Sad Part of our History

I recently picked up a book entitled The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. It tells the epic story of America's great migration from the first half of the 20th century. It was history I never learned in school, mostly because I was living through part of it. It had not yet been written and I did not live in the South to see it. 

Today, it might be on the list of forbidden books for some schools and libraries, since it tells the moving story of the period of slavery in the U.S. through the lives of some actual Black Americans growing up in the South. It takes you to the cotton fields of Mississippi, describes the Jim Crow laws, the Whites only signs, the segregated schools, sharecropping, and more. I had heard of some of it, but the reality never struck me so vividly. 

Students today need to be exposed to this dark period of our history, to understand how our Black brothers and sisters were treated in the South and why they might still have the residue of hatred and injustice on their shoulders. It might make today's younger generation understand the crushing burden of slavery and the time it took to slowly change the face of our nation. I remember reading about the desegregation of public schools in 1964, but it did not seem real at the time. I grew up in a south St. Louis neighborhood and never knew a Black person until I taught in Kansas City in the 60s. 

We don't really understand people until we listen to their stories and their faces become real. Unfortunately, many of our northern cities are still divided into white and Black sections. There is still plenty of prejudice around the North as well as the South. It is essential that our schools expose young people today to our past history and inspire them to work for justice and equality.