Welcome to “How to Act.” A limited-run mini-podcast series produced by the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau in celebration of Black History Month. Here at H2A we treasure and showcase stories of those who have and continue to enrich the Black educational landscape in New Mexico and beyond. Because Black History isn’t my history or your history…Black History is New Mexico History … and no matter who or where you are, if you are under the sound of this Pod, this history is for you. I’m your host, Hakim Bellamy and this is “How to Act.”

Our guest for this maiden podcast voyage is Rev. Dr. Charles Becknell Sr.. Dr. Becknell is perhaps most famously known for becoming the first director of the Africana Studies Program at the University of New Mexico in 1969. The founding pastor of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Rio Rancho, Dr. Becknell currently serves as the State President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and is the author of No Challenge-No Change: Growing Up Black in New Mexico.

Here, Dr. Becknell charts his love for teaching from Sandoval Elementary School in Corrales, New Mexico all the way across the country to Columbia University in NYC, back to Albuquerque High School and ultimately to his pioneering tenure at the University of New Mexico. Along the way…he shares a few anecdotes of students he’ll never forget and some practice pointers for educators, families and community partners desperate to find culturally appropriate ways to support and engage African American students in modern day scholastic environments.

This podcast is a partnership between the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council and the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau. Find out more about the New Mexico Black Education Act here https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/student-support-services/black-education-act/