Interview with Louis Robison, Ed.D
Educator/Historian
October 2005

Q: Why do you feel that it is important to incorporate the history of Angola into school curriculums?
A: I think anytime that the history of a people is uncovered, it's important for children as well as their families and teachers to know about it. In the history of Florida, the story of Angola existed. But the story is virtually unknown to the public and familiar among a few scholars. That’s until the “Looking For Angola” project began. The story includes significant historical figures such as Andrew Jackson and major events in history that shaped the development of the state. Angola’s inclusion into the Manatee County social studies curriculum is essential and important.

Q: What do you hope to achieve by teaching the story of Angola?
A: That's a good question. When you talk about what we hope to achieve, it really depends upon the level of understanding and the level of openness of those who will be teaching, and those who will be learning. Subsequently, what we hope to achieve, ideally, is 100% awareness and understanding of Angola and the contributions its inhabitants made to our community and state.

We hope to teach that a settled group of free blacks and escaping slaves were involved in collaborative efforts and cooperative dealings with Seminoles. These interrelationships say a lot about the integration of races and the integration of people as far back as the 1820's. That's more than we can say about some other integration rates, as you know.

Q: How many schools will be targeted?
A: We're hoping to target the high schools and the middle schools initially. That includes approximately 14 or 15 schools. One of the reasons for limiting the number initially is, of course, funding. Anytime you incorporate a new curriculum into schools, there's always the need to train teachers, and we want to do it right.

We want to offer pertinent information, age appropriate learning materials and curriculum guides so that interested teachers are excited about the subject and have an opportunity to participate. We have had a chance to make a presentation about the Angola Settlement at a meeting of the School Board of Manatee County and the Superintendent. Both are supportive.

At the same time, even with that support, unless we get teachers interested in including the subject of Angola in lesson plans, our objective won't be accomplished. What we want to happen here is for children and their families to know about the Angola Settlement and the contributions inhabitants made while they were here. We want to remember this important local history story that has national and international implications.

The danger of moving whole-heartedly into the educational component of the “Looking For Angola” project without a buy-in from the instructional staff and the principals at that level would be detrimental to our education mission, I think.

To garner support from staff and administrators in the district, we're sharing the story in as many venues as possible, bits and pieces at a time. Vickie Oldham, the LFA Project Director produced a short documentary that is available to teachers on DVD. Many newspaper articles about the Angola project have appeared in the media. The clips are available to our staff. Dr. Canter Brown has updated his research paper and bibliography. It is also accessible to our staff. A videotape of a panel discussion conducted by Angola scholars is also available for check out in the Manatee County public library. I was a panelist joined by Dr. Canter Brown, Bill Burger, Dr. Uzi Baram and Dr. Rosalyn Howard.

Now we want to identify teachers who really want to include information about Angola in their lesson plans. I think at some point in time there have, to be other forums organized for teachers, and others, for that matter who’d like to pose questions to Angola scholars. Certainly the place to start is with social studies teachers. We can invite their questions, as well as their participation in writing the Angola curriculum. That's how you get buy-in. Of course that would be the work of the curriculum team, we have a department that does that.

Q: What grade levels will you target?
A: We probably want to start at the middle grades, but we haven't really settled that issue yet. The intent would be to develop a pilot program to first get a feel for activities that work in the classroom then see what kind of a response we get from students.

Q: How will the Angola story be incorporated into the curriculum?
A: Because it's not something that the large textbook companies have in place at this time, anything that we do regarding the production of textbooks or other instructional materials will have to be funded through grants, outside funding, or whatever the school system might be willing to offer.

The curriculum department will hopefully have an opportunity to become engaged in this process, and I plan to meet with them fairly quickly, to discuss just how we intend to put an educational plan into place. There are a lot of education initiatives ongoing in Manatee County right now. I don't want this one to slip through the cracks as one that's not important.

So the more we can say to administrators that this is important, and that we want to put this on the front burner, the better. That's one of the reasons we've taken the route we've taken by making sure that the School Board and the Superintendent are supportive. That carries a lot more clout than someone just coming along and saying, "We think this is a great idea, can we put it into the Manatee County curriculum?"

Writing and designing a curriculum is a difficult task, especially with the accountability measures we have now. If we can design something that's truly interactive, the activities will be far more exciting for students. For instance, field trips to active archaeological sites would be ideal. Our students can be assigned tasks that assist archaeologists. This is ‘hands-on’ learning that works according to research. That is far more exciting than reading about Angola in textbooks anyway. The intent is to develop activities that are relevant to students.

Q: What challenges will you face?
A: For one, it's probably not the most popular topic, when you start to talk about our history, the history of African Americans and the history of Native Americans. We're talking about the history of two minority groups. That's not a priority. What we have to be sure of is that all students understand that this is a part of the history of Florida and the United States of America. Before now, not much of that history has been incorporated at all in school textbooks and lessons.

Q: What else would you like for our readers to know?
A: I’d like readers to know that our efforts are ongoing, and we certainly solicit any response or any assistance from people who have an interest in this topic.

Q: What lesson does the story of Angola have to teach us today?
A: I think it teaches us about relationships. I think it teaches us that there was integration of the races very early in history - free blacks, former slaves and Native Americans lived together cooperatively and worked together cooperatively. Families developed as a result of those relationships.

The more we see and understand that those kinds of relationships existed, the more it says a lot about what we can continue to strive for in the society that we live in. Angola also teaches so many lessons about the struggle for freedom and the risks the people of Angola took in pursuit of freedom. The story has universal appeal.