Submitted by Derickson K. Lawrence
On the heels of the last year’s 47-state voter- suppression initiative, this year (2023), the following states have already banned how race is taught: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Those represent only the tip of the iceberg, however.
States that currently have similar bills moving through their state legislature include: Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
What’s surprising is the wide swath of Midwest states outside the states comprising the old Confederacy giving the nod to restricting how race is taught in their state’s curriculum.
What’s important to preserving Black History, beyond the month of February, is to pursue an authentic narrative of “Connecting the Ten Dots of Civil Rights Reversal in America,” for the next generation. (More on that in the future.)
In Westchester County there has always been a healthy respect for inclusive, progressive policies, and politics. Organized by the Rev Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson and the Westchester Black Clergy, some thirty-five years ago in Iona’s College gym, close to 10,000 people (a diverse crowd from around the county) filled the floor space and seats to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
History was made then and all through his run. Rev. Jackson’s “Keep hope Alive” speech at the Democratic Convention that year (1988) was riveting. Two memorable quotes: a) “When I look out at this convention, I see the face of America: red, yellow, brown, black and white. We are all precious in God’s sight.”
b) “All of us, all of us who are here think that we are seated. But we’re really standing on someone’s shoulders. Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Rosa Parks the mother of the civil rights movement.”
He tore the roof off the convention, raised the level of aspiration of the next generation of leaders (Barack Obama won two decades later), and broke new ground in civil rights.
Today, we must continue the fight to preserve the ground we thought we had already won. Restricting how race is taught, or suppressing it, leaves the next generation of leaders in the dark.
The writer is a Mount Vernon resident and is executive producer of the award-wining docuseries America’s Open Wound the Killing of the Movement ©.
AOW’s Episode 3- “Civic Engagement in a Post Insurrection Environment” is in post production for a late summer 2023 release.
