On Juneteenth

I was an expert in my field.

At least, that's what I was led to believe.

When I declared myself to be a secondary social studies education major in the fall of 2004 I had no reason to believe this wouldn't be the case. After all, the requirements to graduate were quite daunting: 24 course hours in education classes, 6 hours of American history, 6 hours of Western history, and 6 hours of non-Western history, and single courses in sociology, psychology, economics, and American government. The expectation was that by the time I reached my final semester of student teaching, I would have a solid foundation in the material I would be teaching so that my focus could turn to the variables of teaching such as communication, classroom management, and differentiated learning strategies. With this material being taught by learned professors, including published authors, I had no reason to believe I wouldn't have a clear and concise understanding of any and all social studies content I would be expected to be teaching. My university was confident that I would be put in a position to succeed and I had no reason to think any differently. 

Yet as my student teaching semester approached, I found myself woefully unprepared. I used the monthlong winter break to read not only the textbooks from which I was expected to teach but also books such as World History for Dummies. Despite having taken a two-year AP U.S. history course in high school, I found myself returning to the teacher's guide for the student textbook to confirm dates, key figures, and why certain events were so important. Just stay one step ahead of the students I kept telling myself. Know the main points. Never let them know you don't know. If they ask you something, turn the question back on them. I hadn't spent a single day in the classroom and yet I was already feeling imposter syndrome. How was I going to teach others when I myself still had so much left to learn?

I recall this experience today because like so many who taught, we ourselves were not provided with a proper education. Sure, we took all the courses that were required of us. Probably got good grades, too. But like so many American students, I was denied an education that told the true story of our history. It wasn't until I began teaching full-time that I realized how much of history I hadn't been taught, despite my degree in the field. It wasn't until I read A People's History of the United States that I learned about Seneca Falls, Stonewall, or the American Indian Movement. It wasn't until a Watchmen episode that I learned of the Tulsa Massare on Black Wall Street. It even took a conversation with a colleague of color a good decade after I graduated from college for me to first hear about the term "redlining." All of this history, true American history, and despite being entrusted to teach the next generation, it was all new to me. I was missing out on these critical historical lessons that my students could and should be learning about.

For me, Juneteenth falls into this category.

I was never taught about this in any of my courses. It was never mentioned in any course outline for any U.S. history textbooks that I used to teach. After all, we love the heroic narrative of Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment having helped end slavery in this country. So what would happen if our students learned that this was not the case? What would happen if they learned that it took two-and-a-half years and the intervention of federal troops to finally free the 250,000 enslaved Black men and women in the state of Texas? What would happen if a discussion on Juneteenth was then followed up with a discussion on Back Codes, Jim Crow, and other measures that southern Whites implemented to try and retain the free and exploited labor they had come to rely on in the antebellum South?

Conservatives' latest war on "woke" history is designed so that we never have these discussions. Their war is designed to keep us in the dark about our true history. Because conservatives know that they are on the wrong side of every historical advancement that our country has made since its founding. Slavery. Women's suffrage. Civil rights. LGBTQIA+ equality. While the party names might have changed (Lincoln was a Republican!) there can be no denying that the conservative party at the time willfully worked to shut down progress made by non-land-owning straight, White, Christian men. This is the true history of our country and it is that history that Republicans are so committed to shutting down in our public schools. Resorting to censorship is the only option they have left to convince the voters that they actually care about progress in this country. 

Making Juneteenth a national holiday is a win for our country. It is a win for our history, the type of history that is not taught in schools. But thanks to the advocacy of heroes like Opal Lee, the entire country is now becoming aware of this long-forgotten part of American history. In recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration has created a space for this history to be told. This history, this true history, is critical in understanding who we are and where we come from. It is the type of history that conservatives do not want to be taught. But the more they try to censor it, the more the younger generations want to learn it. If there's anything I learned in my time in the classroom, it's that students will seek out and find answers to questions if the desire is burning strongly enough. It is that spark that continues to give hope to a former history teacher like myself even as conservatives continue their ongoing assault to censor professional educators for daring to teach history in the way that it was intended to be taught.  

So today, enjoy your well-deserved time off but remember how and why we got here. Remember that today tells a story that took too long to be told. Remember that there are other stories how there that Republicans don't want future generations to know about. Celebrate today, but remember to get right back out there fighting tomorrow. Because any political party that wants to censor a country's history is a dangerous one. Because as George Orwell so famously said, "Who controls the past controls the future." Don't let Republicans control our past. Don't let them remove our history, however painful it might be. Our students are counting on you. Our teachers are counting on you. We all have a responsibility to continue pressing back against this new era of Republican censorship. Recognizing Juneteenth was a win, we now need to seek out and recognize more untold histories from our nation's past. This is the only way we keep our history alive. 

And it's the only way we keep Republicans from whitewashing our true American history.