Juneteenth offers new ways to teach about slavery, Black perseverance and American history

By Raphael E. Rogers Professor of Practice in Education, Clark University

Whenever I tell high school students in classes I visit that I appreciated learning about slavery as a child growing up in the Caribbean, they often look confused.

Why, they ask, did I like learning about slavery given that it was so horrible and harsh? How could I value being taught about something that caused so much hurt and harm?

That’s when I tell them that my teachers in St. Thomas – and my fourth grade history textbook – didn’t focus just on the harsh conditions of slavery. Rather, they also focused on Black freedom fighters, such as Moses Gottlieb, perhaps better known as General Buddhoe, who is credited with leading a nonviolent revolt that led to the abolishment of slavery in the Danish-ruled West Indies on July 3, 1848. The historic date is now observed and celebrated in the United States Virgin Islands as Emancipation Day.

The holiday – and the lessons I learned about

Q&A

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So it sounds like that option being available is what was creating this discrepancy, which as the Mayor mentioned, the whole purpose of collecting data around race, particularly in enforcement data, is not to get to some sense of certainty as to what exactly a person’s race was. The purpose is to assess the officer’s perception. So if an officer can see someone on a stop, then that perception must be reported and unknown should not be an option. So that would be a simple fix is to correct that as being an option.

David Pierini, North News: How do you address casual racism, that is a sign of something much deeper than just it – instilled in me a sense of cultural pride and gave me a better appreciation for the sacrifices that Black people made for freedom. It also encouraged me to always push on when faced with challenges.

The reason I bring this up is because I believe Juneteenth – which commemorates the date in 1865 when Union troops notified the last remaining slaves in Texas that they were free – holds similar promise for Black students throughout the United States.

Students often tell me that they’re not learning much about slavery beyond the suffering and harsh conditions that it involved. As a historian who specializes in how slavery is taught in K-12 classrooms, I believe there are several ways educators can incorporate Juneteenth into their instruction that will give students a broader understanding of how Black people resisted slavery and persevered in spite of it. Below are just a few.

Start early, but keep it positive

As early childhood experts assembled by the National Museum of African American History point out in a guide they created to a joke?

Chief Brian O’Hara:

There are issues of racism and bias in policing just as there are in the criminal justice system, just as there are in the City of Minneapolis and in society as a whole. We have to take advantage of the technology that we have with body-worn cameras, ensuring that every interaction that an officer has, particularly during an enforcement action and a call for service, is recorded. And put processes in place to ensure that there is routine review that holds officers accountable when even some sort of micro aggression occurs to something that would be outwardly clearly a violation of policy. So these things are cultural issues to some extent. What is most common with police officers in the United States is the issue of disrespect. It could be just an officer’s demeanor, help develop lessons about Juneteenth, children in the U.S. will probably hear about slavery by age 5. But lessons about slavery at that age should avoid the pain and trauma of slavery. Instead, the lessons should celebrate and teach stories of Black culture, leadership, inventions, beauty and accomplishments. This, the authors of the guide say, will better equip children to later hear about, understand and emotionally process the terrible truths about slavery.

“Juneteenth events can be wonderful opportunities to introduce the concepts of slavery with a focus on resilience and within an environment of love, trust, and joy,” the guide states.

Focus on Black resistance Many Juneteeth celebrations not only commemorate the end of slavery, but they also honor the generations of Black men and women who have fought to end slavery and for racial justice.

As Black history education professor LaGarett King puts it, Black people have always “acted, made their own decisions based on their interests, and fought back against oppressive their attitude, how they talk to people, how they engage with people. And there are ways to set very clear parameters and instructions on how you will handle a stop, for example. And then there are ways to ensure that we hold supervisors accountable for reviewing them and holding their officers accountable and then having a check on the supervisors.

Al McFarlane: I wanted to get a sense of how you are both feeling and assessing this moment?

Mayor Frey: We recognize that the eyes of the world are on Minneapolis and we want to make sure that we are an example setting for others to follow. And you asked how I’m feeling. I’m optimistic, I’m hopeful. I believe that we’ve got the right people in the right seats, including of course, Chief O’Hara, that not only have the experience and expertise in