Over time, I've heard colleagues in the education profession, and students, including some college students who are old enough and educated enough to know better, refer to the MLK birthday as a "holiday for black people." That displays a kind of ignorance that I have trouble tolerating. And it tells me that the educational objectives in history courses for students at all levels, regarding Dr. King and the far-reaching effects of his leadership in civil rights, need some adjustment, new emphasis and attention.
The changes that came about in civil rights legislation resulting from the leadership of Dr. King in the movement among African Americans benefitted all Americans. Of course, the emphasis of his movement and the direction of his efforts were focused on the bigotry that produced unconscionable segregation aimed at African Americans, and it pointed out the stark contrast between the reality of his time with the idealism reflected in this country's founding documents. But we need to get deeper into exactly how bad conditions were for African Americans, and how much of a price was paid by those who followed Dr. King's lead down the pathway of non-violent resistance, a means to an end that was unprecedented in both the impact it had on the culture of the time and its success in achieving its ends.
We are now a couple of generations out and away from the worst of the extremism and rabid, violent racism that segregated American society and culture. Memories are fading. There are places in the country where the full impact of racist segregationist practices has never been included in the objectives of public school education. My high school history teacher, one of the best I ever had through my entire education from elementary school through graduate school, made the comprehension and magnitude of the whole post-Civil war racism and segregation in this country a required unit objective. He got a lot of flak from parents for doing so, but he refused to back down, inviting parents to come to his classes, sit through the lessons and point out anything they felt inaccurate or untrue.
Those class sessions included inviting victims of discrimination and segregation, and the violence that was perpetrated against them when they participated in the non-violent protesting of it, to come to class and relate their experiences. What amazed me about those who came was their calm demeanor, and the fact that they never exhibited the slightest degree of resentment or animosity. They were proud of their success in achieving their goal of equal rights under the law, and elimination of segregation laws. They relayed experiences, especially in school settings, that were horrifying to me. But they made an impression on me as well, one I have never forgotten. I think we've lost that kind of impression somewhere.
Observing a group of middle school students watching a fifteen-minute tribute video to Dr. King, I noticed they had no concept of what it was like for African Americans prior to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Seeing images of separate drinking fountains, park benches, gathering places, having to ride in the back of the bus and give up seats for white people, and beyond that, the lynching, attacks and torment that went without consequences in many parts of the country was difficult for them to imagine. The fact that there are still people in this country who want to bring that back, and that those people have political power, is unfathomable to this generation of young people. Their awareness of it, and the fear of its recurrence, is a motivation necessary to prevent it from happening again.
Schools in many places are turning away from teaching this in their history or English curriculum, and are censoring aspects of it from textbooks and instructional curriculum. The war on free speech and academic freedom of teachers in the classroom is aimed specifically at racial equality and civil rights of minority groups. Conspiracy theories, misrepresentations of history, including attacks against Critical Race Theory, which is a ridiculous position to take from an educational perspective that advocates critical thinking skills, and the emergence of aberrant theology among conservative Christians pushing the ideology of white, Christian nationalism makes this an essential element in education, necessary to equip students with the knowledge and reasoning power they need to counter the lies coming from the extremists and preserve the freedom that comes with equality.
Only inferior ideas and philosophies fear the marketplace of ideas.
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