The city of Portland, Oregon developed an Afrocentric curriculum revolving around the African-American Baseline Essays, which was later used as a basic resource document by the cities of Atlanta, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., and by Prince Georges County, Maryland. After claiming that ancient Egyptians were black and that much of subsequent Western civilization derived or was otherwise stolen from them, the outline evaded a rather touchy issue by describing ancient Hebrews as wanderers who entered Egypt to escape famine and who stayed on voluntarily as guest workers.

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