Black History

I majored in history for my undergraduate degree in college, and minority history has always held a special place in my heart, but I found most schools didn't teach it. In a day when the social studies curriculum rarely included any black history, I taught it - not just the better known figures like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King - but also the often lesser known ones, such as Charles Drew, Garrett Morgan, Daniel Williams, etc.

In my community, the African-American churches did a pretty good job of teaching the children some black history. However, I wanted the white children to also know and appreciate this heritage. Even when schools started teaching black history during the month of February, I didn't think that was enough. I wanted to integrate it into all the periods of history I taught, so I incorporated into the regular curriculum throughout the year.

What worries me today is that we're not only regressing in the teaching of black history, but history is rarely being taught in any meaningful way in a large number of schools, especially elementary and middle schools. It's been pushed aside to emphasize math, reading, science, and technology. This will most likely lead to more problems for our government and nation as its citizens have less and less of a background or foundation to understand the important concepts or the mistakes of the past. I think we're already beginning to see some of this.

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