The parent: Mom says African American Academy teaches value of heritage

Fahren Johnson and her husband want to build a strong sense of cultural identity in their four children at an early age, even if it means their school doesn't attract many nonblacks.

Her parents grew up in the Deep South before Brown v. Board of Education and experienced the kind of segregated schools that the Supreme Court ruled denied blacks equal opportunity.

Now her children attend African American Academy, which prides itself on having the only Afro-centric curriculum in Seattle Public Schools. More than 85 percent of its students are black.

"We didn't choose it because it was 85 percent African American," said Johnson, 32. "We chose it because we liked the curriculum. We liked the teachers."

She notes that there are white and Asian teachers at the school. "And it just allows them to see there's great things people my color have done as well as great things that other people have done. It doesn't exclude any other race or ethnicity."

The academy, which began in 1991, also serves children who have emigrated from Somalia, Ethiopia and other African nations.

Johnson hopes to send her children, after the fifth grade, on to Christian Faith School, a private school in Seattle.

"It's about quality in the heart of that teacher that's going to bring out the best in my child," she said. "Do they have the same values as I do? Do they have the same goals and visions for what they want to see our youth and our children be as they get older?"