Oklahoma was one of the first states to pass a law restricting conversations of race and racism, but that didn鈥檛 dampen the discussion one recent morning in Anthony Crawford鈥檚 English class here at Millwood High School. The assignment was to read and analyze an excerpt by Joy DeGruy, author of Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome: America鈥檚 Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing.
As the 12 seniors finished reading, they embarked on a discussion about whether the practice in some Black families of parents hitting their children to discipline them stems from slavery and is symptomatic of the 鈥淧ost Traumatic Slavery Syndrome鈥� described in the reading.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like a subconscious generational thing, like how we whoop our kids,鈥� said one of the students, Rh茅ma Coleman.
鈥業 disagree,鈥� said another student, Evan Fields. 鈥淚f you do something wrong, your parents [are] teaching right from wrong, I don鈥檛 think that it[鈥榮] got nothing to do with slavery.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a form of discipline,鈥� he added.
Donovan Chaney chimed in with a slightly different nuance.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to say that our parents are doing it because of slavery. I鈥檓 saying the origin point was slavery and getting whipped by another race,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e saying that the discipline we use as of right now has stemmed from slavery,鈥� Rh茅ma added. 鈥淓ven though our parents haven鈥檛 experienced that direct slavery their [ancestors] did in America. So that鈥檚 what they learned and that鈥檚 what they instilled in their kids.鈥�
Throughout this debate, Crawford interrupted only to tell the students to not speak over each other.
It鈥檚 been a year since Oklahoma passed its law limiting classroom talk on race and racism and calling such discussions 鈥渃ritical race theory.鈥� Although the law does not contain specifics, it says teachers must not make students feel 鈥渁nguish鈥� or 鈥済uilt鈥� for the past actions of their race or sex. It also bans diversity training for teachers.
Sixteen other states have since imposed similar restrictions on lessons about race and racism. Oklahoma鈥檚 law does not explicitly ban discussions on historical events such as slavery, but some teachers across the country have told Education Week that they are trying to avoid conversations about anything related to race to avoid getting in trouble.
Oklahoma鈥檚 law relies on parents, school employees, and community members to complain about a school district for teaching banned concepts as a method of enforcement.
But discussions on race and racism are everywhere in Millwood. To Rh茅ma and her fellow seniors, the ability to have these conversations is what makes them feel at home at Millwood High.
District leaders support teaching about race despite restrictions
Millwood High鈥檚 administrators, teachers, and students have been vocal opponents of Oklahoma鈥檚 law ever since the bill was being debated in the statehouse a year ago. Millwood Public 69传媒 Superintendent Cecilia Robinson-Woods went to the statehouse to speak out against the bill while it was under consideration and has told Education Week repeatedly that she will not censor conversations about race and racism at the cost of student learning.
One reason is the school鈥檚 demographics. Millwood High School is 98 percent Black, and 80 percent of the teachers in the district are also Black. Every student in Crawford鈥檚 English class is Black, which makes students feel comfortable to talk openly about their families, communities, and Black culture at school without fearing that their discussions are going to make white students feel 鈥渁nguished.鈥�
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 classify it as talking about race,鈥� Rh茅ma said, 鈥渂ut as talking about who we are as people in our tendencies and what we notice that our family members do, what we do.鈥�
But when Crawford first started teaching at Millwood, he realized his students didn鈥檛 know much about their history or culture.
鈥淢ost of these kids don鈥檛 know anything about who they are, where they come from, their family history, and how their culture got into this position in society,鈥� Crawford said. 鈥淪o when I got here, it was just a must to surround them with these truths, this knowledge so they understand what they鈥檙e getting themselves into when they leave.鈥�
Crawford is part of a lawsuit challenging OKlahoma鈥檚 anti-CRT law for being vague, overbroad, and creating a chilling effect. Although he has not changed his teaching in response to the law, he said he wants to ensure that teachers across the state can have the same instructional freedoms.
His classroom walls are covered with student-led projects on civil rights, the Tulsa Race Massacre, and segregation. A Black History Month poster covering much of the wall directly in front of the classroom has the word 鈥渕onth鈥� crossed and replaced with 鈥測ear.鈥�
鈥楾eaching the truth鈥� in history class
Crawford鈥檚 class isn鈥檛 the only place in the school to showcase Black history and culture. Millwood鈥檚 hallways are lined with tributes to Black historical figures and artwork by the students.
The high school also offers a Black American history class, taught by Kala Hester. During a recent lesson, Hester taught about the start of the civil rights movement.
She started by showing the seniors a presentation about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was tortured, shot in the face, and then drowned by two white men in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of flirting with a white woman.
She told her class to Google Till鈥檚 funeral photos, to see that his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, decided to have an open casket to expose the world to her son鈥檚 mutilated body and face. Once students got on their phones, there were gasps across the classroom as they found the photo.
鈥淪he had an open casket for a reason. Why?鈥� Hester asked.
鈥淸Till Bradley] wanted people to see the truth,鈥� one of her students said. Hester nodded. 鈥淪he wanted people to see what they did to her little boy,鈥� she said.
There was a brief silence in the room for Hester鈥檚 students to digest the photos and her words, before she moved on to Rosa Parks and the early years of the civil rights movement.
When the anti-CRT law was first passed, Hester was concerned about what she could and couldn鈥檛 say. But she decided it was important to keep teaching the way she did, which meant continuing to rely on teaching historical facts.
When the law first passed in Oklahoma, Millwood Superintendent Robinson-Woods invited an expert to break down the language in the law and offer training to teachers on how teaching facts would not violate it, Crawford said, which helped teachers feel safe when they talked or taught about and racism.
鈥淏lack history is American history. So we鈥檙e just teaching the truth,鈥� Hester said about her class. 鈥淚 think it impacts the students in a positive way because they get to know their own history.鈥�
Like Crawford鈥檚 class, the seniors in Hester鈥檚 class also would start impromptu discussions about race and their communities, which she allowed and occasionally participated in during a recent visit.
鈥淓ven though they鈥檙e young, there鈥檚 a lot of stuff going on that affects them, like the injustice in the criminal justice system,鈥� she said.
鈥淪o I feel like the more we talk about it, they can protect themselves in a way with their knowledge.鈥�
Before coming to Millwood, both Hester and Crawford felt they had few opportunities to teach about Black history but for different reasons. In Hester鈥檚 case, she was often the only Black teacher in her school building, which made her feel isolated and censored when she wanted to fill in pieces of Black history that were missing in the curriculum.
Crawford said administrators at the private school where he had taught for five years let him go because he taught about race and racism and encouraged student discussions on those topics.
鈥淚 was just trying to build a community in which everybody is involved in making changes in providing information to help build our youth,鈥� Crawford said. 鈥淎nd I got a lot of backlash, which was hurtful, from my own people.鈥�
But at Millwood, students love Crawford鈥檚 class.
鈥淐rawford was pretty much the only teacher I鈥檝e had that was just like, you can speak what you want and how you want,鈥� Donovan Chaney, one of the students in the class, said.
鈥淪o that law is never going to affect us. We鈥檝e been taught, we鈥檝e been motivated, we鈥檝e been inspired, we鈥檝e been pushed to have an opinion and talk about it, regardless of what the law says.鈥�
Donovan鈥檚 classmates, Rh茅ma and Evan, both transferred to Millwood High from other schools in Oklahoma, and found a community where they could talk openly about the issues on their minds. Because of the environment their teachers and administrators have fostered, they can鈥檛 imagine Oklahoma鈥檚 law actually restricting any conversations on race in their school.
Said Evan: 鈥淚 think Millwood wouldn鈥檛 be what it is if that law really affected us.鈥�
This story is part of an occasional series, Teaching About Race, that examines how some public educators teach about the concepts of race and racism, topics that have been effectively banned from classroom lessons and discussions in some states.
