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The State of Virginia is now incorporating African-American and Black history subjects in its curriculum–even as many states, especially ones controlled by Republicans–do the exact opposite.
Before this spring, Patricia O’Shea, a rising senior at Granby High School in Norfolk, hadn’t heard of Louis Latimer, a Black inventor who helped Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.
Or Henry Brown, who climbed in a box and mailed himself from Virginia to Philadelphia to gain his freedom.
Or Sarah Garland Jones, the first female licensed to practice medicine in the commonwealth.
An elective class on African-American history opened O’Shea’s eyes to these and many more Black Virginians who helped shape the state over the centuries. In previous history classes, she said, topics like slavery and Jim Crow laws were barely talked about – one unit at most.
But as other states across the country introduce legislation restricting educators from teaching about race, Virginia has gone in another direction. The state has started an initiative to incorporate more African-American history into its public schools’ curriculum. More Black history is included in all history classes now, but students like O’Shea who want to explore it deeper have the option to with the new elective.
Experts say it’s an effort to move away from looking at Black history as separate from the country’s history and to see it for what it is: an integral part of the American experience.
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