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Nearly a century ago, the historian Carter G. Woodson started a movement
to teach Black history in America’s schools. First called Negro History
Week and now Black History Month, it has been an oasis amid curricula
that have too often and for too long either completely ignored Black
people or treated them as subordinates. Even though Black History Month
can sometimes be commemorated in ways that have turned rote and bland,
many enterprising educators, librarians, and parents have used the
occasion to bring stories, new interpretations of the past, and intellectual
challenges to students of all ages who wouldn’t encounter them otherwise.
And books have always been at the heart of their efforts.
Today, however, the books that have been deployed by adults to help in
this passing on of history and sensibility are disappearing from school
libraries. Led by mostly conservative lawmakers across the country, at
least 12 state legislatures or school boards have formally restricted
discussions and books that point to the existence of racism in America,
under “critical race theory” bans; and in many districts, parents and
activists have organized mass cullings of books. According to the
American Library Association, 2023 appears to have been a record year
for book bans and challenges, most of which targeted “books written by or
about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Every Black History Month is a fine time for book recommendations, and
there are plenty of new arrivals and classics to call out this year, but in the
current environment of censoriousness, I decided to ask teachers about
their favorite books, and about what teaching Black history feels like in a
time of book bans. Some of these teachers have already been involved in
disputes involving bans. Some have not, but are still concerned. Their
responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What book are you most excited about teaching for Black History
Month?
In my AP language class, I began teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between
the World and Me at the end of January, but the study will continue into
February; and I love to offer James Baldwin’s “A Letter to My Nephew,”
found in The Fire Next Time, and it pairs well with Coates’s narrative. In
recent years, I have found some amazing current Black British writers,
including Caleb Femi and Irenosen Okojie, and I love reading Okojie’s
short stories with my English IV students. They are brilliant and complex
displays of magical realism, which really encourage student
engagement. — Mary Wood, 11th- and 12th-grade English; Chapin,
South Carolina
Black History Month is such a proud time for my people, and I would be
remiss not to appreciate and celebrate our culture, our lives, our history.
Being Black is the greatest gift ever, and I acknowledge the ability that I
have to even celebrate it. But at the same time, it saddens me to see what
this month has become. A special time for my people to be loved out loud
has turned into a month in which my people are exploited, mocked, and
placated by hollow celebrations. Black History Month should be the one
time a year we are able to just be ourselves, but unfortunately, it has
become a farce. I love being Black. This month means something to me. I
just struggle with what it was intended to be and what it has become. —
Markus T. Howell, high-school English and African American
literature; Upper Marlboro, Maryland
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Vann R. Newkirk II is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the host of the
podcasts Floodlines and Holy Week.
SOURCE:
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/02/book-bans-black-history-month/677578/