North Carolina Students Advocate for Better Black History Education

The North Carolina State Board of Education, pictured here, is under pressure to change their history and social studies curricula standards to reflect the history of race and racism in the state. Source.

North Carolina has a long history of racial injustice and inequality. However, this history is often narrowed down and taught in only a few classes during Black History Month. This February, the Wake County Black Student Coalition joined the many other activists advocating to broaden and deepen this education. 

The Coalition levied a number of requests to state boards of education. They are advocating for trained counselors to take the place of “Student Resource Officers” (police officers stationed in schools), for each school to have organized and efficient platforms to report sexual assault and homophobic, misogynistic, or racist incidents, for each school to create platform for minority students to speak out on issues that affect them, and for a change in the curriculum that reflects a more honest history of Black people in North Carolina. Some have proposed a mandatory class for all students that focuses on this history, and the incorporation of it into subjects outside of Social Studies.

These students are not the first to notice a discrepancy between the history students learn and the events that actually occurred in the state. Many students recall the sugar coated version of the history of slavery which they learned in North Carolina high schools that made sure to mention the ‘good slave owners.’ Very few were taught about the Wilmington Massacre of 1898, a deadly insurrection led by white supremacists to overthrow Wilmington’s multiracial government. This problem is not just in North Carolina. A 2018 survey showed that only 8% of students could identify slavery as a main cause in the Civil War despite ample evidence. Many other things are left out or glossed over in the current curriculum. Advocacy around this issue motivated state officials to create a new standard for teaching social studies. These standards were adopted in early February and serve as an attempt to increase discussion and knowledge around issues like oppression on the basis of race and gender identity. 

The new standards were not approved without vehement debate. Proponents say the standards will provide some balance to the soft and overly positive depiction of events that the current standards encourage. However, those in opposition, led by Lieutenant Governor Mark Robertson, expressed concerns that the standards would impose an unpatriotic outlook on America. Those in opposition to the law were successful in excluding the word “systemic” in regards to racism and oppression for fear that it would plant seeds of hopelessness in children if they learned America was systemically racist. They also removed the term “gender identity” from the standards.

Any standard the North Carolina Board of Education passes is merely a guideline and is not meant to mandate what schools teach. Under the last standard, local officials and even individual teachers had a lot of autonomy in what they choose to focus on. This will likely occur under this standard as well. The only way to ensure every social studies classroom has these discussions and focuses more heavily on oppression is if it is incorporated into the actual curriculum or, as the Wake County Black Student Coalition proposed, a required history class centered around these issues is added to high school graduation requirements. 

It is incredibly important that students learn and discuss Black history in full because the practices that were common in the past have not entirely disappeared. The effects of oppression still affect communities today. Schools and neighborhoods are still segregated despite segregation being outlawed decades ago, there is also still large disparities in economic mobility due to past discriminatory housing practices and generation wealth differences. Not to mention, the outward White supremacy that can also still be seen today. If students are not taught about the problems and the true roots of them, it will be that much harder for them to fix these problems. One form of patriotism is learning from our country’s past mistakes and creating better practices as Civil Rights leaders and others have done. Any roadblocks to this only serve to hinder the continuation of the societal advancements students are taught to honor every February.