How I Fell in Love With Black History
Opinion
Social Studies Opinion

How I Fell in Love With Black History

By LaGarrett J. King — February 24, 2021 1 min read
Falling in love with Black history was a life-long process for Dallas high school social studies teacher and department chair Jania Hoover. In conversation with LaGarrett J. King, she discusses the class that awoke her to “the possibility that we were even worthy of study” and how that realization has informed her high school teaching career. Black joy must be a central part of changing the current failure of Black history education: Not only do we not talk about Black people enough in history, but when we do, it’s often only through the lens of pain and oppression. Hoover offers concrete advice for how to build your own content knowledge in order to bring that Black joy into the classroom.
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LaGarrett J. King
LaGarrett J. King is the Isabella Wade Lyda and Paul Lyda Professor of Education and the founding director of the Carter Center for K-12 Black history education at the University of Missouri’s College of Education.

Falling in love with Black history was a life-long process for Dallas high school social studies teacher and department chair Jania Hoover. In conversation with LaGarrett J. King, she discusses the class that awoke her to “the possibility that we were even worthy of study” and how that realization has informed her high school teaching career.
Black joy must be a central part of changing the current failure of Black history education: Not only do we not talk about Black people enough in history, but when we do, it’s often only through the lens of pain and oppression. Hoover offers concrete advice for how to build your own content knowledge in order to bring that Black joy into the classroom.

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