The Coalition said the Bill states that, “in order to promote a spirit of patriotic and civic service and obligation and to foster in the children of the state moral and intellectual qualities, which are essential in preparing to meet the obligations of citizenship in peace or in war, the regents of The University of the State of New York shall prescribe courses of instruction in patriotism, citizenship, and human rights issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery, including… the history of the Garifuna People…to be maintained and followed in all the schools of the state.”
The Coalition said the proclamation of March 11 – April 12, 2016, declaring Garifuna-American Heritage Month in the State of New York, is in observance of the 219th Anniversary of the “forcible deportation by the British of the Garifuna People from St. Vincent and The Grenadines on March 11, 1797, and their settlement in Central America on April 12, 1797.”
