Dupage Policy Journal

Edison Middle School has released a Black History Month t-shirt that is stirring controversy due to a quote from Angela Davis used in the t-shirt’s imagery. An image of the shirt was released on social media. 

“Speaking of divisive content… this is Edison's shirt of black history month,” a user shared in a post. 

The image of a Panther paw, the school’s mascot, is pictured as the “A” In “Celebrating Black History Month” which is encircled by the quote below. 

“‘I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept,’ Angela Davis.” The t-shirt is to be priced at $20.

Edison Middle School releases Black History Month t-shirt emblazoned with a quote from Marxist, feminist Angela Davis

Davis is a Marxist feminist and formerly active communist party member and was once awarded a Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. She is the author of ten books and a longtime professor who is currently the Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Davis infamously was on the FBI’s most wanted list after four were killed in a courtroom with guns she owned. She was later acquitted in the case. She also drew the ire of Ronald Reagan who had her removed from a job at the University of California of Los Angeles.

Last year for Black History Month the school organized a controversial “Panthers in Black” lecture series. The Panthers in Black Club is a racially segregated club that is closed to non-black students. “A black-only student group at Wheaton's Edison School has been conducting lectures for white students this week, instructing them on what words it is appropriate to use around blacks, why it is important that whites find Black History Month important and the particulars of “black hair culture,” DuPage Policy Journal wrote of the event.

In December Edison Middle School adorned a Gay Pride tree with phrases in support of gay pride. That incident created parental outrage within that community over the seeming sexualization of Christmas in a school environment.