Teaching Black History

By Aditi Jha

Over the last few years, “critical race theory” has been used as a buzzword by conservative think tanks to promote the idea that the concept advocates for an “anti-white” ideology or perpetuates the notion that America is, at its roots, a fundamentally racist country. This is an absurd claim because their argument that “education about racism is unnecessary” suggests that racism no longer exists in America. In reality, as critical race theory explains, the effects of racial segregation and injustice are still firmly ensconced in today’s world. 

Historical white heroes are glorified in education, whereas the struggles of Black people are minimized. 

It would cause chaos if a student didn’t know who Christopher Columbus was. Painted as the savior who discovered the United States, we’ve been taught the whitewashed history of his adventures while “sailing the ocean blue” since elementary school. 

Yet, it’s ludicrous to think how the history of Black people in our country has been silenced and misrepresented over and over again. No, Rosa Parks didn’t just sit down “because she was tired.” She sat down intentionally because she was tired of giving up. Another common misconception is that she sat at the front of the bus, an area reserved for white people. The first ten seats of every Montgomery municipal bus were reserved, and she sat in the eleventh seat. When all of the seats were taken, the bus driver ordered Parks to stand in the back of the bus so a white passenger could sit in her seat instead. 

Misconceptions about Black history have continued to persist, helped by the bans that have been instituted in several states against the teaching of critical race theory. Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery is a civil rights activist who lived next door to Martin Luther King Jr. Her historic house was used to hide the Freedom Riders when they were in Montgomery. Black history “must be continued to be taught or else it will be erased, similar to the way that gentrification is erasing our neighborhoods. Our Black history teaches about the strength, determination, fortitude, talents, and intelligence of a group of people who refuse to be minimized,” said Montgomery. 

Racial inequality within the legal and justice system continues under new names. 

Critical race theory, often abbreviated as CRT, dates back more than 40 years. It focuses on the idea that racism is entwined with the legal and judicial systems, more than just a personal prejudice or bias. The president of the National Academy of Education, Gloria Ladson-Billings, defined "critical race theory" as "a series of theoretical propositions that suggest that race and racism are normal, not aberrant, in American life." Though some people would like to believe that the disease of racism has been entirely eradicated in our country, the segregation and racial injustice of the past still has an effect today. 

Policies that, on the surface level, are racially blind actually reinforce the racist legislation of the Jim Crow era. It’s a self-perpetuating system that keeps itself alive. Often, just because of the local population’s skin color, government officials in the 1930s would make boundaries around certain areas; those areas were refused mortgages by banks. Now, single-family zoning doesn’t allow affordable housing to be built in majority-white neighborhoods, further perpetuating the segregation of the 1930s. 

Similarly, the death penalty is currently legal in 27 states, and for every nine people executed, one is found to be innocent. When anti-lynching laws were passed, the death penalty was an alternative that many Southerners used to legally justify the unjust execution of Black people. 

On their website, the Equal Justice Initiative explained, “The death penalty is lynching’s stepchild. [The United States] moved lynchings from outside to inside in the 1940s and 50s, when the political pressure on these communities that tolerated this spectacle of violence got so great that they no longer felt like they could do it with impunity. So we had these sham trials that didn’t last very long when many people were quickly convicted, many of them innocent, wrongly accused.” 

In the 1930s, two-thirds of people executed were Black, and there continues to be a disproportionate amount of Black people sentenced to death row. 

Teaching Black history keeps our history honest and complete. 

Rev. Carolyn McKinstry was present in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed her four friends. After listening to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, she marched to end segregation and fight for first-class citizenship. 

Rev. McKinstry says, “All history is important. Your health history, for example, enables you to know how to watch your health in the future, what foods or activities to avoid, and what additional things you may need to know to avoid negative health issues…. An example today is voter obstruction. This happened when I was a child. It is not new. Today, you can see all of the obstructive tactics and devices in place to prevent certain groups from voting. So when I see signs and activities all around me that are reminiscent of that history, when it appears that someone is trying to reactivate that painfully unfair history, I consult my historical memory and start pushing back against those negative things to prevent their return.” 

As Rev. McKinstry explained, it’s imperative to be educated about history so one can recognize inequality and fight to make sure the vices of America’s past don’t occur again. As of 2022, 64 laws were passed by 25 states to limit what educators can teach about race, racism, and the history of our country. School districts all over the country have passed policies banning books on Black history. Whitewashing history means erasing the Black experience and ignoring the role that an entire community played in shaping our country. 

People have a fundamental misunderstanding of what critical race theory is. 

The vocal opposition to critical race theory claims that white students will feel guilt because of what their ancestors did. Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” bans education that makes students feel “personal responsibility…guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress.” This viewpoint suggests that if history is psychologically distressing at all, it shouldn’t be taught. 

In Germany, education about the Holocaust is mandatory and teachers encourage students to visit museums and archives to learn more. Despite this mandated education, there is no wave of depression among German students because of anguish, feelings of personal responsibility, or guilt. Instead, they learn about Germany’s history, however horrifying it is, so they can recognize it and stop it from ever happening again. Understanding the historical issue is crucial to solving the same problems we face now. So why can’t we do that in the United States? 

Rev. McKinstry says, “Most of the people speaking about critical race theory don't really know what it is. Those that do know are not fearful of it, and they are not the individuals banning it. Every individual must learn to think and evaluate for themselves.” People use the term “critical race theory” to inspire panic and worry. A Fox News anchor will say those three words and immediately, a million negative connotations created from unfounded accusations will appear, blocking out any rational ability of somebody to think for themselves. 

A study done by the COVID States Project, a joint project of Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University, says that a majority of Americans support teaching “how racism continues to impact American society today,” whereas just 27% were in favor when the survey used the words “critical race theory”.  That means that 52% of Americans want critical race theory to be taught. Conservatives have just falsely weaponized the name. “Most people don't know what [critical race theory] means. It's a buzzword that is being used to instill fear and ignorance in various populations,” Dr. Montgomery explained. The survey also found that 70% of Americans don’t know what critical race theory is. So people aren’t against critical race theory; they’re against the phrase. Americans want schools to teach the lasting impacts of racism on our current society. 

“The most important things that Edina High School students can do is educate yourself, read, ask questions, get involved, and most of all listen!” says Dr. Montgomery.

It’s really saddening how little Black history is taught in schools. It’s imperative that students are taught about the lasting legal and judicial effects of racial inequalities. That is what critical race theory seeks to accomplish, but misinformation has given a startling percentage of Americans a negative opinion of CRT without even knowing what the theory is. Portraying America as a perfect country without flaws is flatly untrue, and Germany proves that we can confront our history and current institution-based lasting racism without the “white guilt” results that far-right influencers crave to rant about. 

Rev. McKinstry was just 14 years old when she joined the civil rights movement alongside activists like Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, and Ralph Abernathy. Like Dr. Montgomery, Rev. McKinstry believes that the most powerful thing a student from Edina High School can help with is education. “Read! Learn as much as you can!” she said. “Dr. King told us that injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere. … Protest if you feel that protest is needed. Protesting and organizing is a very special skill. … Stay in touch with all that is going on around you and beyond you. You are a citizen. You matter, as do all other citizens. We can be more effective when we are all informed and when we all work together.”