Letters to the Editor | June 14, 2026

It is with great sadness that I read the article about a proposal to end Black history education in Cherry Hill. As a retired history teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools with fond memories of my experience in Cherry Hill, I cannot help but remember the days when we were all Americans, regardless of our racial or religious identity.

We took it for granted that Black history was an integral part of American history.

We taught slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement as part of, and integral to, American history. We never had sufficient resources to satisfy all the expectations our communities had of us.

If any of our racial (or religious) groups required further education, it came from the family, from the places of worship, or from some other community effort. It did not come from public education.

To teach separately breeds separation. To breed separation is to secure separation.

That was never our goal.

Bernard D. Shapiro, Voorhees

I am shocked and angered to find out about Councilmember Cindy Bass’ conduct in Philly’s 22nd Ward elections. There have been reports of misinformation around the time of the meeting, the bumbling of the vote, and the flap around the sign-in sheet. The most upsetting part of this story is the quote, “That’s democracy.” It’s as if our elected officials are going to just hoard power in the face of practicing the will of the people. It’s especially harrowing to see this behavior from a vice chair of the Philadelphia Democratic Party.

Not only does the party need wholesale leadership change, but there has to be an overhaul of the entire system. Elected officials should not be able to serve as committeepeople or ward leaders. This is a clear conflict of interest. What do you do if you’re unhappy with your ward leader … and your ward leader is the mayor? Also, elected officials have full-time jobs they should be focusing on, not this volunteer role. One elected role should be enough. If we’re not practicing transparency and inclusion in a volunteer role at the street level of city politics, how is the rest of our democracy going to work?

Jayson Massey, Philadelphia

As a former ward leader, I find it disheartening to learn that Cindy Bass acted like a mini-monarch on Monday in denying a fair ward election. The 27th Ward in West Philly faced a similar despotic challenge back 56 years ago — the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our contested ward leader election on Monday was fairly settled by secret ballot. Welcome to 21st-century democracy.

Mary L. Goldman, Philadelphia

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