Uniting Our Community. Honoring Our Legacy.

In February 1970, The East opened Uhuru Sasa, establishing one of the era's first politically conscious, Africentric schools. The institution deliberately wove the core values of the Black Power movement directly into its curriculum and daily instruction. Among its profound legacy is Ayana Johnson, who later founded the Johnson Preparatory School, proudly tracing her educational and cultural roots straight back to Uhuru Sasa.

By 1973, a wave of like-minded schools formed across New York City, several of which were established by former Uhuru Sasa instructional teachers. Growing out of the African American Teachers Association's organizing initiative for localized community control of public schools, these institutions united in 1972 as the Brooklyn Family Schools coalition.

This intensive localized organizing effort directly led to the formation of CIBI (the Council of Independent Black Institutions), founded as a national umbrella framework for independent Afrikan-centered schools. Jitu Weusi, who single-handedly initiated the first strategic planning meeting, served as the council's founding chair. In 1973, the Brooklyn Family Schools formally transformed into CIBI, which remains vibrantly active today, managing a national science exposition, an alumni association, a dedicated teacher-training institute, and regional conventions.