When I speak with elementary educators at conferences or professional learning sessions, I often encounter a Black history that begins and ends with Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and mentions of the enslavement of Black folks. Many educators, concerned about the possibility of pushback from families and administrators, are comfortable teaching the same narratives about Black historical figures. They worry that the Black history picture books I suggest are 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� for their young students.
As a Black woman educator who has taught Black history in elementary classrooms for years, I do not share that assessment.
I have always sought to claim space for and protect Black history in elementary classrooms and I am not alone in this endeavor. In her recent book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance, historian Kellie Carter Jackson writes that 鈥渕ore often than not, instead of seeking protection, Black women positioned themselves as protectors.鈥� When I think about the Black women educators of the past who influence my Black history instruction and guide my research, I have always recognized them as protectors.
When educators and activists Madeline Morgan and Bessie S. King developed a supplementary unit to mandate Black history instruction in the Chicago public schools in the 1940s, they were protecting Black history.
When educator Jane Dabney Shackelford wrote and published The Child鈥檚 Story of the Negro and Helen Adele Whiting wrote Negro Folk Tales for Pupils in the Primary Grades and Negro Art, Music and Rhyme for Young Folks so that their students could see themselves in the children鈥檚 books they read, they were protecting Black history.
When school leader Lucy Craft Laney had her students participate in Emancipation Day celebrations, when philanthropist Mary McLeod Bethune hosted visiting Black artists and guest speakers at the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, when Charlotte Hawkins Brown required Black history education in the prep school she founded, when activist Nannie Helen Burroughs encouraged people to access Black literature鈥攖hey were all building protection plans for Black history.
These women were focused on supporting their students鈥� racial-identity development, honoring the histories and cultures of Black communities, and teaching truth. When we allow them, Black women educators usher us through the practices and give us the tools to use their protection strategies for ensuring that Black history is taught in elementary classrooms.
Inspired by the lives and pedagogies of Black women educators, I offer three ways we can collectively safeguard the teaching and learning of Black history in elementary classrooms.
Add Black history picture books to your library.
When elementary educators ask me where they should start when it comes to bringing Black histories into their classrooms, I always tell them to read a book. There is a vast collection of picture books that center Black histories.
You could introduce students to the 鈥渇irst lady of the Black press鈥� through by Lesa Cline-Ransome or teach about once-thriving historic Black communities, like Greenwood in Oklahoma, by reading by Carole Boston Weatherford.
Authors and illustrators like , , , , and help us to remember Black history through picture books that honor the lived experiences of Black people.
Know the curricula you teach.
Because the Black histories in elementary learning standards are often limited to a few Black historical people and events in social studies, it鈥檚 crucial that we know our curricula well enough to notice the spaces where Black history can be incorporated. If we know that our science curriculum includes a unit on plants and animals, we can highlight scientists like zoologist and entomologist Charles Henry Turner, biologist and educator Ernest Everett Just, or herpetologist and science communicator Earyn McGee to teach students about how bees navigate the world, explore microorganisms under microscopes, or learn how climate change affects lizards.
Educate yourself.
It can be difficult to teach about a history, culture, and people we don鈥檛 know. If we are to protect Black history, we must know Black history. Accessing resources like documentaries, podcasts, books, webinars, songs, archives, and interviews can provide information about Black histories that we as educators can learn from and help our students learn through.
The houses museum artifacts and learning activities for educators to use with early-childhood to high school students to facilitate discussion and historical thinking with primary sources.
Finding local Black histories through your city or state鈥檚 historical society, museums, and libraries can give students insight into the Black history that lives around them and their communities.
These three guidelines that I offer to protect Black history are skills that we already possess as educators. We are fluent in research and gaining access to the materials we need to ensure that our students have a wealth of information in our classrooms.
Doing this work puts you in community with other protectors. I want to recognize the work of states with Black history mandates that ensure the integration of Black history in elementary classrooms as acts of protection. School districts seeking out professional development opportunities for their teachers to enhance their Black history instruction is also protection.
I leave you with this statement from Carter Jackson: 鈥淧rotection is powerful, beautiful, and sacrificial because protection is love.鈥� When we truly love something or someone, we protect it despite our fears, worries, and concerns of being harmed and sacrificing ourselves. Let Black women educators of the past, present, and future teach you how.
Read more from educators on advancing Black history education.
