Atlanta Charter School Under Fire For Blackface Depiction During Black History Play

The Kindezi School at Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta is under fire for making kids wear blackface masks while reciting an African-American poem that symbolized black oppression. The second graders are seen holding up blackface masks in a reading of 19th-century author Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “We Wear the Mask” as part of the school’s black history program, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The performance is now facing criticism from the community and parents who have questioned the masks’ context.