African American History

Part 1

Please provide an original response!!!!

A new movement has started since the early 2000s, where some political groupsare trying to remove American history from our children’s school curriculum and textbooks, specifically slave history. However, these groups also do not want to cover segregation or civil rights.  By removing the history that we have just covered in these last eight weeks, the  African American communities would be denied their connections to American History.  Recently, African Americans have created movements such as “Black Lives Matter”  to counteract these other groups.  Many tie slave history to the development of segregation and racism that has spread throughout our country.  A Historical Trauma has affected generations of African Americans because of what their ancestors had to endure just to survive in this country. This distrust has developed towards different groups, agencies and organizations. For those who are not affected, trying to understand what it means to be an African American in the United States showcases the need for this history to be taught in all schools and to every American.
 

Your assignemt  is to prepare a letter to the editor of your local newspaper that would explain to all of America why African American History  should be taught in American schools.  Explain why every American should known this history and propose how knowing specific parts of this history could help mend race relations in the United States.  You will be expected to use specific facts, events and people to show how knowing this history can explain the trauma that has affected so many Americans.  These facts, events, and people must come from your required work this term and from research in the library or from the course bibliography.  In your letter, demonstrate the breadth of knowledge you have gained from this work. Do not forget to use in text citations because you will be using multiple sources.

This post must be at least 500 words.  If you wish, you can add to the letter some ways to heal our nation.  What steps can we use to end racism and division among communities and cultures. 

Part 2

RespoNd to both students separately !!!!!!

Original Post is part 1

Pamela

Dear Sun Herald,

My name is Pamela Hill and I am here to render your writers and editors some inspiration and encouragement on learning African American History and the importance of this topic being taught in our children’s school curriculum.  African American History plays a very large role in the production of America as well as the energy that guides this country’s moves towards a better future. In this letter, I will highlight some events that have contributed to the state in which America is in today and reveal things that can be done to move towards a better, brighter American Future. I ask that your paper put this in an article in next week’s paper. 

African American History begins at the time in this world when the Atlantic Slave Trade started. Once that ended in 1808, salves then had to undergo the Domestic Slave Trade within America. This is the foundation of how things began on this continent.  This is the story that is mentioned in the textbooks however the effects are the areas that are not spoken on and these stories are the ones that will help a lot of Americans population co-exist today. The story tells how Africans were brought from Africa to America to be laborers.  Once Africans arrived in America, African families were torn apart, sold and physically separated from one another. Many were killed and mistreated. Many violated sexually and used for that purpose. “The most well-known master-slave relationship was between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, who was also half-sister to Jefferson’s deceased wife Martha. Together over the course of at least 25 years, it is assumed they had four children together.” (Lesson 4).      

Over time there eventually came to the point where slavery was coming to an end. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which granted freedom to slaves in rebellious states. This prompted the debate for the decision to grant slaves either immediate or gradual emancipation. This also showed that there was a resistance in the south for this act. This prompted Anti-Slavery Activism throughout the country which quickly put light on groups of whites that were in the fight with African people to help bring their freedom. “The first group to actively oppose slavery in the Colonies was the Quakers, a religious group that began in England in the seventeenth century. By 1774, the Quakers required their leaders who were slave owners to free their slaves or to face expulsion from the faith.”  (Lesson 5).  These are stories that need to be shared and taught to the younger generations to show that not all whites were enemies. 

Overall, slavery has a bad reputation and rightfully so however, the stories about all whites and blacks eventually coming together to fight for freedom needs to be told more offer to show that we can make major moves if we come together. The fact that America went to war within itself shows that not all had that slave mentality. I think this is important because America needs to heal from this and the only way to do it is through acknowledgment and acceptance. The past is the past, it’s important to know where we came from to understand where we are going and how we not to make the same mistakes that held up back in the past.

Thank you for your time,

Pamela M. Hill

Condae

Sender: Condae Greene

Topic: Why African American History Should be Taught in School

Atlanta-Journal Constitution Editor, 

African American history is American history. It is important that it be taught in schools for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is for transparency. Many students these days are being taught inaccurate African American history such as the case in the McGraw-Hill geography textbook in Texas where slaves were referred to as “workers brought from Africa to work on agricultural plantations” (Dart, 2015). This type of false information not only misinforms students of the truths of American history but also gives them pretenses that African slaves were not forced to come to the United States. Students should be encouraged to discuss the lives of slaves and how they were treated by their owners. This could also be compared to modern day slavery that happens in other countries such as Kuwait and it would allow students to understand these atrocities. 

 In addition, America is prosperous because it was built on the backs of free slave labor. There are some historians who disagree at that statement but without the commodities coming from the South and being pushed to the factories in the North for processing, there would not have been an economic boom that occurred in the Americas and Europe. Breaking down the entire economic benefits of slavery and why it was continued for so long will give students a better understanding as to why the Civil War occurred and why Southerners were so keen to continuing slavery. 

Also, the achievements and contributions of African Americans are often shadowed by the negative stereotypes that have been ingrained into the psyche of many Americans. Students need to be taught the about the achievements, culture and contributions of African Americans not just what they see on television. Often what is shown on television only portrays the typical stereotypes of uneducated African Americans and if this is all that students of other races as well as other fellow African Americans see and absorb, that is what they will only think. Preventing the further spread of these stereotypes and then allowing students to share their similarities will help encourage the building of friendships and prevent racism. 

Lastly, teaching African American history will give African American students the knowledge of self. Most other cultures have deep histories that were passed down from generation to generation. African Americans were not afforded that opportunity. Most do not know which country or tribe that their ancestors came from. That sense of pride that they could have had from their mother country had been taken from them. Teaching the histories of pre-slavery African countries will give the students’ knowledge of what their ancestors accomplished, as well as how they attributed to the slave trade. Currently, students are only taught very broad stroke African American history which is typically only taught during the month of February. That is not enough time to cover the vast amount of contributions to economics, science, innovation, civil rights as well as the forces that tried to prevent such progress. 

All in all, in order for the racism and xenophobia to be lessened, African American history must be taught in school. It is owed to the welfare of all students, black, white, yellow, or brown, to be taught about this history so that everyone can live in harmony.

V/r,