On December 18, 1996, the school district in Oakland, Calif. passed an amendment to designate Ebonics as a main language of its predominantly African-American student base. The move was met with outrage and resistance, leading to changes in the amendment.
The term Ebonics has since been replaced with a more contemporary term – African American Vernacular English or AAVE – but controversy remains about what that exactly means. At the outset, the school district wanted Ebonics to be viewed as an entirely different language, not an ethnic dialect. However, the intent of the amendment was more to serve as a bridge to teach standard American English to Black students who were already using Ebonics.
The decision came after 1979’s Ann Arbor Decision, a case that allowed Black English or Ebonics to be used as a teaching tool to help Black students who used it to learn standard English. In the case for the plaintiffs, the poorer students of Ann Arbor’s Martin Luther King Elementary School, (middle-class students who did not use Ebonics were not included) their lawyer argued they were denied equal protection under the law as their way of speech was not recognized.
The passing of the resolution kicked off a flurry of protests which helped inspire an amended document that did not include the wording that Ebonics was a “primary” and “genetically-based” language. (READ MORE)(SOURCE: BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM)