By Raphael E. Rogers
Whenever I tell high school students in classes I visit that I appreciated learning about slavery as a child growing up in the Caribbean, they often look confused.
Why, they ask, did I like learning about slavery given that it was so horrible and harsh? How could I value being taught about something that caused so much hurt and harm?
That’s when I tell them that my teachers in St. Thomas – and my fourth grade history textbook – didn’t focus just on the harsh conditions of slavery. Rather, they also focused on Black freedom fighters, such as Moses Gottlieb, perhaps better known as General Buddhoe, who is credited with leading a nonviolent revolt that led to the abolishment of slavery in the Danish-ruled West Indies on July 3, 1848. The historic date is now observed and celebrated in the United States Virgin Islands as Emancipation Day.
The holiday – and the lessons I learned about it – instilled in me a sense of cultural pride and gave me a better appreciation for the sacrifices that Black people made for freedom. It also encouraged me to always push on when faced with challenges.
The reason I bring this up is because I believe Juneteenth – which commemorates the date in 1865 when Union troops notified the last remaining slaves in Texas that they were free – holds similar promise for Black students throughout the United States.
Students often tell me that they’re not learning much about slavery beyond the suffering and harsh conditions that it involved. As a historian who specializes in how slavery is taught in K-12 classrooms, I believe there are several ways educators can incorporate Juneteenth into their instruction that will give students a broader understanding of how Black people resisted slavery and persevered in spite of it. Below are just a few.
Start early, but keep it positive
As early childhood experts assembled by the National Museum of African American History point out in a guide they created to help develop lessons about Juneteenth, children in the U.S. will probably hear about slavery by age 5. But lessons about slavery at that age should avoid the pain and trauma of slavery. Instead, the lessons should celebrate and teach stories of Black culture, leadership, inventions, beauty and accomplishments. This, the authors of the guide say, will better equip children to later hear about, understand and emotionally process the terrible truths about slavery.
“Juneteenth events can be wonderful opportunities to introduce the concepts of slavery with a focus on resilience and within an environment of love, trust, and joy,” the guide states.
Focus on Black resistance
Many Juneteeth celebrations not only commemorate the end of slavery, but they also honor the generations of Black men and women who have fought to end slavery and for racial justice. As Black history education professor LaGarett King puts it, Black people have always “acted, made their own decisions based on their interests, and fought back against oppressive structures.” Stressing this can help students to see that although Black people were victimized by slavery, they were not just helpless victims.
Juneteenth provides opportunities to acknowledge and examine the legacies of Black freedom fighters during the time of slavery. These freedom fighters include – but are not necessarily limited to – Frederick Douglass, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner and Sojourner Truth.
Connect Juneteenth to current events
Juneteenth can also be a way for educators to help students better understand contemporary demands for racial justice. That’s what George Patterson, a former Brooklyn middle school principal, did a few years back at the height of protests that took place under the mantra of Black Lives Matter.
Patterson has said he believes that when students study Juneteenth, they are “better equipped to understand the historical underpinnings of what’s going on in the streets and to put the demands being made in context.”
Teachers need not wait for Juneteenth to be included in textbooks in order to draw lessons from the holiday.
“If it’s not in the textbook, then we need to introduce it, we need to teach it,” Odessa Pickett, a teacher at the Barack Obama Learning Academy in Markham, Illinois, stated during an interview about teachers infusing Juneteenth into their lessons. “We need to bring it to the forefront.”
Educators can make Juneteenth about so much more than the end of slavery. Teaching lessons about the holiday offers an abundance of opportunities about what it means to fight for freedom and maintain a sense of self-determination in the face of oppression.
Raphael E. Rogers is Professor of Practice in Education at Clark University.
Atwp says
Great story. Am surprised Desantis and the Republicans didn’t stop your story from being printed.
Pierre Tristam says
The ban-shit crazy school board meets twice today. You never know what they’ll pull.
Skibum says
I was mystified, but frankly not surprised, after reading many of the extremely negative reader comments about the Juneteenth federal holiday on the faux infotainment nuse website. Yes I do sometimes go there just for amusement, but this article on that site and the associated comments struck a nerve and really disappointed me about fellow Americans who would deny our country’s African American citizens a federal holiday celebrating their freedom from slavery. Many of the comments showed just how ignorant and/or uneducated so many Americans are about our own nation’s historical facts. I confess that until recently, I believed what I was being told about Juneteenth, that it was merely some vague cultural get together for some African Americans that had no real meaning or significance to anyone else. But I have tried to educate myself and learn more about Juneteenth, and it has opened my eyes and cause me to wonder if it really was unintentional and a result of the times that it took more than two years to bring the news of the Emancipation Proclamation to the plantations in Texas, or rather was it in reality a known and hidden fact by the slave owners who had every intention of never freeing the humans they owned as property? But aside from my questions that still remain about this part of American history, many commenters on that so-called news site showered their ignorance and racial bias by saying that America has only one independence day, July 4th, and that is the only day that Americans should celebrate this country’s freedom. Really? Were all of the African American ancestors who were brought over to America in chains and sold to the highest bidder as sub-human property given their freedom on July 4th in 1776? Of course not. And even well into the 20th century, despite the official Emancipation Proclamation, there have been many legal efforts and unofficial, underhanded ways that this country’s local, state and federal elected “leaders” have tried to continue to deny African Americans their freedom to live, work and enjoy the benefits that the rest of us often take for granted in this country of ours. So let them have this federal holiday. Let them celebrate in the manner they wish to celebrate and remember the unimaginable struggles of their ancestors. But while all of this is going on, as a nation, lets hope that this federal holiday will be an annual reminder that ALL of America should try to educate ourselves about the true facts and meaning of Juneteenth rather than believing the lies and misinformation from those who have no clue what they are talking about.
Kat says
Well thought out in terms of introducing difficult concepts in a positive way.
Foresee says
In Newark, NJ, maybe 40 or so years ago, in a conversation with a stripper at a strip bar, she spoke to me about how “Mother Church” kept her strong. She was referring to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787.
https://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/
Foresee says
Forgot to mention, like JAY-Z says in Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) “I flow for chicks wishin’, they ain’t have to strip to pay tuition”
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RW34u1KxGC4
YA THINK says
And what where they thinking to hold a FCBOCC meeting, shame on the person who didn’t realize it was a holiday and we all know who that genius is.
don miller says
the day of the emancipation proclamation should be the holiday not this one. Which was bigger?
Sherry says
@ don. . . Wow! Just Wow! Do you, don, have ancestors who were slaves? If not, why is it that “You” somehow feel “You” have the right to say which day should be celebrated as “independence from slavery”? Racial Arrogance Much?
don edwin miller says
because i know the historical position of each. the EP freed millions. without the EP there’d be no juneteenth. true? What if one had no slaves in their family tree but many who died to free them? That would give me position enough to comment without your permission.