For academics, historians, and activists, the past year has been a tumultuous one in calling for the teaching of black history in the United States.
Despite declaring February last year as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump began his second term by claiming that some of the lessons of African American history were intended to indoctrinate people into hatred of the country. The administration has been dismantling black history in national parks, most recently removing Exhibition on slavery in Philadelphia last month. Black history advocates find these actions and their chilling impact to be frightening and unprecedented.
“States and cities are worried about retaliation from the White House,” said DeRay McKesson, a longtime activist and executive director of Campaign Zero, an organization focused on police reform. “So even good people are calmer now.”
On the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first Black History Month celebrations – which began when… The researcher was Carter J. Woodson pioneered the first Negro History Week – The celebrations will continue. The current political climate has galvanized civil rights organizations, artists, and academics to engage young people in a fuller telling of America’s story. There are hundreds of lectures, tutorials, and even new books—from nonfiction to graphic novels—to celebrate this milestone.
“That’s why we’re working with more than 150 teachers across the country on Black History Month curriculum to ensure young people continue to learn about Black history in an intentional and thoughtful way,” Mckesson said of a campaign his organization launched with Afro Charities and leading Black scholars to expand access to educational materials.
About three years ago, Angelique Rocher, a journalist and assistant professor at Xavier University in Louisiana, accepted a “once in a lifetime” invitation to be the writer of a graphic novel that tells the story of… Opal Lee, “Juneteenth Grandma.”
Lee, who turns 100 this year, is largely credited with winning federal recognition for the state. June 19 holiday Commemorating the day slaves in Texas learned they were free. But under Trump, it’s Juneteenth It’s no longer free admission day In national parks.
Juneteenth helped evangelize the first generation of black Americans, like Woodson, who were born free. “First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth,” the graphic novel, will be released Tuesday. It is the culmination of Rocher’s diligent archival research, phone conversations, and visits to Texas to see Lee and her granddaughter, Dionne Sims.
“There is nothing ‘indoctrinated’ about facts based on extensively researched primary sources,” said Rocher, who hopes the book will find its way into libraries and classrooms. “Ultimately, what the story has to tell people is that we are much more similar than we are different.”
While Lee is the main character, Roach used the novel as an opportunity to bring attention to lesser-known historical figures such as William “Gosnick Bill” MacDonald, the first black millionaire in Texas, and Opal Lee’s mother, Mattie Broadus Flake.
She hopes that this format will inspire young people to follow Lee and her motto – “Make yourself a committee of one.”
“That doesn’t mean not working with others,” Rocher said. “Don’t wait for others to make the changes you want to see.”
When Trump’s executive orders against DEI were issued last year, Jarvis Givens, a professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University, was thousands of miles away teaching in London, where Black History Month is celebrated in October. He was already thinking of writing a book for the centenary.
Givens said watching Trump’s “attack” reinforced the idea.
“I wanted to take my time during my vacation to write a book that honors the legacy that gave us Black History Month,” Givens said.
The result is “I Will Make a World: The 100-Year Journey for Black History Month,” a book containing four in-depth essays that will be released Tuesday. The title is a line from the 1920s poem “Creation” by James Weldon Johnson, whose most famous poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is known as the “Black National Anthem.”
Givens examines important topics in black history and clears up the misconceptions surrounding them.
McKesson said Givens’ book and research will be connected to the Living History Campaign with Campaign Zero and Afro Charities. The goal is to teach what Woodson believes, which is that younger generations can become historians who can distinguish fact from fiction.
“When I was growing up, preserving history was the job of historians,” McKesson said, adding that his group’s campaign will teach young students how to record history.
Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was among the first generation of black Americans not assigned to slavery at birth. Robert Trent Vinson, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, said he grew up believing that education was a means of self-empowerment.
The second black man to earn a doctorate at Harvard—W. E. B. Du Bois was the first—Woodson was disillusioned with the way black history was dismissed. Vinson said he saw that the memories and culture of less educated blacks were no less valuable.
When Woodson created Negro History Week in 1926, it was in an era when common stereotypes like blackface and singing were filling out actual knowledge of the black experience, according to Vinson. This led to the creation of Black History Clubs and Woodson began to “slyly” insert historical lessons into publications such as the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin.
“Outside of the formal school structure, they have a separate school like in churches or in study groups,” Vinson said. “Or they share it with parents and say, ‘You’re teaching your young people this history.’” So, Woodson is creating an entire educational space outside of the formal university.
In 1976, on the occasion of the week’s 50th anniversary, President Gerald Ford issued a letter acknowledging that it was a full month. Givens said there was opposition at the time to the gains made by the civil rights movement.
As for today’s backlash over black and African American studies, Vinson thinks Woodson wouldn’t be surprised. But he may see this as a sign that “you are on the right track.”
“There’s a level of what he called ‘escape,’ which is sharing this knowledge and being strategic about it,” Vinson said. “There are other times like this moment, Black History Month, where you can be more assertive and assertive, but be strategic about how you disseminate information.”
Resistance to teaching black history is something that seems to happen every generation, Mckesson said.
“We will go back to normal,” Mckesson said. “We’ve seen these backlashes before.” “And when I think about the informal networks of black people who have always resisted, I think this is happening today.”
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Tang reported from Phoenix.