Jacqueline Hubbard
President, Association for the Study of African American Life and History-St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
“African Americans are under assault,” wrote Jacqueline Hubbard, president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), in an editorial for the Weekly Challenger.
Her statement was in the wake of Florida implementing a new law restricting how race-related issues are discussed in classrooms and the workplace. For Hubbard, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Stop WOKE Act harkened back to the days of segregation and Jim Crow laws.
In direct response, she and the St. Petersburg ASALH chapter looked to the Civil Rights Movement and efforts made then to combat such disparities in education. In 2023, they led an effort to launch a Freedom School, where local students can learn the truth about Black history. They took a page out of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) playbook, which created Freedom Schools in 1964 as part of Freedom Summer.
“This is a true homage to SNCC and the original Freedom Schools,” said Hubbard, a retired lawyer. “Here we are in 2024, and we are again in need of an act of civil rights.”
Nearly two dozen students participated in the 10-week program, where they were introduced to the full scope of Black history, dating back to 1619. The lessons included key historical figures and missing chapters in Black history. Hubbard said it was such a success that the national ASALH is creating a nationwide program.
“Education is really the key,” she said. “That is the most important thing you can give a child.”
