Motherjones.com/SPLC: What most Americans know about slavery is fake history

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SPLC
FIGHTING HATE // TEACHING TOLERANCE // SEEKING JUSTICE
FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Dear MoJo Reader,

So much of our nation's history – and our present – is rooted in the institution of slavery.

Yet, America's schools are woefully unprepared to teach children about American slavery and all of the history related to it. That's what the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project discovered after a yearlong investigation that included surveys of more than 1,000 high school seniors, an examination of state standards and textbooks, and questionnaires to more than 1,700 social studies teachers.

Shockingly, just 8 percent of high school seniors could identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War. Most didn't know that the 13th Amendment formally ended slavery.

And that's just the beginning. Our investigation identified troubling deficiencies across the board.

Here's what Smithsonian.com wrote about our report:

Instead of learning about the horrors of slavery and the impact of slave labor on this country, [the SPLC report] argues that textbooks and teachers have contributed to a sanitized understanding of history by focusing on 'positive' stories about black leaders like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist movement, and emphasizing the experiences of white people before and during the Civil War.

What's often missing are lessons that connect slavery to a larger narrative that includes the ideology of white supremacy and the eras of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement.

As a result, many students lack a basic knowledge of the important role that slavery played in shaping the United States and the impact it continues to have on race relations.

How much do you know about American slavery? Take the quiz.

To help educators close the gap, we've created a framework – "Teaching Hard History" – that includes free tools for educators, an online archive featuring more than 100 primary source documents, a podcast series, and a webinar.

We hope you can take a few minutes to read the full report and share it with your network on Facebook and Twitter. And please encourage educators and schools in your community to read it and use the free resources.

Sincerely,

Your friends at the SPLC

P.S. Here are links to some of the "Teaching Hard History" resources as well as media coverage of our report.

The Courage to Teach Hard History (Teaching Tolerance)

Teaching Hard History: American Slavery (A podcast by Teaching Tolerance)

Study Reveals Deep Shortcomings with How Schools Teach America's History of Slavery (Smithsonian Magazine)

Why Schools Fail To Teach Slavery's 'Hard History' (NPR)

Don't Know Much About History: A Disturbing New Report on How Poorly Schools Teach American Slavery (The Washington Post)

Can We Teach Acceptance and Compassion or Only Mandate It? (Education Week)

What Kids Are Really Learning About Slavery (The Atlantic)

Black History is U.S. History — But Some of My Students Don't Want to Hear It (The Washington Post)
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