Teacher of the week, produced by Black Joy’s MacKenzie River Foy, is a social-first series honoring teachers who proactively educate students about Black history through a pedagogical lens of belonging, joy and resistance.

Jamaican-American teacher Anthony Worgs renamed himself to Sundjata Sekou twelve years ago – Sunjata, after the first king of the Mali Empire, and Sekou, a Mandika word meaning wisdom and intelligence. The 44-year old is a third grade Math and Science teacher at Mount Vernon Avenue Elementary School in Irvington, NJ. As an educational freedom fighter, Mr. Sekou organizes with his union to support teachers in recognizing Black genius and leads fellow educators in decolonizing their curriculum and pedagogy. His classroom boasts a cross-curricular approach to teaching Black history, not limiting the subject to social studies or one celebratory month in the year.

Dressed for the first day of school in a salmon pink suit over his paisley polo t-shirt, Sundjata lit up when talking about his love for his students, our ancestors, and his fearless confrontation of anti-Blackness from teachers, superintendents and occasionally parents. He shared stories of smuggling banned books into Florida, leading workshops about hip-hop in the classroom, and witnessing the failure of school districts to implement New Jersey’s Amistad Bill A1301 which has called on New Jersey schools to “incorporate African American history into their social studies curriculum” since 2002.

I’m proud to recognize Sundjata Sekou as our first Black Joy Teacher of the Week. His indomitable spirit is matched by his deep well of faith in the brilliance of Black children. Our conversation with him was as alive with laughter, curiosity and gratitude. Here’s an excerpt:

I was moved by your speech at the press conference in Newark, it’s raw and infectious energy. There’s a refusal and a challenge in your words – “I’m not waiting for no superintendent for me to teach Black history.” Can you tell me what was feeding you in that moment?

I had recently came back from Florida and dealing with DeSantis issues for…maybe a year. And before that dealing with Trump issues, talking about our history and just organizing around that in my union. TJ Whitaker, teacher and cofounder of MapSo Freedom School in Maplewood/South Orange sent me a text saying ‘brother…we’re having this press release against what’s going on in Florida and their curriculum talking about slavery was a personal benefit.’

I went [to Newark] at 4:15pm…and all my passion, all my love for our people and the struggle… just the ancestors just came through me. I didn’t write that down. I was just freestyling what was on my heart, what was on my brain, and the journey that I just came back from Florida. All of that was just on me, and I was just freestyling and that’s how it just came out like that.

When I see like people are against our history and attacking our history…that really bothers me…not only is the history something I love and I study and I read about it – It’s also something that’s embedded in my name. I [wanted] to present a name to the world that’s going to represent our history, represent our culture, and represent who we are. So what you saw, again, it was just, years of reading, frustration, traveling and being a Black man in America.

It’s the same white supremacy every damn where. They’re always trying to blame the south. It’s in the south and it’s in the north, right? It’s in here. Can I tell you just about the state that I’m sitting here and your birth state? It was the last state to outlaw slavery really. The last state in the country. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. New Jersey didn’t free its last slave until 1866. Throughout New Jersey there was a hotbed of slavery, but Bergen County [especially]. There are schools in Bergen County sitting on top of African burial grounds.

What do you teach? Is there a subject that you teach?

Believe it or not, I teach third grade math and science. That’s my title. [But] I don’t wait for no one to tell me to teach black history. I don’t care what title y’all give me. I’m gonna teach it. And what I do in math, I do two things. I let them do a project. I do project-based learning where they do a project about black scientists and mathematicians.

Yes, Harriet’s great. Malcolm is great. . . All the ancestors are great, but who are the Black scientists or the Black mathematicians? You know about Alice Ball? I’m talking about women and men. . . I try to pinpoint those things in math to talk about our people in vast and different ways.

And I’m gonna keep on doing it. I remember I was on [a panel] with a sister, and she was like, ‘Brother Sekou, I like what you’re saying, but aren’t you worried about them firing you?’

Firing me?! I’ll be okay. Trust me, I will be okay, and my district knows about it. If they say ‘Sundjata Sekou you don’t have to work right here,’ I will be just fine. You mean I don’t have to worry about a whip, being thrown over a ship, being marched to the coast and leaving my ancestral land name and language? I’m not worrying about that? That’s not what you’re doing here? I will be fine. I’ll get another job. I’ll be all right.

What was the event that brought you to Florida where you brought the banned books?

The reason I went to Florida [was] to do the racial literacy circles [and] to talk about the brilliance of Hip Hop griots. I [wanted to] show how you can use hip hop in the classroom. How you can talk about the brilliance of our hip hop people, everyone from Queen Latifah to Lauryn Hill to Nas. Even brought in Lil’ John. It was just so much that I brought in there for people to see the brilliance of these griots bringing this message and this word and putting all of this together

I played Wu-Tang on the first day, “All I got is you.” We talk about poverty and how poverty can affect the household. Then I play “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” because to me, it tells a story about once you see the poverty in the household, you go out into the streets to make money. The next day I started with Tupac. A lot of times people talk about Tupac, they talk about him in isolation. They don’t talk about the Black Panther Party. They don’t talk about Afeni Shakur. They don’t talk about how these people love their people. They don’t talk about the Black Liberation Army, who came after the Black Panthers were infiltrated. And they were literally fighting the US government. But they don’t talk about those things. So Tupac is an extension of this community that he came out of. Yeah. So we talked about those things.

I brought [banned books] to the session and I handed ‘em out for free. And I kept on saying, ‘thanks to the good people in New Jersey!’. . . I put together an Amazon Wishlist. And these books were just arriving at my house. They were just coming and coming and coming.

And then I brought these books and we just handed them out. ‘Cause we were saying [forget] your banned book law! We’re not asking permission from these people, because this is the right thing to do. You just ban the book because they center someone that’s LGBTQ+, you’re banning the book because they’re centering Black and Brown people. No other reason. I can understand if it’s too sexually explicit or graphic violence. We get that. But you’re going to ban a book about Ruby Bridges? You’re going to ban a book about Roberto Clemente? This is just insane. I see that as an issue, and I’m going to say something about it and I’m going to organize around it.

Could you tell me what your classroom is like? How does it operate? What does it feel like?

I have a big outline of Africa in the room. I have a Marcus Garvey flag in the room. Black for the people, red for the blood, the green for the land. I have that flag in the room. I have a picture of all the Civil Rights leaders, Malcolm, Martin, Harriet. An artist drew these pictures. I put that up in the room and I also give words of encouragement that you can do it. Whatever you do, you can achieve. I give words of encouragement. So that’s what the classroom aesthetic is like.

Now when it comes to the lesson. Students sit in a group, I’m more of a facilitator than a lecturer. . . So the students, they answer questions, they work with each other. They are the ones figuring things out. They go up to the board. They answer questions. So that’s what the class is in a nutshell.

Sundjata tells me he’s looking forward to proposing a session at next year’s National Education Association conference, which will take place in Chicago. He dreams of a workshop focused entirely on Tupac Shakur. And as for his lesson plans for this year?

“I’m not waiting for those supervisors to tell me to teach Black history. I’m not waiting for none of these people and I’m not asking for permission. I’m going to do it anyway.”