Black history too narrowly defined

By Ed Hooper

The three Los Angeles teachers at the Wadsworth Avenue Elementary school who gave children photographs of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to hold during a parade honoring black history month as a prank earned suspensions, a rebuke from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a public apology from school principal Lorraine Abner to the parents of schoolchildren.

The national response from pundits, readers and viewers of the story saying the children should have carried photographs of other figures in black history like Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela and Oprah Winfrey indicate this problem isn’t limited only to Wadsworth Avenue Elementary school.

Slavery, abolitionists and the civil rights movement dominate black history in American classroom programs. While those eras should have a major role in official texts, it can’t be at the expense of a legacy encompassing more than 375 years of North American history. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights pioneers fought to see their ancestors’ contributions integrated into the mainstream story of this nation as well as obtain equal rights for themselves.

It isn’t difficult for teachers to find figures in black American history young children can understand. The peanut butter sandwich wouldn’t have been around without George Washington Carver — a man Time in 1941 dubbed the “Black Leonardo” for his inventions, paintings and cultural contributions. Nor is it difficult to find the story of black chef and restaurateur George Crum, who is credited with inventing the potato chip in 1853.

From colonial writer Benjamin Banneker to William Clark’s black slave “York” in the Lewis and Clark expedition, U.S. history is laced with African-American accomplishment deserving of classroom attention. The history of the American West wouldn’t be complete without the stories of black cowboys like Nat Love and Pro Rodeo Hall of famer Bill Pickett, or Buffalo soldiers Sgt. George Jordan and Lt. Henry Flipper, who was West Point’s first black graduate.

The U.S. military notes men like Navy Medal of Honor recipient Robert Augustus Sweeney, who is the only black American to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor. He was one of 87 black soldiers and sailors to receive the nation’s highest award. Only under the World War I and World War II administrations were Medals of Honor not directly presented and corrections later made to right the injustices.

Teachers and textbooks instructing students on the civil rights movement can’t ignore figures like the first black federal judge and Virgin Islands Governor William Henry Hastie, and inventor Dr. Charles Drew, who created the first blood banks that saved thousands of World War II soldiers in the U.K. and the U.S. Both these men share the unique honor of resigning from national positions during World War II in service to the cause of civil rights in America. Hastie resigned as a civilian aide for Secretary of War Henry Stimson to protest segregated units and Dr. Drew resigned as director of the Red Cross blood banks to protest the War Department’s ordered segregation and transfusion of blood by race.

Without question, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Isabella Baumfree, also known as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deserve their rightful place in U.S. history. But they should not eclipse it.

The actions of these three Los Angeles teachers clearly shows why the U.S. needs a black history month. Simply firing or suspending the teachers and moving on passes up an opportunity for a school system to redress a national problem with the way African-American contributions are included in U.S. history.

As a condition for reinstatement, the superintendent of Los Angeles schools might consider taking slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, athletics, and entertainment off the table and asking these educators to design an authentic black history program at their school that maybe others can implement.

Ed Hooper, an author and journalist from Knoxville, writes for The History News Service.