Season 1 Episode 4: Black Lives Matter at School

This episode features two teachers, Kailee Lewis and Christina Mitchell, who speak with chanel hurt of Black Lives Matters at School about the curriculum and framework for the Black Studies courses they teach in Stockton, California.

Black Studies is one of the four core areas developed by the originators of Ethnic Studies and this episode provides educators, administrators, and organizers with some of the details of how such a class comes to fruition at a school district level.

Established in 2017, the National Black Lives Matter at School is an organization struggling for liberation and racial justice in education for Black youth, educators, and all youth of color.  The organization works to address racial justice in education by promoting restorative justice, advocating for mental health support, increasing Black teaching staff, ending police presence in schools, and mandating Black history and ethnic studies across the country.

Originally from Stockton, California, Christina Mitchell earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College and a MA from San Francisco State University. For over 10 years, she taught several high school courses including Spanish, World History and African American Studies in the Bay Area before moving back to her hometown. Christina has served as a Mentor for the Ethnic Studies Education Pathway Project, Curricular Lead for the California Regional Ethnic Studies Collaborative and Member of the Ethnic Studies Steering Committee for Stockton Unified School District. She is currently teaching Ethnic Studies and piloting a new Black & African American Studies course in Stockton. 

Kailee Lewis grew up in southwest Michigan, graduated from Central Michigan University and moved to California with her family where she taught for nearly a decade. She worked on the Ethnic Studies team in Stockton for almost half of that time, where she taught and built community responsive and culturally relevant curriculum for students, in partnership with community members all around the Stockton area. She has helped with the curriculum development of four classes and taught the first Black & African American Studies courses on her campus in January 2023. In mid 2024, she and her family returned back to Michigan to bring her perspective of the transformative work of Ethnic Studies to her Midwest communities. 

chanel hurt is a steering committee member and former administrative staff of National Black Lives Matter at School. She began volunteering with BLM at School after learning about the Week of Action during her term as a union board member for her local chapter in Virginia. chanel has taught middle and high school orchestra, second grade, and English as a foreign language for all ages, from 0-100. Currently, they focus more energy into creating self-publications, learning Spanish, and practicing community and organizational safety.

We encourage new listeners to our podcast to start with Season 1 Episode 0 to help orient you and provide context to our liberated Ethnic Studies movement.

For resources from this episode head to our website: ethnicstudies-coalition.org/podcast