May 2021 - PopHistory.org

Department of Health-Broward Administers 2nd and 1st Round of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine at BCPS High Schools

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), in partnership with the Department of Health-Broward (DOHBroward) is providing the second round of free voluntary Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations to students, staff and their families (for ages 12 and up) at all BCPS high schools and centers.

Beginning Tuesday, May 25, 2021, DOH-Broward will administer the second round of on-campus vaccinations to those who already received their first dose 21 days earlier, and provide first doses to individuals not yet vaccinated. No insurance is required and no appointment is necessary.

Parents and guardians can accompany students to the event. Students under the age of 18 can be vaccinated without a parent or guardian present but will need to bring a consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

DOH-Broward and BCPS have also begun planning to provide vaccinations at middle schools during the summer session. Those details will be announced as soon as plans have been finalized.

The Pfizer Emergency Use Authorization Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers can be found here.

For COVID-19 Screening and Consent Form, click here.

Vaccinations will be provided from 1 – 6 p.m. at the schools below:

Date	Location
May 25	Blanche Ely High
May 25	Bright Horizons Center
May 25	Coconut Creek High and Broward Virtual
May 25	Cypress Run Education Center
May 25	Deerfield Beach High
May 25	Monarch High
May 26	Pompano Beach High
May 26	Atlantic Technical and College Academy
May 26	Coral Glades High
May 26	Coral Springs High
May 26	Cross Creek School
May 26	Charles Drew Family Resource Center
May 27	Dave Thomas Education Center West
May 27	JP Taravella High

Date	Location
May 27	Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
May 27	Northeast High
May 27	Boyd Anderson High
May 27	Millennium 6-12
May 28	Dillard 6-12
May 28	Fort Lauderdale High
May 28	Stranahan High
May 28	Wingate Oaks Center
May 28	Sheridan Technical
May 28	South Plantation
June 1	Seagull School
June 1	Nova High and College Academy
June 1	Whidden Rogers Education Center
June 1	William T. McFatter Technical
June 1	Hollywood Hills High
June 1	South Broward High

Date	Location
June 2	Charles Flanagan High
June 2	Cypress Bay High
June 2	Everglades High
June 2	The Quest Center
June 2	West Broward High
June 3	Cooper City High
June 3	Lauderhill 6-12
June 3	Piper High
June 3	Plantation High
June 3	Western High
June 4	Hallandale High
June 4	Henry D. Perry Education Center
June 4	Lanier James Education Center
June 4	McArthur High
June 4	Miramar High
June 4	Whispering Pines Center

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George Floyd is killed by a police officer, igniting historic protests

Black History Milestones: George Floyd Protests — Jerry Holt/Star Tribune/Getty Images

On the evening of May 25, 2020, white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kills George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for almost 10 minutes. The death, recorded by bystanders, touched off what may have been the largest protest movement in U.S. history and a nationwide reckoning on race and policing.

The 46-year-old Floyd, a Houston native and father of five, had purchased cigarettes at a Minneapolis convenience store. After a clerk suspected that Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill in the transaction, the store manager called the police. When officers arrived, they pulled a gun on Floyd, who initially cooperated as he was arrested. However, Floyd resisted being placed in the police car, saying he was claustrophobic. Officers eventually pulled him from the car and Chauvin pinned him to the ground for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd was unresponsive when an ambulance came and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

After video of the incident was posted on Facebook, protests began almost immediately in Minneapolis and quickly spread across the nation. Demonstrators chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” took to the streets from coast to coast, and police departments around the country responded at times with riot-control tactics. Floyd’s murder came after protests over the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Atlanta in February and of Breonna Taylor in Louisville in March, and also came in the third month of nationwide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By early June, protests were so widespread that over 200 American cities had imposed curfews and half of the United States had activated the National Guard. Marches continued and spread throughout June, despite the restrictions on gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic and militarized resistance from federal and local law enforcement.

All told, more than 2,000 cities and towns in all 50 states saw some form of demonstration in the weeks after Floyd’s death, as well as major cities across the globe.

The protests set off local and national dialogue about the role and budgets of American police departments, as well as intense discussions in schools and corporations about how to end racism and create inclusivity, equality and equity.

Chauvin, who had at least 17 other misconduct complaints lodged against him prior to killing Floyd, was arrested on May 29, 2020 and charged with second-degree and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter. On April 20, 2021, after a trial, which was broadcast live online and on TV due to the pandemic, a jury found Chauvin guilty of all charges.

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New York City’s Chinatown shuts down to protest police brutality

New York City’s Chinatown is almost entirely shut down on May 19, 1975, with shuttered stores displaying signs reading “Closed to Protest Police Brutality.” The demonstration is a reaction to the New York Police Department’s treatment of Peter Yew, a Chinese-American architectural engineer who was arrested, viciously beaten and charged with felonious assault after he witnessed the police beating a Chinese teenager and attempted to intervene.

In late April of 1975, Yew witnessed the NYPD stop a 15-year-old for an alleged traffic violation and tried to intervene when they began assaulting him. In doing so, he angered the officers, who Yew alleged beat him and arrested him, took him to the local precinct, stripped him, and beat him more while charging him with a felony. The shocking incident was the final straw for Chinatown residents who had long endured racist and dehumanizing treatment at the hands of the NYPD, and it led to weeks of unrest in the area. In the aftermath of the beatings, locals demonstrated outside the precinct, receiving further violent backlash from the police, and 2,500 people marched on nearby City Hall in a protest that, according to the New York Times, “had young students protesting side‐by‐side with their parents and grandparents, chanting together in Chinese.”

On May 19, local businesses joined the protest and activists again marched in the streets, coming to blows with police as they demanded better social services for their community. The charges against Yew were eventually dropped, the captain of the local precinct was reassigned—though not fired—and the unrest galvanized support for organizations like the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Asian Americans for Equal Employment, both of which organized in protest of Yew’s beating.

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Sean Curran, Fort Lauderdale High School, Named Florida 2021 Assistant Principal of the Year Finalist

Sean Curran, Fort Lauderdale High School, Named Florida 2021Assistant Principal Year of the Year Finalist Congratulations to Sean Curran on being named a Florida 2021 Assistant Principal of the Year Finalist. His commitment to ensuring students are provded with a high quality education is critcal to their success.

Sean Curran, who has served as assistant principal at Fort Lauderdale High School for the past six years, is one of three finalists recognized. says he been fortunate to work with and inspire some of the most brilliant students to achieve great things, and to work with and inspire struggling students to reach their fullest potentials. “We need to ensure that we provide a learning community that allows students the freedom to explore their place in the world and instill in them the confidence to pursue their goals,” he said.

As a Florida finalist, Curran was awarded a check for $725 and the District was awarded a check for $210.

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Sean Curran, Fort Lauderdale High School, Named Florida 2021Assistant Principal Year of the Year Finalist

As a Florida finalist, Curran was awarded a check for $725 and the District was awarded a check for $210.

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BCPS High Schools Named Among the Best High Schools in America by U.S. News & World Report

May 5, 2021

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is home to many of the nation’s top high schools as announced by U.S. News & World Report in its 2021 edition of Best High Schools in America.

Congratulations to Pompano Beach High School, McFatter Technical High School and Cypress Bay High School, which ranked among the top 500 high schools listed.

U.S. News & World Report ranked 17,857 high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia and 602 high schools in Florida. Schools were ranked using a six-step analysis, including college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, college curriculum breadth, graduation rates and achievement gap. College readiness measures participation and performance in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.

Congratulations to the following 10 BCPS traditional high schools that ranked in the top 10% of schools in the nation.

2021 Best High Schools	National Rank	State Rank
Pompano Beach High School	240	21
McFatter Technical High School	300	26
Cypress Bay High School	500	33
Sheridan Technical High School	544	34
Atlantic Technical High School	790	44
Nova High School	1,025	58
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School	1,245	70
Lauderhill 6-12	1,315	78
Fort Lauderdale High School	1,374	80
West Broward High School	1,465	88

Pompano Beach High and McFatter Technical High rank in the top 2% of schools in the nation.
Five BCPS high schools rank among the top 5% in the nation – Atlantic Technical, Cypress Bay, McFatter Technical High, Pompano Beach High and Sheridan Technical High.
Last year, Atlantic Technical High ranked in the top 10%. This year, all three technical high schools – including McFatter Technical High and Sheridan Technical High – rank in the top 5% of all high schools in the nation.
Most improved among BCPS high schools is Lauderhill 6-12, which advanced 3,200 spots over the past year, landing in the top 7.5% of all schools nationally.
Fifteen BCPS high schools rank in the top 20% of high schools in the nation.

For the complete list of BCPS high schools national and state ranking, visit usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings.

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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 261,500 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 92 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app.

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Sojourner Truth delivers powerful speech on African American women’s rights

At the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, on May 29, 1851, the formerly enslaved woman, Sojourner Truth, rises to speak and assert her right to equality as a woman, as well as a Black American. The exact wording of her speech, which becomes famous for the refrain, “Ain’t I a Woman?” has been lost to history. In fact, historians have since challenged whether Truth ever used the famous refrain as she spoke. Nonetheless, her speech becomes widely regarded as one of the most powerful moments of the early women’s liberation movement.

Born into slavery in Ulster County, New York, Isabella Baumfree escaped with her infant daughter in 1826 and chose the name Sojourner Truth. She later successfully sued a slaveowner for custody of her son, becoming the first Black woman to take a white man to court and win. She remained an antislavery activist and, after the Civil War, a crusader for the rights of African Americans for the rest of her life. Her speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention formed much of the foundation of her legacy.

LISTEN: Sojourner’s Truth on HISTORY This Week Podcast

There are two conflicting versions of the speech, neither of which was transcribed at the time Truth actually gave it. An account reported in the Anti-Slavery Bugle was the first to be published and does not actually include the titular phrase. On May 2, 1863, Frances Gage, a white abolitionist and president of the Convention, published an account of Truth’s words in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. In her account, Gage wrote that Truth used the rhetorical question, “Ar’n’t I a Woman?” to point out the discrimination Truth experienced as a Black woman.

Various details in Gage’s account, however, including that Truth said she had 13 children (she had five) and that she spoke in dialect have since cast doubt on its accuracy. Contemporaneous reports of Truth’s speech did not include this slogan, and quoted Truth in standard English. In later years, this slogan was further distorted to “Ain’t I a Woman?”, reflecting the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent. Truth was, in fact, a New Yorker.

Regardless, there is little doubt that Truth’s speech—and many others she gave throughout her adult life—moved audiences. Truth straightforwardly described of the predicament of Black women, who were not even afforded the paternalistic treatment their white counterparts received.

According to the Bugle version, she also facetiously described the predicament of white men, who were “surely between a hawk and a buzzard” with both women and African Americans demanding equality. As Truth deftly criticized not only sexism and racism, but also the racism of her fellow feminists, her speech is now regarded not only as one of the earliest entries in the canon of American feminism but also an early example of intersectionality, more than a century and a half before the term came to prominence.

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Chinese gold miners are slaughtered in the Hells Canyon Massacre

The Hells Canyon Massacre begins on May 27, 1887, in Lewiston, Washington Territory, in what is now Idaho. The mass slaughter of Chinese gold miners by a gang of white horse thieves was one of many hate crimes perpetrated against Asian immigrants in the American West during this period.

Two groups of Chinese workers were employed by the Sam Yup Company of San Francisco to search for gold in the Snake River in May of 1887. As they made their camps along the Snake River around Hells Canyon, a gang of seven white men who were known as horse thieves ambushed them, shooting them until they ran out of ammunition, mutilated some of the bodies and threw them in the river, and made off with several thousand dollars’ worth of gold. Although the eventual indictment listed 10 counts of murder, other accounts hold that the seven white riders killed a total of 34 people.

The massacre was part of a broader pattern of racism and violence against Asians during the period. Anti-Chinese sentiment and the belief that Asian laborers were “stealing” white jobs led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning all immigration from. In 1885 and 1886, white residents of Tacoma and Seattle had rioted and forced Chinese residents to leave the country, and San Francisco experienced three days of anti-Chinese pogroms in 1877. The Hells Canyon Massacre remained a historical footnote until 1995, when a Wallowa County clerk discovered court documents pertaining to the case—despite one of the assailants giving detailed testimony against them, the three men tried for the massacre were found innocent by an all-white jury.

In 2005, the site of the massacre was renamed Chinese Massacre Cove, and in 2012 a memorial with inscriptions in Chinese, English and Nez Perce was erected there.

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