The adoption last spring of a mandatory African American history course for Philadelphia high school students, while widely hailed as a groundbreaking and long overdue reform, also sparked some controversy and opposition.
Some questioned why African American history should receive particular attention, arguing that all ethnicities had an equal claim as objects of study. But the equation of European ethnic groups with African Americans by some critics ignores the Eurocentric nature of the traditional history curriculum, with its distortions and omissions of the experience of people of color.
Others legitimately pointed out the victimization of Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans in our history and how that is overlooked. Still others argued what is needed is not multiple ethnic studies but a critical history, consciously rejecting the racial, gender, and class biases that shape the traditional curriculum.
What has largely been overlooked is the way in which African American history is a window on the whole of our national experience, shedding light on the major questions we have faced as a people. Seen in this way, African American history is not simply important for African Americans but for all of us.
What gives African American history its centrality is that the effort to create a democratic society is bound up with the historical treatment of African Americans.
One way to look at our history is as an ongoing struggle to realize the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence. The enslavement of African Americans and later, the denial of equal rights were the single greatest obstacle in this effort. The Founding Fathers not only failed to abolish slavery but created an institutional framework that extended and protected it. The first hundred years of the American republic were dominated by the question of slavery and its aftermath. And, as the recent death of Rosa Parks reminds us, the struggle for racial equality has been a central theme of modern U.S. history.
The ideology of White supremacy, which grew up as a justification for slavery, genocide against Native Americans, and subjugation of other nationalities, is a persistent and tragic theme of our history.
None of this is ancient history, as some would like to believe. The profound inequities exposed by the New Orleans flood or the newest version of the “White man's burden,” which has the U.S. bringing democracy and enlightenment to Asia, Africa and Latin America, are cases in point.
An African American history course offers many opportunities to make connections with the experience of other ethnic groups. For example, the annexation of the Mexican southwest, a central event in the experience of the Chicano people, was driven by the expansionist aims of the slave owners who needed fresh land for cotton and new states to maintain their dominant position in the national government. And there is the experience of the Irish, who were effectively pitted against Blacks and often sought to gain respectability and status by championing White supremacy. Yet another example is the anti-Chinese riots in the West and exclusionary laws that developed alongside the effort to impose Jim Crow on Blacks in the South.
The history of African Americans also offers some insights into how change happens. The abolitionist and civil rights movements are positive examples. And this history, while revealing the strength of racism in our national life, also demonstrates that Black-White unity is possible and critical to moving our society forward.
An African American history course does not ensure that these themes and connections will receive full treatment, as evidenced by the “heroes and holidays” approach prevalent in many of our classrooms. But, when compared to the traditional American history curriculum, the new course provides a better context for the development of a critical history.