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Writer's pictureAlysha Lewis

The Importance of Teaching African American History to Today’s Youth


Image via The Red and Black.

The importance of teaching African American history to our youth is more important now than it ever was. This week, the Texas Senate voted to pass a bill that no longer requires schools to teach students that the Ku Klux Klan is morally wrong.


The Texas senate signed the bill on July 16th that sent a wave of reactions throughout many social media platforms.


According to Revolt TV, “The bill also removes writings by civil rights activist Cesar Chavez and suffragette Susan B. Anthony; lessons about Native American history; Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and more from required curriculum. The bill means students would no longer be required to learn about the “history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement and the Ku Klux Klan and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”


According to Insider, the United States currently does not have federal requirements for teaching Black history in school curriculums, and there are only a handful of states that have mandated it.


Parents wonder what will be the future of their children’s education. According to Insider, “In 2015, a study from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Oberg Research found that on average, only 8% or 9% of history class time in US schools is devoted to Black history.”


The lack of African American history in schools is terrifying because future generations will learn a censored version of our history. Almost as if history is trying to be re-written.


As parents, it is their responsibility to make sure their children are being taught Black history at home. Black history is not just about the bad as there are some very monumental moments in Black history.


“Black joy just raises the human side of Black people. Because sometimes in our curriculum we always focus on suffering, and we do not focus on Black people being human,” said LaGarrett King, an African American History education professor at the University of Missouri.


Twitter users reacted to such news of the bill,






All over the US in states such as Rhode Island, Delaware, and Virginia are working towards a bill to require Black history be required in schools curriculum. The continuous fight to ensure that Black history is taught in schools is detrimental for the younger generation, the real work begins now.

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