The belligerent debates in many schools and states across the nation regarding critical race theory and how Black history is taught seem to have no end in sight.
South Dakota and Mississippi have recently passed bills under what has come to be known as “anti-CRT legislation,” although CRT is not specifically mentioned in the text of these bills. For example, Mississippi’s Senate Bill 2113 specifically emphasizes that no subject matter can be taught that would coerce students to believe “that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” It now awaits voting in the state House.
During November of last year, the Brookings Institution published a report that listed nine states — Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona and North Dakota — as having passed anti-CRT bills, highlighting that Arizona’s law was overturned by its Supreme Court and that only Idaho’s and North Dakota’s statutes included “critical race theory explicitly.” The crucial dilemma confronting public K-12 educators teaching U.S. history in these states is pushback from lawmakers over what is deemed satisfactory classroom content regarding the experiences of Blacks and other minorities in America.
CRT focuses on systemic racism and how it has been historically embedded in our laws and political and social institutions, so it is a scholarly perspective in which Black history can be presented.
When thinking about Black history in general, however, systemic racism is always a component of examination by simply telling stories of how great African American men and women overcame racial barriers in this country while still believing in its ideals of equality and justice.
For instance, an elementary or middle school teacher giving a lesson on Black inventor and scientist Dr. George Washington Carver can inspire students by discussing his humble beginnings as a slave to becoming an influential agricultural researcher whose crop cultivation methods significantly impacted the South’s farming industry.
Carver’s infancy began with tragedy as he, his mother and sister were taken by slave kidnappers who came through Diamond, Missouri, in 1864. Carver was the only one able to be retrieved by their master, Moses Carver, who taught him how to read and write. Carver was able to continue his education and become the first African American to earn a bachelor of science degree in 1894. He is best known for his work at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University in Alabama, as he invented more than 300 peanut products and discovered how the sweet potato could be used in products such as writing ink, wood filters and dyes.
Despite the racism and prejudice he endured during the heart of the Jim Crow era, one of Carver’s most famous quotes is, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
Carver is also remembered for attributing all of his professional success to God by saying that “faith in Jesus Christ was the only mechanism by which I could effectively pursue and perform the art of science.”
If an elementary or middle school teacher accurately tells Carver’s life story, it is abundantly clear how he triumphed over systemic racism. No details from his life should make any student feel inferior or offended.
Now much of Black history is uncomfortable to teach, such as the 1831 rebellion led by Nat Turner, a slave preacher who lived on a Southampton County, Virginia, plantation. Turner’s insurrection resulted in the massacre of nearly 200 slaves by white mobs and the violent mutilation of his body after he was captured and hung.
I believe the more challenging truths of Black history like this should be taught to older students in high school. A thorough lesson plan on Turner’s rebellion and the stricter laws that ensued afterward limiting the movement and education of slaves and free Blacks will allow students to better understand how systemic racism was entrenched in the South.
It is apparent that many lawmakers fear that teaching certain accounts of Black history will result in some kind of radical indoctrination of students. Georgia has just proposed four laws that will ban teachers from discussing anything that makes students feel “guilt” or “psychological distress,” but if history is taught appropriately there will be some discomfort. It is a great disservice to students to try to sugarcoat the difficult parts of our past, especially when they can be motivated by their teachers to push for change in the future.
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