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Updated: 3:34 PM EST Feb 5, 2021 Lizz Schumer Senior editor
You know how the saying goes: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. But when we still haven t emerged from the ongoing effects of our past, taking the time to learn about where those forces originated and how we got where we are today becomes even more important.
Reading books written by Black authors can help add important context to the world we re living in, as well as shed light on systemic racism and discrimination for those who are privileged enough to not experience their impact firsthand. Literature is a powerful force. It can help further our own antiracist education, lift up voices that have been historically left out of the conversation and take the emotional burden off Black friends and colleagues to educate others too. Reading doesn t absolve us of taking meaningful action against injustice, but it s a start.
SOURCES:
Jesse J. Holland, Author and Assistant Professor at George Washington University
Mary Elliott, Curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
ANSWER:
George Washington owned hundreds of enslaved people throughout his life. While his views on the institution of slavery shifted in his later years, he made private efforts to prevent his slaves from claiming their freedom and never spoke publicly about abolition until his death.
PROCESS:
From ripped down statues to renamed landmarks, communities are reexamining how to remember and honor historical figures. Even our nation’s first president is under the microscope because of the fact he held slaves throughout his life.
Erika Jackson and Sarah Swedberg donât wait for Black History Month to teach Colorado Mesa students about the history of race in America.
This past fall, Swedberg taught a course on American slavery, and several of those students this semester are in Jacksonâs upper-level History of Race, Immigration and Ethnicity in America class.
âSarah and I work together extensively, and whatâs been incredibly helpful in me teaching this class is that I would say a third of the students in my class took American Slavery last semester with Sarah,â Jackson said. âWe were talking (recently), and they kept saying, âOh, yeah, this connects to this thing that we learned about American Slavery.â And Iâm just like this, this is so great, so Iâm wondering if we should think about a way to pair the two classes together in the future, because those students having that prior knowledge that theyâre bringing into the classes is really essential.â