Last month marked 158 years since the United States Civil War came to an end. Yet, the American education system continues to fail its people; while progress has been made, the truth behind the civil war largely remains shrouded.
So what are American schoolchildren taught? The results of an informal survey conducted in 2011 by James W. Loewen, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, reflect that 55-75% of teachers across the country, regardless of race, teach students that states’ rights were the main reason behind the secession of the south.
The impact of these concerning teaching methods on American beliefs about the Civil War appears in the results of a poll conducted in 2011 by the Pew Research Center, which found that almost half of the American population, 48%, believed states’ rights to be the driving cause of the Civil War.
The disappointingly small proportion of 12th graders across the nation who correctly attributed slavery as being the cause of the war, 8%, highlights the severity of the American school system’s failings and impedes racial progress from being achieved.
The findings of these surveys reflect sentiments held by Boards of Education; in 2010, an educational board member in the state of Texas described slavery as “a side issue.” This viewpoint is reflected in the deceitful approach to the Civil War and its causes in Texas’ state-implemented curriculum.
The Texas social studies curriculum impacts American schoolchildren and the nation as a whole; as the second most populated state, Texas holds a sizable influence on the national school system as the textbooks designed to follow the state curriculum have the potential to spread beyond state borders.
Texas’ historical attempts to conceal the truth behind the Civil War run deep; the state received backlash in 2015 as a result of a textbook describing those brought to America to be slaves as “workers.” In July 2022, attempts to hide both Texas’ and America as a whole’s history with slavery took shape in the form of a group of educators submitting a proposal to the Texas Board of Education to re-title the word slavery as “involuntary relocation” when used in the classroom.
The efforts to alter the wording around slavery and the institution of it follow the 2021 passing of a bill within the state with the goal of eliminating topics from the curriculum that instill discomfort in some students.
The state’s attempts to misconstrue America’s dark history with slavery are not alone; the results of a 2017 survey including 10 commonly used textbooks and 15 states’ educational standards found that textbooks misrepresented slavery and state standards focused teachings more on the stories of abolitionists than on educating students about the realities of slavery.
While American students should undoubtedly be taught about powerful abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglas and their stories bravely leading thousands out of enslavement, the inconsistent and inaccurate ways by which students are taught the true causes of the Civil War are disrespectful to abolitionist figures such as these and thousands of others who risked everything to achieve freedom for all.
In addition to Texas’ dishonorable and harmful approach to educating its students about the Civil War, the state furthers its agenda of obscuring American history through its exclusion of Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan from the state curriculum. The exclusion of critical topics concerning the violent history of racism in America including racial segregation and hate crimes not only prioritizes the comfort of white students within the classroom but places Black Americans in danger.
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Restrictions on educating youth about racism and its roots continue to take shape amongst arguments about the teaching of the 1619 Project and critical race theory within the American school system. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah Jones, discusses the ways the legacy of slavery continues to permeate society, focusing on the history of Black Americans and the “argument that slavery is a foundational American Institution.”
Critical race theory examines the systemic racism within American institutions, revealing to students the racial inequalities that plague the country and the ways that race has shaped the American legal system. Further, the theory exposes the privileges white Americans receive through these systems.
Critical race theory and its potential place within the American Education System has sparked outrage from groups across the country, with many accusing the theory of being “modern-day racism” against White Americans, instilling hate between races, and blaming White children for the wrongs of the past.
Across the country, Republican-majority state legislatures have responded by placing restrictions on educating students about racial inequality within the classroom.
The 1619 Project similarly came under fire in conservative states, with Texas and Florida banning its teaching amongst efforts from other states, namely Mississippi, Arkansas, and Iowa, to follow suit. Attempts to increase American youth’s knowledge of Black history through courses such as the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course have similarly been met with backlash, with states such as Florida banning the teaching of the course.
The American education system’s shortcomings when it comes to racism and its history in the country have serious impacts on the lives of Black Americans. The misconstrual of the true cause of the American Civil War enables hate symbols such as the Confederate flag and Confederate statues to be defended as “Southern history” and normalized, perpetuating racism and its deep roots.
Avoiding the topic of racism within schools doesn’t make it go away; not addressing racism within the classroom, from its roots and the beginnings of slavery in the Americas in 1619 to its continued appearance in American institutions, perpetuates its existence. The avoidance of the topic of race creates a setting where racial inequality thrives; Black Americans continue to be treated as second-class citizens within the United States, receiving lower salaries and deficient healthcare, and being subjected to discrimination across educational and professional fields, home markets, and beyond.
America cannot move toward reparations being made before the country and its people acknowledge and understand not only the history of racism but its continued presence within the nation’s policies and institutions. White supremacist, hate-inspired attacks such as the Charleston church shooting in 2015 and the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting in 2022 targeting Black Americans will not come to an end until White Americans develop a deep understanding of racism and the role they play in it.
The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were unfortunately one of the first times many White Americans became attuned to the discrimination and dangers Black Americans face daily. It shouldn’t take the deaths of countless Black Americans for White Americans to begin to see the racism that permeates the nation. The concealment and misconstrual of the institution of slavery and the history of racism within America, from Jim Crow laws to the hate crimes of the Ku Klux Klan, threaten the safety of Black Americans and perpetuate systemic racism.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: Books. Featured Photo Credit: Alexander Grey.
