Hard truths of Black History Month
By Courtney Jackson —
Black history is American history. It is important to start there as there is a tide in this country that is approaching with the recklessness of a tsunami. Since the 1960s, black people have been feverishly trying to hold onto our history by making sure it gets documented as it really happened. This effort has been thwarted since the days of the aging confederate soldiers, whose daughters (United Daughters of the Confederacy) some 30 years after the civil war, saw to it to make sure the lie they claimed they fought for (states’ rights and not slavery) was forever documented as a noble cause.
They accomplished this feat by attacking the school textbooks with planted lies that all but eliminated slavery as the cause of the war. This lie was retold as truth for decades to come, poisoning the minds of American children for generations. Hence, many are confused today over black people’s objection to confederate statutes.
This point is important as a renewed battle has ensued over the truth about this country’s past actions. Schools are being bombarded by angry parents demanding the truth be suppressed. They claim it’s “too harmful” to their children’s psyches to have to acknowledge that they live in a country where a group of people oppressed another group of people to advantage themselves. Instead, they want that reality wiped from the halls of academia while embracing Dr. Seuss.
Listen, I get it. The thought of little white children sitting in class learning that the wealth their family has amassed, maybe contributed to the fact that their ancestors were allowed to purchase land/homes that led to inheritance, which led to funding for business ventures, which can be connected to the kids we speak of. This fact disrupts the “hard-working” individual who became a self-made success narrative.
Moreover, learning that for hundreds of years, blacks were intentionally denied those same privileges, which led to us being forced to live in impoverished communities and, more damning, left us lacking economic opportunities to thrive, ultimately leading to some of the problems we face today. Kids would learn that it is not just poor decision-making that led blacks to have the worst schools, low test scores, and high incarceration rates. They would learn that government-backed policies led to most of that.
Let us not allow these misguided individuals to continue to lionize Dr. King as a man with a dream. We should know he was a hated activist who sought justice from a system that qualified him as “public enemy number one.” Let us not allow Frederick Douglas to be reduced to a man who, as former president Trump once said, “is doing an amazing job,” but remember him for reminding white America to ask itself, “what is the 4th of July to a slave?” Rosa Parks was neither old nor tired when she took her stance against American injustice.
The truth must be told, as it possesses healing powers. Revisionist history or flat-out lying about the wrongs committed upon black people in this country contributes greatly towards the divide fracturing this nation’s civility. Wherever you are, however, you can, please continue to fight for truth in our education system. Black History Month asks you to learn, retain, and recall the truth about the plight of African Americans.
Courtney Jackson is the Hanna Center High School Principal.
