Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism in American History

 As a member or former member of several of these organizations, I am proud to share this document that was recently published by the AHA. I constantly advocate for a more honest teaching of American history. I want to see it reflected in K-12 education, on college campuses, and on national examinations. I want my students who will become future educators to be better prepared than those who taught me. It sickens me that so many students know little more about Native Americans than Thanksgiving or Columbus than a poem, or slavery than the words of Frederick Douglass. Students will not think badly of themselves just for learning that America created a Chinese Exclusion Act or Operation Wetback. However, they will feel differently if they don't learn about it in school and learn about it as an adult. Prejudice and racism can be minimized or even eliminated through quality education. There are several groups who are dedicated to teaching American history in a more enlightened manner. We can use their methodologies in many of our classrooms.

Given that Juneteenth is now a national holiday and most Americans still don't realize that slavery legally continued after June 19, 1865, it proves that we need to do a better job of teaching history and being honest in our conversations about the legacy of race in America.

In conclusion, I think this statement gets to the heart of the matter and I am proud to share it. 

Joint Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism in American History (June 2021)

The American Association of University Professors, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and PEN America have authored a joint statement stating their “firm opposition” to legislation, introduced in at least 20 states, that would restrict the discussion of “divisive concepts” in public education institutions. It is not possible to address divisions that exist, however, without an honest reckoning with their histories. “The clear goal of these efforts is to suppress teaching and learning about the role of racism in the history of the United States,” the letter explains. Education proceeds from exploration, facts, and civil debate. “These legislative efforts,” on the other hand, “seek to substitute political mandates for the considered judgment of professional educators, hindering students’ ability to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements. . . . Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today.”


In total, 112 organizations have signed onto the statement.  It reads:


June 16, 2021


We, the undersigned associations and organizations, state our firm opposition to a spate of legislative proposals being introduced across the country that target academic lessons, presentations, and discussions of racism and related issues in American history in schools, colleges and universities. These efforts have taken varied shape in at least 20 states; but often the legislation aims to prohibit or impede the teaching and education of students concerning what are termed “divisive concepts.” These divisive concepts as defined in numerous bills are a litany of vague and indefinite buzzwords and phrases including, for example, “that any individual should feel or be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological or emotional distress on account of that individual’s race or sex.” These legislative efforts are deeply troubling for numerous reasons.


First, these bills risk infringing on the right of faculty to teach and of students to learn. The clear goal of these efforts is to suppress teaching and learning about the role of racism in the history of the United States. Purportedly, any examination of racism in this country’s classrooms might cause some students “discomfort” because it is an uncomfortable and complicated subject. But the ideal of informed citizenship necessitates an educated public. Educators must provide an accurate view of the past in order to better prepare students for community participation and robust civic engagement. Suppressing or watering down discussion of “divisive concepts” in educational institutions deprives students of opportunities to discuss and foster solutions to social division and injustice. Legislation cannot erase “concepts” or history; it can, however, diminish educators’ ability to help students address facts in an honest and open environment capable of nourishing intellectual exploration. Educators owe students a clear-eyed, nuanced, and frank delivery of history, so that they can learn, grow, and confront the issues of the day, not hew to some state-ordered ideology.  


Second, these legislative efforts seek to substitute political mandates for the considered judgment of professional educators, hindering students’ ability to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements. These regulations constitute an inappropriate attempt to transfer responsibility for the evaluation of a curriculum and subject matter from educators to elected officials. The purpose of education is to serve the common good by promoting open inquiry and advancing human knowledge. Politicians in a democratic society should not manipulate public school curricula to advance partisan or ideological aims. In higher education, under principles of academic freedom that have been widely endorsed, professors are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject. Educators, not politicians, should make decisions about teaching and learning. 


Knowledge of the past exists to serve the needs of the living. In the current context, this includes an honest reckoning with all aspects of that past. Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today, an exchange that should take place inside the classroom as well as in the public realm generally. To ban the tools that enable those discussions is to deprive us all of the tools necessary for citizenship in the twenty-first century. A white-washed view of history cannot change what happened in the past. A free and open society depends on the unrestricted pursuit and dissemination of knowledge.


Signed,


American Association of University Professors

American Historical Association

Association of American Colleges & Universities

PEN America


The following organizations have co-signed this statement:


ACPA-College Student Educators International

African American Intellectual History Society

African Studies Association

Agricultural History Society

Alcohol and Drugs History Society

American Academy of Religion

American Anthropological Association

American Association for State and Local History

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

American Association of Community Colleges

American Association of Geographers

American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education

American Council of Learned Societies

American Counseling Association

American Educational Research Association

American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO

American Folklore Society

American Library Association

American Philosophical Association

American Political Science Association

American Society for Environmental History

American Society for Theatre Research

American Society of Criminology Executive Board 

American Sociological Association

American Studies Association

Anti-Defamation League

Association for Ancient Historians

Association for Asian American Studies

Association for Counselor Education and Supervision

Association for Documentary Editing

Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

Association for the Study of Higher Education

Association for Theatre in Higher Education

Association of African American Museums

Association of College and Research Libraries

Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

Association of Research Libraries

Association of University Presses

Association of Writers & Writing Programs

Berkshire Conference of Women Historians

Business History Conference

Center for Research Libraries

Central European History Society

Chinese Historians in the United States

Coalition of Urban & Metropolitan Universities (CUMU)

College Art Association

Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History

Comparative and International Education Society

Conference on Asian History

Conference on Faith and History

Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes

Council on Social Work Education

Czechoslovak Studies Association

Dance Studies Association

Executive Committee of the American Comparative Literature Association

Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions

Freedom to Read Foundation

French Colonial Historical Society

German Studies Association

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities

Historical Society of Twentieth Century China

Immigration Ethnic History Society

Italian American Studies Association

John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Labor and Working-Class History Association

Middle East Studies Association

Modern Language Association

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education

National Association for College Admission Counseling

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education

National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education

National Association of Graduate-Professional Students

National Association of Social Workers

National Coalition for History

National Council for the Social Studies

National Council of Teachers of English

National Council on Public History

National Women’s Studies Association

North American Conference on British Studies

Organization of American Historians

Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association

Peace History Society

Phi Beta Kappa Society

Radical History Review

Rhetoric Society of America

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Scholars at Risk

Shakespeare Association of America

Society for Austrian and Habsburg History

Society for Classical Studies

Society for Community Research and Action

Society for French Historical Studies

Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender

Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States

Society for US Intellectual History

Society of American Historians

Society of Architectural Historians

Society of Civil War Historians

Society of Transnational Academic Researchers (STAR Scholars Network)

Southern Historical Association

Urban History Association

Western History Association

Western Society for French History

World History Association

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