{"id":46140,"date":"2022-02-01T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/civil-liberties\/auto-draft"},"modified":"2023-02-24T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T16:14:07","slug":"making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom","title":{"rendered":"Making Space for Black History in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1763,1750,1762,1755,1768],"class_list":["post-46140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-context","metadata-layout","metadata-multimedia","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"full-bleed","color_scheme":"dark-navy_light-azure","header_image":46150,"mobile_header_image":46151,"description":"Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.","authors":[46148],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"When I was a junior in high school, I was kicked out of class for asking the teacher when we were going to learn about Black history. It was Black History Month.\r\n\r\nI remember it like it was yesterday. It was the first week of February. Monday passed, no Black history. Tuesday, still no Black history. On Wednesday, I finally spoke up. I asked the teacher, \u201cWhen are you going to teach us about Black history? Are you going to teach us anything about Black people?\u201d He turned red and said, \u201cI will not deal with this in my classroom,\u201d and asked me to leave. So I tossed my textbook on the ground and walked out of class.\r\n\r\nGrowing up, I learned a lot of European history in school, like Shakespeare or Victorian literature. I had a sixth-grade teacher who was interested and taught us about Black history \u2014 but other than that, I literally do not remember learning anything about Black history in my K-12 education."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"single-image","single-image":{"":null,"image-group":{"image":46143,"":null,"caption":"","credit":"Photo by AJ Stegall","link-settings":"none","url":""},"width":"half","alignment":"right"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Today, it\u2019s not that different. A lot of my students were never taught any Black history until my class. They\u2019re learning about things like the Harlem Renaissance and Reconstruction for the first time \u2014 as juniors and seniors in high school. In a way, I can understand why. Black history is graphic and violent, and we don\u2019t want to traumatize our students. But in order to break those barriers, we first have to talk about it.\r\n\r\nBlack history is important for all students because most of the things that happened in history are still happening today. We think of slavery as a thing of the past, but mass incarceration and its gateway, the school to prison pipeline, are the new slavery. I teach my students about these issues because It helps them understand what kind of society they live in and how this reality came into being.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s especially important for Black students: Without understanding what happened and is still happening to their people, they won\u2019t know how to maneuver in society once they step out of my classroom and into the real world. It\u2019s like going into a fire not knowing that you\u2019ll get burned. I want to prepare them for the harsh realities that they\u2019re going to face every day as they become adults."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"pullquote","pullquote":{"":null,"text":"Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.","source":"","width":"half","alignment":"left"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Already, I can see the impact on my students after they are introduced to these subjects. They start learning how to think critically and debate with each other. Their parents will call me and say how much they appreciate it because they didn\u2019t know how to introduce some of these ideas to their kids, or when was an appropriate time. Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.\r\n\r\nRight now, it\u2019s even more important to have these conversations because of the current debate about teaching \u201ccritical race theory\u201d in schools. Oklahoma, where I live, is one of nine states that passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/school-is-for-learning-including-learning-about-race-and-gender\/\">classroom censorship<\/a> bills last year that try to silence conversations about race and gender. I have chosen to defy the law and have not altered my teaching, but I know a lot of teachers who are afraid to talk about these issues because they could lose their teaching licenses if someone complains and they are found to be in violation of this confusing and overbroad statute. There\u2019s a lot of misinformation out there about teaching race in the classroom, and I hope it doesn\u2019t prevent more students from getting a real and inclusive education \u2014 especially during Black history month."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[40275],"issues":[46479,46669,46673,46753],"related_content_cases":null,"related_content_documents":null,"related_content_publications":null,"related_affiliates":null,"content_layout":"","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Making Space for Black History in the Classroom | ACLU<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Space for Black History in the Classroom | ACLU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-01T16:53:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-24T16:14:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AnthonyCrawford_Social.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthony Crawford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AnthonyCrawford_Social.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom\",\"name\":\"Making Space for Black History in the Classroom | ACLU\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-01T16:53:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-24T16:14:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Black history is hard to talk about, but learning about it builds my students\u2019 confidence and empowers them to take life into their own hands.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/making-space-for-black-history-in-the-classroom\"]}],\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/anthony-crawford\",\"name\":\"Anthony Crawford\",\"jobTitle\":\"Teacher, Oklahoma City, \",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/anthony-crawford\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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