For too long, the African American experience has been defined by forced migration, chattel slavery, and legal doctrines that codified Black bodies as property. We honor the resilience of those who endured plantation violence, Jim Crow terrorism, mass incarceration, and medical exploitation, even as their voices were erased from textbooks and public memory. ATEP confronts this legacy head-on, weaving together anthropological research on our shared mitochondrial DNA heritage out of Africa, the intellectual revolt of the Harlem Renaissance, and contemporary movements for racial justice to illuminate both the horrors endured and the undying spirit of resistance.

We also acknowledge the colonial erasure of Indigenous peoples, the genocide that cleared land for profit, and the insidious rise of white supremacist ideologies promulgated by European Enlightenment Thinkers who gave birth to Racial taxonomy that justified slavery and land expropriation. We see how these intertwined atrocities shackled the human spirit and robbed entire communities of self-realization. In response, ATEP’s curricula, forums, and personalized support are designed to reclaim stolen narratives, to let formerly silenced voices name their own pain and triumph, and to forge a bridge toward our shared humanity.

Educators, scholars, students, community leaders: join us. Curate your playlists of freedom, design your Sankofa-infused lesson plans, and hold space for the wave of quantum consciousness inheriting our classrooms. Together, we’ll decolonize the remnants of colonial pedagogy and plant seeds of liberation that bloom into intergenerational power. We, the architects of ATEP 2025, declare that education must no longer be a tool of erasure—it must be a vessel of remembrance, reclamation, and liberation. Born from the lived experiences of the formerly enslaved and their descendants, ATEP 2025 is a metaphysical intervention into the colonial curriculum that denied African humanity, criminalized Black literacy, and fractured ancestral memory.

Our mission is born of love, respect, and a conviction that our liberation is bound together while exposing erased narratives and celebrating resilient voices fueled by compassion, rigor, and unwavering hope. In cultivating culturally responsive pedagogy and creating spaces where every participant is both learner and author, we reject hate and division. Thank you for standing with us as we challenge oppressive structures, even as fascist and authoritarian forces attempt to erase us. We continue to celebrate the full spectrum of life, history, and creativity. Together, we affirm that truth and love for humanity know no color—and that every reclaimed story brings us closer to justice and collective healing.