In today’s classrooms, teaching Black history has become a challenge at best—and a dangerous proposition at worst. In many states, politicians have demanded teachers alter their curriculum over fears that Black history instruction is driven by critical race theory or casts the American story in a negative light. With this increased scrutiny on Black history curriculum and instruction in schools, educators are often forced to make compromises at the expense of student learning. Ultimately, some teachers come to the decision that it is simply easier not to teach Black history at all.
Recently, I conducted a yearlong study of a white teacher’s foray into launching a high school Black history course. The course was offered at a school that had never had a Black history class before, and the teacher who volunteered to teach the course had no experience teaching the subject. We at the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University at Buffalo placed two Black preservice teachers in the class sequentially over an entire school year, during which they could complete their student-teaching.
Reflecting on that work and my own 17 years of experience as a high school teacher and now researcher in Black history education, I have identified several pitfalls that should remind us that good intentions are not always enough when teaching Black history. With those pitfalls in mind, here is how I would guide teachers, students, parents, administrators, and anyone else considering debuting a Black history program at their school:
First, teachers and students in Black history courses need the support of their school administrations. If administrators provide the resources, training, and political capital to support a Black history course, it will have a greater chance of long-term success. Courses like this are very dependent on the work of the teacher and, without the support of the administration, it is difficult for this work to take root.
The launch of the new course I studied was prompted by calls from activists within the Black community—including one who became the first Black school board member in the district—after the death of a Black man at the hands of police. Concerned with growing racial tensions in their greater community, the school’s administration prioritized the class to start as soon as possible but did not similarly prioritize its search for an experienced Black history teacher.
The lone teacher who volunteered to start the class, therefore, saw himself as a placeholder.
He told me that his school’s administration was very concerned about the course’s optics and how the class would be perceived by parents. That meant the content presented to students came second to how some parents and others outside the school viewed the course.
Second, learning the content is essential—and hard. Because the teacher saw himself as temporary, he didn’t do a deep dive. Instead, he envisioned his work to be more of a manager than a teacher. He placed a great deal of the responsibility for the course’s curriculum and teaching on the preservice teachers because their life experiences as Black educators was grounded in the content. They handled the day-to-day operations of the class, but he still invoked his veto power to steer them away from “difficult” topics, such as police brutality. This wasn’t really his class; he was merely waiting to pass the torch to a more experienced Black history instructor.
If you are not steeped in the history and literature of Black history, it requires a lot of work to learn the content, especially if you’ve never taken coursework in the subject or haven’t read extensively. I recommend looking to LaGarrett King’s Black Historical Consciousness framework to understand different approaches to the content.
As King points out, we must “teach through Black people not just about Black people.” In other words, a Black history course must center the voices and narratives of Black people in a way that highlights their humanity, not simply or merely mentioning them or softening their stories in ways that make it easier to integrate into existing curriculum and content.
A dedicated Black history course cannot simply be U.S. history with Black people, places, and events sprinkled on top.
Finally, and probably most importantly, teachers must work on themselves. Teaching Black history requires a great deal of sensitivity, understanding, and compassion. Teachers need to become cognizant of their own personal understanding of racism, white supremacy, and whiteness. That is more complicated if the educator is white, because white teachers are often not asked to consider their own racial identity prior to teaching race-related content.
This heavy work of unpacking, deconstructing, and relearning one’s own white identity isn’t finished in a class or two about diversity and inclusion during teachers’ preparation program. As a white teacher of Black history, I know personally it is a lifelong project.
Read more from educators on advancing Black history education.
