When I was in high school I was fortunate to enroll in an African American history course; I was able to study the inventions of African-Americans and even learned some surprising facts about some historic abolitionists like Nat Turner and John Brown. I have nearly visited every museum in my state but when I became an adult I started to learn and explore more museums that catered to my heritage; I once visited the Lorane hotel and museum where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. I even witnessed the harsh events of slavery to the amazing achievements of today’s African Americans at the ‘Smithsonian’ museum in Washington DC. However, today it seems as if someone had set our clocks back to when we were disbarred from learning our own history in public schools, and around the country, there is even a current book ban that targets some African American books but hopefully, one day African Americans will be more embraced as equals because our ancestors sacrificed their lives to preserve a better life for future generations. Here is the amazing story of Ernest Crim the 3rd.
Before Ernest Crim posted his first viral video on Instagram and Tic Tok he was just an ordinary child that grew up on the south side of Chicago. Ernest loved drawing, and he would often spend most of his time writing poems and rapping all the way up to his young adult years in college; rap was an escape from the effects of racism. His mother was a great educator and administrator. Ernest’s father was the enforcer of the family that pushed for a solid education and made sure Ernest and his siblings keep their grades up. Also, in the Crim’s household, you would often find a slew of books to read. Young Ernest never intended to become an educator but he pursued an education at the University of Illinois where he failed one semester of college and almost dropped out. Fortunately, he enrolled in an African American course to quench his thirst to learn more about his heritage. Ernest later graduated and became a high school educator where he taught for twelve years. He later found ‘Crim’s Cultural Consulting LLC; this organization uses black history to help empower and educate the youth, it also teaches other great educators how to best reach their students culturally and to help end the systemic racism that exists in the world.
In 2016, Ernest and his wife Cassie Crim experienced a hate crime during the summer break. Ernest recorded a disturbing video that showed a racist woman rampantly calling them the N-word at a Chicago Margarita Festival; this video stirred a fire in Ernest to apply more pressure to his cause. In 2020, Ernest released his biographical book called ‘Black History Saved My Life: How My Viral Hate Crime Led to an Awakening.’ Two years later Ernest released a new children’s book called ‘The ABC’s of Affirming Black Children; it includes the great contributions of African Americans that were overlooked and censored by the public.
Today, Ernest is happily married to Cassie Crim and together they have three girls. Ernest is still educating the youth about black history online. Ernest has witnessed the ups and downs of being an educator of African American history; he has also witnessed other teachers getting fired for speaking the hidden truths about African Americans but his dedication and passion will continue on the legacy.
