When I tell the high school students in the classes I visit that I’m glad I learned about slavery as a child growing up in the Caribbean, they often look confused.
They ask why I would have liked to learn about slavery, given how horrific and cruel it was, and whether I could see any value in being taught about something that caused so much pain and harm.
So I tell you that my teachers at St. Thomas and the history books I read in the fourth grade didn’t focus solely on the harsh conditions of slavery. Rather, they focused on black freedom fighters like Moses Gottlieb (perhaps better known as General Budhoe), who is credited with leading a nonviolent rebellion that led to the abolition of slavery in the Danish West Indies on July 3, 1848. This historic date is now celebrated as Emancipation Day in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This holiday and the lessons I have learned from it have instilled in me a sense of cultural pride, a greater appreciation for the sacrifices black people made for our freedom, and given me the courage to always forge ahead in the face of adversity.
I bring this up because I believe Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops delivered emancipation to the last remaining slaves in Texas, inspires similar hope for black students across the United States.
Students often tell me that they don’t learn much about slavery other than the suffering and harsh conditions of those who were slaves. As a historian who specializes in how slavery is taught in K-12 classrooms, I believe there are several ways educators can incorporate Juneteenth into their lessons to help students gain a broader understanding of how Black people resisted slavery and persevered despite it. Here are a few examples:
Start early, but be proactive
As early childhood education experts assembled by the National Museum of African American History point out in a guide they created to help students create lessons about Juneteenth, American children will likely be hearing about slavery by age 5. But lessons about slavery at that age should avoid the pain and trauma of slavery. Instead, lessons should celebrate and teach stories of black culture, leadership, invention, beauty, and achievement. This, the guide’s authors say, will better prepare children to hear, understand, and emotionally engage with the horrific truths about slavery later in life.
“Juneteenth events can be a wonderful opportunity to introduce the concept of slavery with a focus on resilience in an environment of love, trust and joy,” the guide says.
Focus on Black Resistance
Many Juneteenth celebrations not only commemorate the end of slavery, but also honor the generations of Black men and women who fought to end slavery and for racial justice. As Black history education professor LaGarrette King says, Black people have always “taken action, self-determined their own interests, and fought back against oppressive structures.” Highlighting this can help students understand that while Black people were victims of slavery, they were not simply powerless victims.
Juneteenth provides an opportunity to recognize and validate the achievements of Black freedom fighters during slavery, including, but not necessarily limited to, Frederick Douglass, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and Sojourner Truth.
Connecting Juneteenth to current events
Juneteenth can also be a way for educators to better educate students about contemporary demands for racial justice, as former Brooklyn middle school principal George Patterson did a few years ago, when protests reached a fever pitch under the slogan Black Lives Matter.
Patterson said he believes that by learning about Juneteenth, students will “better understand the historical background of what’s happening on the streets and be able to put the demands into context.”
Teachers don’t have to wait for Juneteenth to appear in textbooks to learn lessons from the holiday.
“If it’s not in the textbooks, it needs to be introduced and it needs to be taught,” Odessa Pickett, a teacher at the Barack Obama Learning Academy in Markham, Ill., said in an interview about teachers incorporating Juneteenth into their classes. “We need to bring it to the forefront.”
Educators can make Juneteenth mean more than the end of slavery. Lessons about the holiday provide ample opportunities to learn about what it means to fight for freedom and maintain a sense of self-determination in the face of oppression.
Raphael E. Rogers, Professor of Educational Practice, Clark University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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