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“The simple truth is that most Americans know little about the three-hundred-year history of slavery in mainland North America with respect to peoples of African descent and almost nothing of its effect on the majority of white Americans.”
two-thirds of Americans believe that the legacy of slavery still affects our society today. They can see and feel the truth of this fact—they just haven’t learned a history that helps them understand how and why.
Those outside the academy tend to think of history as settled, as a simple recounting of what events happened on what date and who was involved in those incidents. But while history is what happened, it is also, just as important, how we think about what happened and what we unearth and choose to remember about what happened.
‘nations need to control national memory, because nations keep their shape by shaping their citizens’ understanding of the past.’ ”26
public history is molded by the perspectives of the most powerful members of society.
white Americans desire to be free of a past they do not want to remember, while Black Americans remain bound to a past they can never forget.
Dad hoped that if he served his country, his country might finally treat him as an American.
Like all the Black men and women in my family, he believed in hard work, but like all the Black men and women in my family, no matter how hard he worked, he never got ahead.
Black rights struggles paved the way for every other rights struggle, including women’s and gay rights, immigrant and disability rights.
In every war this nation has waged since that first one, Black Americans have fought—today we are the most likely of all racial groups to serve in the United States military.
one of the primary reasons some of the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.
