Florida has launched an effort in his state to have any books or material on African American history deleted from the curriculum of all public schools.
This racial and exclusionary policy and practice of censoring and removing certain books from the curriculum because they may offend or have an adverse effect on white children and students is absolutely absurd.
I would wholeheartedly agree if the material or information contained in a book promoted immoral, ungodly, and foul language, lifestyles, and ideas. However, when the contents of a book are primarily historical and seeks to address a segment of American history that has been excluded, distorted, and denied its place in the history and textbooks of academia and our public-school systems, it creates a problem that will have an adverse effect on every student.
To dare to believe and promote a practice and policy that teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, and other negative and ugly aspects of American history will have a detrimental effect on the attitudes and lives of white children and students are purely political air that stinks to high heaven. What about the detrimental and disastrous effect that the failure to be inclusive about American history has had on minority students? This is especially the case when it comes to African American students and children.
The greatest writer of history of all time is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. It is absolutely amazing and thought provoking that God, who is all powerful, all wise, all knowing, and sovereign, did not delete, exclude, or gloss over the failures, mistakes, and ugly deeds of some of his most prominent servants.
The Bible, in both narratives of the Old and New Testaments, contain not only the amazing things that men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Peter, Paul, and all the others achieved through the grace of God, but also records many of their major mistakes and sins that were ugly, defiant, and consequently wreaked divine judgment on both them and others.
Perhaps the most noteworthy example of a beloved servant of God whose defiance produced great pain and suffering in his family, as well as the nation he had been anointed king over, was King David. One clear example of David’s mistakes and sins were his sin of adultery, lying, and murder involving one of his most faithful warriors, Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba. This cruel act of David, that started with adultery, cascaded into lying, a cover up, and an untimely murder (2 Samuel 11:1-27).
In my honest estimation, if God did not exclude some of the misdeeds and atrocious acts of his chosen servants but included them in the Biblical narratives of both the Old and New Testaments, everyone else who involves themselves in the writing and teaching of history would do well to follow His perfect example.
Imagine the outcry that would come forth from around the globe if the nation of Germany would make it illegal for any of its public or private schools to mention or teach that the Jewish Holocaust actually happened for fear of offending or mentally hurting their young students and children. Recording and teaching history should not be selective or bias. Renowned historians, like Jerome, Josephus, and many others, have been acclaimed as the best of the best because they recorded history without favor or fear.
True historians must record as well as teach the good, the bad, and the ugly. Each of us would do well to remember that history is about the facts without any attempt to distort, delete, or deny the truth. Slavery, Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears (ascribed to President Andrew Jackson), the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II, and quite a few other awful and atrocious acts that were committed against minorities and people of color, were bad and ugly. They are, nevertheless, a part of American history and as such must be included in the teaching and curriculum of our schools.
During this month of Black History observance, we would do well to remember these two things: First, Black History is American History.
Also, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana).