[The goal of the event is to confront the political assault on
Florida’s educational system by teaching truthful history and
providing education on voter suppression and voter empowerment.]
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THIS TEACH-IN IS TAKING THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY TO DESANTIS  
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Kellie Carter Jackson
May 15, 2023
CNN
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_ The goal of the event is to confront the political assault on
Florida’s educational system by teaching truthful history and
providing education on voter suppression and voter empowerment. _

Ron Desantis - Caricature (49815078892), by DonkeyHotey (CC BY 2.0)

 

This week I’m traveling to St. Petersburg, Florida, to participate
in a 24-hour teach-in for American democracy created by Common Power
[[link removed]], an institute committed to fostering,
sustaining and expanding voting and education.

The goal of the event is to confront the political assault on
Florida’s educational system by teaching truthful history and
providing education on voter suppression and voter empowerment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken the lead
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he deems as “woke” culture propaganda. He and Florida lawmakers
are threatening tenure
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higher education, seeking to ban women and gender studies
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other LGBTQ programs.

Scholars and educators are terrified that the GOP will severely
undermine the academic freedom to write, speak and research without
the risk of losing one’s livelihood. Other states
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following Florida in a terrifying game
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“Simon Says” that reflects a desire to roll back or restrict civil
liberties.

For 24 hours [[link removed]] scholars,
educators, activists and community leaders will teach on the
importance of education that refuses to marginalize and erase the
triumphs and challenges of African Americans, women and LGBTQ
communities who have been vital in the struggle for civil rights and
voting rights. The teach-in is intentionally set for May 17, the 69th
anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s 1954 decision
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Brown v. Board of Education.

Often such milestones remind me how far Americans have yet to go in
combating White supremacy. As a history professor, I am constantly
reminded that the public cannot depend upon Black History Month,
Juneteenth, T-shirts, tweets and a few key speeches to do the arduous
work of teaching US history.

Opinion: How to fight back against the ‘anti-woke’ movement
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In my own classroom, I am perpetually battling gaps in my students’
education or misinformation. I often a recall a student who asked me,
“Who is Harriet Tubman again?” He then answered his own question
with his own aha! moment by saying, “Oh I remember, she is the woman
who wouldn’t get off the bus!”

Knowing the difference between Harriet Tubman or Rosa Parks is not
just about being able to spout off trivia, but about understanding
that the progress Americans live in was created by those who
struggled, sacrificed and in many cases risked their lives to make
America a free and equitable society.

Such progress is not judged by the passing of time. Among the newest
of the many crises that America’s educational system faces is a
struggle over the control of the history, curriculum, textbooks and
college majors that define the learning goals of our education system.

Recently, Slate’s popular podcast, “What Next,” interviewed a
teacher
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Iowa who said he quit his job
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a middle school social studies teacher after the school
superintendent pushed back on him
[[link removed]] teaching
the idea that slavery was wrong. According to The Washington Post,
when contacted for further comment, the superintendent wrote in a
statement that “the district provided support” to the teacher
“with content through a neighboring school district social studies
department head,” but did not answer the question whether she thinks
teachers should be able to teach children that slavery was wrong.

I was incredulous, mainly because I write about the abolitionist
movement and Black abolitionists in particular. One of the major
hurdles abolitionists faced was educating the public on the wrongness
of slavery.

In 1834, the American Anti-Slavery Society believed its most powerful
weapon was not the sword, but the pen. Abolitionists began a petition
drive
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condemned slavery wholesale. A number of petitions were sent to
Congress.

Opinion: Uncovering the forgotten history of slavery in the North
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At first, antislavery petitions trickled in to gain political and
public attention. By 1838, abolitionists sent more than 130,000
petitions to Congress demanding the end of slavery in the US capital
and essentially in the nation. To combat antislavery tactics,
Southern members of Congress worked to silence any debate.

The retrenchment that teachers are facing over the teaching of our
shared history is nearly identical to a proslavery rationale in that
both stymie open discussion of slavery and its impact on society. It
is galling that, according to a video of the meeting obtained by the
Post, the superintendent in Iowa said to the teacher, “We’re not
supposed to say to (students), ‘How does that make you feel?’ We
can’t — or, ‘Does that make you feel bad?’ We’re not to do
that part of it.”

If that sounds absurd and even harmful, it’s because it is. Not
being able to discuss topics fully and accurately such as slavery,
segregation, genocide or the Holocaust in the classroom is not only
wrong, it’s dangerous. Such a stance promotes an erasure of the most
grievous moments in history, moments that hold painful and invaluable
lessons. Lessons no one should want to repeat.

The evolution from slavery to abolition, to equality in the United
States is a story replete with these same setbacks. In the sweltering
summer of 1835, 3,000 people gathered in Post Office Square in
Charleston, South Carolina, to destroy any antislavery literature
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During the bonfire, they also burned three abolitionists in effigy.

In 1836, the House of Representatives passed a resolution known as the
“Gag Rule
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preventing any action or petition related to slavery or abolitionism.
Abolitionists might have had the pen, but slaveholders had
policy. Safely sitting under seniority rules, they wielded White
supremacist policy for the next 100 years — despite the fact that
the Constitution guarantees citizens the right “to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.”

During the antebellum period, it was not long before words and
rhetoric escalated to violence. Many might be familiar with the death
of abolitionist, printer and minister Elijah Lovejoy of Alton,
Illinois. In 1837, after his printing press had been destroyed three
times before by anti-abolitionist mobs, Lovejoy decided to arm himself
for protection. Once again, a mob attacked Lovejoy’s fourth printing
press, which was hidden in a warehouse. As bullets were fired into the
building, Lovejoy was hit and killed
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Opinion: DeSantis’ comments about Jordan Neely’s death are part of
a dangerous pattern
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Just days before he had declared
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“As long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood
runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to
write, and to publish whatever I please, being amenable to the laws of
my country for the same.” But even in death, Lovejoy was vulnerable
to violence. His grave in Alton was intentionally left unmarked to
prevent vandalism.

I am not sure what is more disturbing, the fact that Lovejoy was
willing to face a mob to protect his ability to print and publish
abolitionist material or the fact that pro-slavery vigilantes were
willing to use violence and commit murder to maintain their power in a
non-slaveholding state. And just like Lovejoy, the memory and legacy
of people of color, women and LGBTQ are subject to the same vandalism
and erasure. Educators cannot teach history like it is an unmarked
grave.

As someone dedicated to engaging our history to help create a better
future, I share a pointed concern that we are entering a new era
attempting to accomplish the same ends. The political and social
stakes are high. Book banning and censorship in educating our students
in history is no trivial matter.

DeSantis and other governors in Texas
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a more politically palatable history for their own political gain is a
dangerous game. All Americans ought to be unnerved by anything that
tries to stop the flow of learning, knowledge and truth. African
American history is not propaganda. The study of women and gender is
not superfluous. And love toward any person is not dangerous.

In December 1847, former slave, abolitionist and prolific orator
Frederick Douglass created his own newspaper
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Star. Its motto was “Right is of no sex — truth is of no color —
God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”

Douglass explained that such a publication was necessary to demand the
country address the grievances caused by slavery. He argued
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the man who has suffered the wrong is the man to demand redress, —
that the man STRUCK is the man to CRY OUT — and that he who has
endured the cruel pangs of Slavery is the man to advocate Liberty.”

The disciplines of African American studies, women and gender studies
and ethnic studies are about giving voice, volume and value to the
countless ways marginalized people have contributed to American
success, identity and culture. Accordingly, it is only fitting that
scholars, educators, teachers and those in solidarity use their voices
to speak out to keep these histories alive and present in Americans
minds. Anything short is dishonest at best and deadly at the extreme.

There is never a need to fear the truth. I am excited to lend my voice
to this teach-in and so many other efforts that are doing the hard and
precarious work of preserving American history. For 24 continuous
hours, scholars and educators will remind the public of the relentless
work and contributions of American patriots, people who called on
America to be its best self.

_ Kellie Carter Jackson [[link removed]] is the
Michael and Denise Kellen 68’ associate professor in the Department
of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is the author of
“Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
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co-host of the podcasts “This Day in Esoteric Political History”
and “You Get a Podcast!” The views expressed here are hers.
Read more opinion [[link removed]] on CNN._

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* teaching
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