"History of slavery in NY 'can't be ignored'

BY MARTIN C. EVANS
STAFF WRITER

September 13, 2005

For years, Mary K. Carter felt that New York's two-century history as
a slave state was treated as an embarrassing secret, mostly ignored in
school curriculums.

"Many people are surprised when you talk about slavery's existence in
New York," said Carter, a Freeport resident and retired middle-school
teacher in the Rockville Centre school district. "They're surprised
because it's taught as something that happened in the South."

So when the education department at Hofstra University began working
on a curriculum to help school children understand how the enslavement
of Africans helped build New York's wealth and power, she joined the
team.

That curriculum has been named this year's "exemplary social studies
program by the nation's largest association of social studies
teachers."

More of the article can be found at:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lirace054424149sep13,0,6676685.story?coll=ny-li-mezz

George Myers