African Liberation School Receives Support for Education in Summerville

Better known for his detente with SC Secessionist Party leader James Bessinger, Black Nationalist Shakem Amen Akhet (aka Johnathan Thrower) has initiated a 15-student youth academy this month at the Summerville Resource Center run by DD2 gadfly Louis Smith. Pastor Thomas Ravenell is assisting as a mentor at the school.

The school, named for  Black Lives Matter activist Muhiyidin Moye, murdered in New Orleans last February, uses a curriculum named "From the Block Up," written by Akhet and Moye. "The 32-year-old Moye, who also went by the last name d'Baha, led Charleston's chapter of Black Lives Matter. He rose to local fame through his work in the wake of the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott by a white police officer, Michael Slager, and became known for activism that sometimes got him labeled as disruptive by the Holy City's establishment."

The man his friends sometimes called "'the black hippie'" had a master's degree and was interested in education. "Ultimately, Akhet, Ravenell and Duncan [Moye's sister] hope that the youth academy will help empower young, black youth to succeed in life as well as give them a firm sense of their cultural history. 'We understand that if a person doesn't know their history, they don't understand their future,' Akhet said. 'And the history of the Gullah Geechee people is that of overcoming difficulties, resistance (and) being able to form their own colonies.'"

"By teaching this history, in conjunction with emphasizing academic achievement, he said he hopes to give the students an understanding that black people emerged from the terrors of slavery to found their own, thriving civilization. 'We want to give them that sense of hope, that sense of direction,' Akhet said. 'We're not just thugs and drug dealers and gangbangers. We want them to understand the culture and the beauty of it so we can have a legacy of excellence that they can look forward to.'"

Dorchester District 2 has encouraged the program by donating 15 laptops for students' use as well as a program that keeps track of their progress over the summer. "The school plans to teach basics, such as reading, writing and math, and also cover politics, methods of direct action, civil disobedience and the Gullah Geechee culture."

The reporter had little curiosity regarding how the 15 students were selected or even their ages.