BLACK HISTORY MONTH traces back to Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which established the second week of February to be “Negro History Week” as a counterbalance to the erasure of Black contributions to U.S. history. Black educators and students at Kent State University created the first Black History Month celebration in 1970, and President Gerald Ford recognized it in 1976, the year I was born. While Black history deserves attention every month, the past few years have provided plenty of evidence for why this month of particular emphasis is still needed. God reminds us in many ways of the dangers of forgetting our history, including the command, “Remember your history, your long and rich history” (Isaiah 46:9, MSG).
As the father of two young Black boys, I spend a lot of time thinking about the role of education in shaping our nation’s future. What our kids learn about the nation and the world from their parents, teachers, and peers profoundly shapes their worldview. That in turn deeply affects the direction our society takes as today’s children become tomorrow’s leaders, activists, and voters. It’s no wonder that education has served as a political battleground at many times throughout our nation’s history — from the Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution to the battles over racial integration in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education.
This history is critical for understanding how in the past couple of years schools have become the latest front in the culture wars that too often dominate our polarized society. The data bears this out: According to The Washington Post, 25 states have passed 64 laws over the past three school years that reshape what students can learn and do at school. Most of these laws are pernicious attempts to scapegoat and marginalize transgender student-athletes, and LGBTQ people more broadly, and should have no place in a tolerant, pluralistic society. Another 28 percent of the laws focus on restricting what students are taught about the role of race and racism in our nation’s history and present. Teachers in states from New Hampshire to Oklahoma have described the chilling effect these new laws are having on their ability to engage with topics relating to race or LGBTQ identities in their classrooms. In the last two school years, the Post reported, at least 160 teachers have resigned or been fired as a direct result of these new restrictions and an increasingly hostile environment.
We need to be clear-eyed about what is going on here. This is a deliberate campaign by right-wing activists who have used their access to conservative media to whip up moral panics for political gain — first by making the term “critical race theory” into a catchall boogeyman and more recently with attacks on transgender student-athletes. Parents should reject this fearmongering.
As we mark Black History Month, a full and accurate accounting of Black history that celebrates our triumphs and achievements — while refusing to gloss over the injustices and atrocities of past and present — is precisely what kids of all races should be learning. Openly discussing the whole truth of history, particularly as experienced by people who have faced marginalization, is the best way to move toward a more inclusive and just future for everyone.
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Follow him on Bluesky @revadamtaylor.
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