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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2024)
February 21, 2024 Page 11 BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2024 Black History on the Go Continued from Front website states. “He’s been a health and physical education teacher, a drug and alcohol counselor, a student advocate, and integration specialist and a mentor.” Carline also donated his $5,000 coaching award from NBC Comcast to sending low-in- come student athletes to sports summer camps. To start on his current endeav- or, Carline began collecting items to enhance teaching about Black history while he was at Fort Van- couver, and he encouraged other classes to do the same. “But they didn’t do anything,” he said. Not one to be put off, Carline decided to do it all him- self and go from school to school teaching about Black history, bring with him what looks like a truckload of posters, books, pho- tographs, magazine and literature on Black history. “I’ve got stuff I collected over the years, and borrowed stuff from the library,” he said. During the covid pandemic, he wanted to do something while stuck inside, so he took his exhib- it first to Emmanuel Church and then to Fort Vancouver High, and from there, the idea took off. “After that, and word getting out, I got calls from schools, so I turned it into a business,” he said. “I also got a call from the state about (sharing it with) youth corrections.” Carline hasn’t stopped in the past several years, and through a contract with Portland Public Schools, he regularly takes his ex- hibit to local schools. He also goes to schools in the area, recently to Woodburn High, as well as all over the state. “I went to Benson this week, then on to Burns, then Grants Pass, then for Women’s History Month in March, I will go to Al- bany,” he said. The African American Mobile Display, its website and Facebook Dennis Carline page by the same name are all a family affair, Carline said. “My son-in-law is a coder and creates things that teachers can use, and my brother and daugh- ter helped with the Facebook page,” he said. “And my other daughter is a videographer and does the video.” The website contains a wealth of information and links to other sources on the Civil Rights strug- gle, slavery and abolition, segre- gation and Jim Crow. It also has links to a wider range of topics, including African, Asian and Eu- ropean history, Latin American history, and much more. It even has all of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches. The Facebook page is also full of informative links, like a recent post, with photos, of the history of Black Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Carline’s website also has links to the Zinn Educational Project, which “promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country,” the Zinn website (zinneproject. org) states. The Zinn project of- fers free downloadable lessons and articles. Given the climate of repres- sion of African studies by some, Carline believes his work is more important than ever. “You can’t teach critical race theory, but kids are anxious to learn this, so (in his display) I put in Civil Rights and how the Na- tion of Islam did a lot of good, and the Black Panthers did, too. “And all those organizations like the NAACP, they contribute to the success of Black people to- day, but people don’t know about it,” he said. “They think Black history is not important, that we’re not important.” Carline is exposing that nega- tive propaganda, shining the light of truth on the vitally important role that Blacks played in the founding of our country and con- tinue to play today. It’s a lesson that everyone needs to learn, including white kids. Carline said he presented his exhibit for a school in the Clack- amas School District, where stu- dents are predominantly white, and they were shocked. “Some of those kids were in tears and said they never knew any of this stuff,” he said. “That’s why I’m giving this information to kids, so they can make bet- ter decisions. Some people still want to live in the ‘60s, but that doesn’t work.” Carline doesn’t just put up a display, he talks to the kids, shows them movies to involve them in learning about African American history. “Another thing that really gets them is that I bring a record play- er, and play Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and MLK speeches, and then answer any questions to enlighten them about the true history of race relations in America. “Some are tough ques- tions,” he said. “We’ve changed some minds, and some we don’t, but at least we give them the opportunity.”
