Local nonprofits aims to honor legacy of ancestors by uplifting Black excellence in students

CBS News

19-06-2025

A local nonprofit is using education as a tool to unlock Black excellence.
School is out for summer, but a group of scholars is learning a very important lesson. It's an educational seminar put on by the nonprofit, Council of African American Parents, or CAAP.
Ingrid Johnson founded the organization in 1992, when she says a Black "A-student" at Diamond Bar High School was denied entrance to an AP Calculus class.
"She was just prejudged by a teacher who never saw an African American as being stellar in math," Johnson said.
After organizing with other Black parents and convincing the then-superintendent, the student was placed in the advanced class. But Johnson didn't stop there. She created a volunteer-led Kindergarten through 12th Grade college prep organization, with an emphasis on embracing your African roots.
"We thought it should be more than a Saturday school. It should be a movement," Johnson said.
Last fall, Black students made up less than 5% of the total population at both Cal State Universities and University of California schools. But in the last 33 years, 99% of CAAP scholars have gone to 4-year universities. Camara Christian is one of them.
"I was accepted into over 30 schools with $1.5 million in scholarships," Christian said.
The 18-year-old is getting a refresher on Juneteenth, learning how, despite President Lincoln liberating enslaved Americans in 1863, that message didn't reach those in Texas until June 19, 1865.
Christian said ignorance is not bliss, knowing her ancestors were denied their education.
"I know my family history, we come from a slave plantation," Christian said.
She said that after the plantation burned down, her family ran to Ohio and learned how to read. Fast forward to now, CAAP helped Christian get into Cal State Fullerton as a Presidential Scholar.
"Them moving a boundary for themselves, will move it for someone else, and they will see in our organization if she could move that boundary, I can too," Johnson said.
Christian said she is living the dream of her ancestors and hopes to continue to make them proud.
"It's empowering. Knowing that we are defying all odds and breaking barriers," Christian said. "Doing what our ancestors couldn't do, gaining an education. It's amazing."