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Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - BmorePat87 - 06-19-2020
Today marks 155 years since a Union officer rode into Galveston, TX and announced to the city that all slaves in the state of Texas were free men and women in accordance to the Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued over two year prior. Since June 19th, 1865, the date has grown to mark a national celebration of emancipation.
If you are celebrating, I hope the day finds you and your family and friends well. If you are not celebrating, I encourage you to take the oppurtunity to discover more about the history of this nation that far too often gets ignored.
Some may ask, "why are we just learning about this?". There's a criminal lack of focus on the contribution of minority groups in United States history, and this deficit is seen in curricula across our nation's schools. The article From Juneteenth to the Tulsa massacre: What isn't taught in classrooms has a profound impact discusses the impact of promoting a historical narrative that doesn't recognize the contributions of and violence against marginalized groups throughout our history.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/juneteenth-tulsa-massacre-what-isn-t-taught-classrooms-has-profound-n1231442
In my class, the curriculum does not put any emphasis on decade after decade of government policy, from redlining to urban renewal to deinstitutionalization to mass incarceration to gentrification, but we are expected to learn about how smart growth can combat urban sprawl and issues plaguing cities. It's hard to actually understand why suburban growth was encouraged or why many urban sites require so much attention without understanding how these programs from decades ago caused the problems we need to confront today.
Take time to find out how you can get involved in your community to promote these topics in curricula.
Just yesterday, Decatur, Georgia removed the "Lost Cause" monument from outside of the DeKalb County courthouse, which has stood since 1908. Paid for by the Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument promoted the myth of the Lost Cause and served as a tool to celebrate the Confederacy and promote segregation. While the county put up a sign next to it a few months ago that explained how it promoted myths and Jim Crow America, it does not change the fact that history had been misrepresented for decades and continues to be.
HBO is making the Watchmen series free to view this weekend on their website. It focuses heavily on the Tulsa Massacre and addresses many of the issues of systemic racism. I highly recommend it.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Dill - 06-19-2020
(06-19-2020, 01:33 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: In my class, the curriculum does not put any emphasis on decade after decade of government policy, from redlining to urban renewal to deinstitutionalization to mass incarceration to gentrification, but we are expected to learn about how smart growth can combat urban sprawl and issues plaguing cities. It's hard to actually understand why suburban growth was encouraged or why many urban sites require so much attention without understanding how these programs from decades ago caused the problems we need to confront today.
Sounds like our teacher has an "agenda" --teaching students to think rather than just memorizing "facts."
Good work Bpat.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - masonbengals fan - 06-20-2020
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503685-protesters-tear-down-statues-of-union-general-ulysses-s-grant-national
Should probably be taught who Ulysses S. Grant was also. I highly recommend it.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Millhouse - 06-20-2020
I honestly either forgot about Juneteenth or just never knew about it. Bear in mind that at the ages of 12 and 13 I began reading and learning about the Civil War. By the time I was 18 and left for college, I had amassed a collection of books/literature/magazines on the War that was well over $1000 worth. Friends were putting money into their cars/jeeps or whatnot, I was putting it into my Civil War buff addiction. I knew more on the War than any teacher I had in high school, probably all combined. Made numerous trips to Gettysburg, Antietam, and the battlefields in Virginia by time I was in my early 20's.
I guess my point is, it's ok for Juneteenth not to be known about, but that doesn't mean it should be forgotten nor observed. There were so many occasions from the war that should or could be celebrated in regards to black America, from the signing of the Emancipation, the Battle of Fort Wagner with the 54th Mass., the passage of the 13th Amendment before the war ended.
In regards to what is taught in schools, I never even studied the Civil War back in the mid-90s in High School. The first semester went right up until the Civil War. But 2nd semester I had a liberal teacher who decided to teach history backwards starting with 1990s going back to the Civil War. We literally spent over a month just on the 1960s and 70's discussing all the social changes as the main focus. Looking back this was her focus. We then spent a bit of time on Vietnam, like a few days, a couple of days on WW2, WW1 was a paragraph, spent time on the Indian wars, then school was over. Never even made it to the Civil War. Yeah I was pretty pissed on that one lol.
I just hope going forward schools everywhere will teach history for what it was, not to promote some propaganda agenda from whoever decides what is taught. History should be taught in it's rawest form, from it's primary sources, not from current political views.
(06-20-2020, 11:06 AM)masonbengals fan Wrote: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503685-protesters-tear-down-statues-of-union-general-ulysses-s-grant-national
Should probably be taught who Ulysses S. Grant was also. I highly recommend it.
I saw this earlier, and it makes no sense at all other than it makes those protesters look like ignorant idiots. Then again, this was in San Fran, so it makes a bit of sense.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - masonbengals fan - 06-20-2020
Good post Millhouse.
Bit of a civil war buff myself. Thanks to an outstanding 7th grade teacher. Later learned of my family's participation in the war & I was really hooked then.
My 3rd great-grandfather is buried in Andersonville, Georgia.
![[Image: ed7da5c5-2d2c-46a6-b332-2f4b27fd50bc?cli...ighQuality]](https://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/ed7da5c5-2d2c-46a6-b332-2f4b27fd50bc?client=TreesUI&maxside=160&imagequality=UltraHighQuality)
Hope to see it in person someday.
Saw this one a few days ago.
https://disrn.com/news/monument-honoring-all-black-regiment-of-civil-war-soldiers-defaced-by-black-lives-matter-rioters
I used to think it was a west coast thing too until all this got started. Idiots everywhere now.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - 6andcounting - 06-20-2020
(06-19-2020, 02:00 PM)Dill Wrote: Sounds like our teacher has an "agenda" --teaching students to think rather than just memorizing "facts."
Good work Bpat.
Memorizing fill in the blank trivia questions or guessing the most correct trivia answer out of 4 options seems like a great way to understand the cultural impact of complex human rights revolutions.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Dill - 06-20-2020
(06-20-2020, 02:43 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Good post Millhouse.
Bit of a civil war buff myself. Thanks to an outstanding 7th grade teacher. Later learned of my family's participation in the war & I was really hooked then.
My 3rd great-grandfather is buried in Andersonville, Georgia.
POW?
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - masonbengals fan - 06-20-2020
Yes, apparently died of disease as did so many others. At least that's what is listed in the Federal prisoner of war records. Spelled as colarah in the handwritten paperwork but listed as pneumonia in Dorence Atwater's list. 37 years old. Entered the service in 1861 23rd Regiment company B Kentucky, captured 9-14-1863 at Ringold Georgia & died 1864.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/andersonville-prison
Sorry I didn't mean to hijack this thread. It's all worth learning about.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Dill - 06-20-2020
(06-20-2020, 07:30 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Yes, apparently died of disease as did so many others. At least that's what is listed in the Federal prisoner of war records. Spelled as colarah in the handwritten paperwork but listed as pneumonia in Dorence Atwater's list. 37 years old. Entered the service in 1861 23rd Regiment company B Kentucky, captured 9-14-1863 at Ringold Georgia & died 1864.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/andersonville-prison
Sorry I didn't mean to hijack this thread. It's all worth learning about.
I'm interested. I had ancestors on both sides of the conflict--Texas and Ohio. One of ours is buried at Sharpsburg.
I still have the bayonet used by a great great uncle.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - BmorePat87 - 06-20-2020
(06-20-2020, 11:06 AM)masonbengals fan Wrote: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503685-protesters-tear-down-statues-of-union-general-ulysses-s-grant-national
Should probably be taught who Ulysses S. Grant was also. I highly recommend it.
He is taught. It’s unfortunate that the statue was torn down.
However, the aim was to shed light on the lack of representation of minorities in history.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - BmorePat87 - 06-20-2020
(06-20-2020, 01:04 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I just hope going forward schools everywhere will teach history for what it was, not to promote some propaganda agenda from whoever decides what is taught. History should be taught in it's rawest form, from it's primary sources, not from current political views.
with so much digitized, it’s easier and easier to use primary sources. A lot of us are rejecting textbooks and focusing on primary sources.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Dill - 06-21-2020
(06-20-2020, 01:04 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I just hope going forward schools everywhere will teach history for what it was, not to promote some propaganda agenda from whoever decides what is taught. History should be taught in it's rawest form, from it's primary sources, not from current political views.
Mill, you put up a thoughtful post. I just want to qualify the above a bit.
It is really impossible to teach history in its "rawest form," just as it would be impossible to report news that way. Editorial decisions are required, and in the case of history, they are determined by what is available and in what quantity. E.g., we have stacks of Civil War letters still extant from Union officers to family, friends, and government officials, but fewer from black men serving then, and virtually none from slaves, though today the latter's might be deemed very important. That fact alone builds a white man's perspective into the "rawest" of primary sources.
If we present such history as "raw," then we naturalize that perspective as the only possible one. Like there is some objective viewpoint above politics and history, which just happens to accord with the dominant class view. That has actually happened in the past, and when new historians came along and tried to rectify this limited perspective with books about blacks serving, their efforts were often called "agenda driven" and "propaganda."
Also there is only so much "bandwidth" in a HS or college course; imagine students trying to read primary data for a single event, like Lee's retreat from Gettysburg. Then imagine trying to teach US history from the founding to the present, using primary sources. Very difficult, especially given how difficult our founding documents are simply to read even for college students. Good to use primary sources, yes, but for students, someone would have to do a lot of selecting, editing, and digesting for them, which cannot be done without a point of view regarding what is important and what not.
The alternatives though are not limited to either 1) an impossible "raw history" or 2) "propaganda."
Serious historians are all about advancing our knowledge of history, letting the chips fall where they may; and they are bound by the same standards of integrity and observation which hold for journalists or scientists. A historian who wanted to write about the Civil War today would probably be prompted by a "gap" he perceived in existing work. In addition to reading what scholarly work had already been written in that area, he/she would likely have to travel around the country looking at letters in private collections, old news papers, court records and the like. Without some "thesis" or other, he/she would be unable to sort out what was useful or not from all those sources.
For most other historians, it would be quite ok if this work were written to address current political issues, or were even driven by them, provided it produced verifiable knowledge, especially "new" knowledge. They also understand that "the truth" is not going to be found in one book or books written from one perspective. It is important to have perspectival and methodological diversity, and just as with scientists, they honor an evolving consensus about what counts as true or "most true" at any given moment.
In the case of HS students, I certainly support Bpat's efforts to integrate digitalized primary sources into the curriculum, so students can see where historians get their knowledge. Hopefully he is positioning them to compare primary sources with what historians, past and present, have said about them.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - oncemoreuntothejimbreech - 06-21-2020
I didn’t know about the Tulsa massacre until I watched Watchmen and then wondered how I never learned about it in school.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - Dill - 06-21-2020
(06-21-2020, 01:38 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: I didn’t know about the Tulsa massacre until I watched Watchmen and then wondered how I never learned about it in school.
Quite possible your school district was on guard against history with an "agenda."
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - michaelsean - 06-22-2020
What the hell schools did you all go to? Hell my mostly white Catholic schools taught me all of that. And that’s in the 70s and 80s.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - michaelsean - 06-22-2020
(06-20-2020, 01:04 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I honestly either forgot about Juneteenth or just never knew about it. Bear in mind that at the ages of 12 and 13 I began reading and learning about the Civil War. By the time I was 18 and left for college, I had amassed a collection of books/literature/magazines on the War that was well over $1000 worth. Friends were putting money into their cars/jeeps or whatnot, I was putting it into my Civil War buff addiction. I knew more on the War than any teacher I had in high school, probably all combined. Made numerous trips to Gettysburg, Antietam, and the battlefields in Virginia by time I was in my early 20's.
I guess my point is, it's ok for Juneteenth not to be known about, but that doesn't mean it should be forgotten nor observed. There were so many occasions from the war that should or could be celebrated in regards to black America, from the signing of the Emancipation, the Battle of Fort Wagner with the 54th Mass., the passage of the 13th Amendment before the war ended.
In regards to what is taught in schools, I never even studied the Civil War back in the mid-90s in High School. The first semester went right up until the Civil War. But 2nd semester I had a liberal teacher who decided to teach history backwards starting with 1990s going back to the Civil War. We literally spent over a month just on the 1960s and 70's discussing all the social changes as the main focus. Looking back this was her focus. We then spent a bit of time on Vietnam, like a few days, a couple of days on WW2, WW1 was a paragraph, spent time on the Indian wars, then school was over. Never even made it to the Civil War. Yeah I was pretty pissed on that one lol.
I just hope going forward schools everywhere will teach history for what it was, not to promote some propaganda agenda from whoever decides what is taught. History should be taught in it's rawest form, from it's primary sources, not from current political views.
I saw this earlier, and it makes no sense at all other than it makes those protesters look like ignorant idiots. Then again, this was in San Fran, so it makes a bit of sense.
A lot of American history classes are divided into pre and post Civil War. They will usually spend little time on the actual war. The important part is what led up to it and what resulted from it.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - fredtoast - 06-22-2020
(06-20-2020, 02:43 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Saw this one a few days ago.
https://disrn.com/news/monument-honoring-all-black-regiment-of-civil-war-soldiers-defaced-by-black-lives-matter-rioters
I used to think it was a west coast thing too until all this got started. Idiots everywhere now.
Problem is that so many white supremacists are getting caught vandalizing stuff during these protests just to make BLM look worse. This looks like it could be their work.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - fredtoast - 06-22-2020
(06-20-2020, 11:58 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: with so much digitized, it’s easier and easier to use primary sources. A lot of us are rejecting textbooks and focusing on primary sources.
Whenever some one starts giving me the story about how the civil war was about "States Rights" instead of slavery I tell them that most of the Confederate states issued "Declaration of Causes" for secession that were basically like the a "Declaration of Independence". Anyone can still read them and every one of them lists preserving the institution of slavery as a main central issue.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - oncemoreuntothejimbreech - 06-22-2020
(06-22-2020, 09:50 AM)michaelsean Wrote: What the hell schools did you all go to? Hell my mostly white Catholic schools taught me all of that. And that’s in the 70s and 80s.
A really small, poor school on the edge of Appalachia in which part of my grade for Senior English involved tracing pictures from the textbook.
RE: Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula - BmorePat87 - 06-22-2020
(06-22-2020, 10:38 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Whenever some one starts giving me the story about how the civil war was about "States Rights" instead of slavery I tell them that most of the Confederate states issued "Declaration of Causes" for secession that were basically like the a "Declaration of Independence". Anyone can still read them and every one of them lists preserving the institution of slavery as a main central issue.
You can also pull up the transcripts of state legislature floor arguments and see the same thing.