ABSTRACT
The Nguzo Saba was also part of the foundation of a Black community school co-founded by my mother, Cheryl Fisher. Named Shule Jumamose, or Saturday School, the school was located in Sacramento’s mostly Black Oak Park neighborhood in a large craftsmen style house originally constructed for a prominent physician. The building was eventually acquired by my parents (Simpson, 2004). Shule Jumamose emerged from a conference called “Gettin’ It Together! A Service Conference for Black Survival” organized by The Sacramento Black Awareness Committee on Saturday, May 8, 1971, at Sacramento State University. My parents were among a movement of concerned Black parents, educators, and students across the United States who saw a dire need to either supplement or provide an alternative to the public school education for Black youth. My mother, Cheryl Fisher, explained the purpose for a school like Shule Jumamose to a local news reporter:
We started Shule Jumamose because as parents and as black people we are concerned about the education black children are getting in public schools. Because it in no way reinforces their well-being nor does it create a sense of pride.
