Faith to Move Mountains: Black Women in Computing Education

One of the challenges of broadening participation in computing lies in acknowledging that white supremacy and racism have created racial disparities in the K-12 education system in the United States. For example, Black rural communities in the southeastern region of the United States often lack access to CS education compared to privileged white rural communities in the same area. However, Emmanuel, a faith-based organization situated in a rural Black community, serves as a beacon of hope, seeking to address the racial and class disparities that contribute to social inequalities that continue to marginalize K-12 Black students. Emmanuel, the manifestation of Black leadership, Black culture, and Black spirituality, provides a variety of supplemental programs to address the spiritual, social, and educational needs of its constituents. In this experience report, we leverage Black feminist thought to demonstrate how Black women of diverse backgrounds, united by their Christian beliefs and commitment to uplift the Black community, work together to create a series of CS unplugged activities. As a result of this collaboration, Emmanuel provides an informal CS learning opportunity that bridges elementary students' experiences with food to the basic computing concept of algorithms.