Did your school offer Black History classes?

[Solly Mack]

Elementary/Middle-Jr. High/High School only. Not college/university.


Was it offered up as a topic within a larger course? Social studies class that covered some black history or an actual class on Black History? Or? Was it a one-day event? Week? Month? Longer?

In middle school we learned about Black Americans who contributed to Math, Science, English/Literature, Music, Art etc. in those classes, as well a semester on Black History in social studies classes/history.

Before middle school Black History was only covered during social studies.

I attended elementary and one year of middle school in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the high school I attended (not in Atlanta) it was obvious that Black History was a recently added subject matter. Very basic and very safe. Also, very limited in what it covered.

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[RandySF]

1. Are you kidding?

I grew up in the most segregated metropolitan area in the country.

[Solly Mack]

2. OK. I was in Atlanta for most of my early education.

Where was that? If you don't mind answering.

[RandySF]

3. Metro Detroit

Where suburbs were entirely white and hostile towards Detroit proper.

[MichMan]

11. Not in all of them

Grew up in Pontiac in the early 70's when they instituted cross district bussing when I was in 7th grade, in an attempt to get 50-50 balance in each school building. Black history was heavily discussed. Once you got to HS level, there would have been a natural integration, so the bussing was instituted in the lower grade levels.

My younger brother in elementary school was given an assignment to write a story about his favorite Detroit Tiger player. His favorite was a backup catcher. His story was rejected by the teacher because the player was white. Perhaps he misunderstood the assignment, but he was just a kid and that was his favorite player. Kids don't pick a favorite "insert race or ethnicity here" player in each sport. My mother was not pleased

[msongs]

4. in my elementary school every morning we sang the eyes of texas nt

[Emile]

5. In the 1950's and 60's, I don't think so.

[Skittles]

6. yes

elective....and yes, I did take the class

*I should add it was taught by one very special teacher and yes, she was WAY ahead of her time

[lastlib]

7. During my school tenure, my town

ran every black pupil out of town--even a star football player. They wouldn't have DREAMED of teaching black history.

[Lunabell]

8. Not black history, but

in highschool my World history class had a 6 week course on African History which included some African-American history. Pretty progressive for Nashville in the 70's. The guidance counselor, Doc. Poebles taught it.

[ancianita]

9. Did your school use a formal history textbook?

The hs I taught at in Chicago used this one. John Hope Franklin has been the first, and considered foremost, Black historian (don't know about Higginbotham).

[Solly Mack]

10. No formal textbooks. A lot of different books though. Also field trips. Other material.

This was in the Atlanta schools.

The high school class was embarrassingly lacking. Teacher created handouts and some reading suggestions.

[ancianita]

12. I see. Do you recall the year? Because I don't recall Black History textbooks until the mid 70's

I graduated from a very good FL hs in '66; then, there were no such classes.

[Solly Mack]

29. In Atlanta, late 60's and 70's. High School in a different city.

And by Atlanta, I mean Atlanta proper. The city itself, in walking distance of the Capitol.

[Ferrets are Cool]

13. LMAO

I graduated high school in '74. So, during my childhood, schools were still segregated.

[Solly Mack]

30. Schools were not segregated in 1968 when I started school in Georgia.

Where were you?

[Mister Ed]

14. Yes. In high school, 1970's. A one-semester, dedicated, elective course.

This elective was a popular choice among the students.

[Igel]

15. Depends on "my."

When I was in 1-12 in the '70s, there were topics on it. Not specific, but worked in--from slavery in the North and South, Triangle Trade, Civil War and Reconstruction (and the pushback), KKK and Jim Crow.

Where I teach they spend weeks on topics during the year--pretty much the same as when I was in school, but Harlem Renaissance, Great Migration, and a lot of time on the Civil Rights Movement (a bit too recent in '72 to be able to do it any kind of decent job).

My high school also piloted the AP AA Studies course.

[RobinA]

16. Graduated in '75

so no. No Asian-American history either.

[Solly Mack]

31. No Asian-American history at my schools either. Had to read up on my own.

Same with First Peoples.

[Wounded Bear]

17. HS Class of 70, and that would be a "no"...

Western Washington, just south of Seattle. I believe we had 1, maybe 2 black students when I graduated. Quite a few Asians of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese varieties in the area, but not many blacks, at least in the areas I frequented.

[treestar]

18. 1970s no

Though we did have a unit in language arts on bigotry and prejudice.

The busing debate was getting started.

[Ron Green]

19. In my town we had a Colored High School.

I often wonder if they had a Black History class there.

[bluedigger]

20. I graduated in the 70's in the whitest state (Maine) in the country.

So, no. We had some good French-Canadian jokes, though.

[Elessar Zappa]

21. There was a unit on black history

in my 11th grade US history class but not a whole class on it.

[sinkingfeeling]

22. Just what was covered in 8th. grade American History. My tiny, rural school's history

teacher went into great detail about the Civil War and even wrote a book on the subject. We learned about the cruelty of slavery.

[Sympthsical]

23. Incorporated into the cirriculum

Social studies, of course. Black History, Native American genocide, labor movements, incidents such as Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. All those were folded into the history classes with crossover in English with Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

English classes covered things like Harlem Renaissance. We read Malcolm X's autobiography. We also had more modern pieces from authors like Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and August Wilson.

Art and music of course. Music class is where I learned about people like Big Mama Thornton and Sarah Vaughan.

The topic wasn't seen as separate, but as a part of everything else. This was in the 90s.

[CTyankee]

24. I graduated from high school in segregated Texas the year Brown v. Board was handed down.

We had white schools and black schools in Dallas. The black schools got the well worn old textbooks while the white students got brand new ones.

[Hekate]

25. In 1964? No. But I was born in California and raised in Hawai'i. Met a lot of Southern military kids

… in school, and if they had any problem with Hawaii’s racially mixed lifestyle they kept their opinions to themselves. The troubles in the Southern US had been playing out on the nightly news since we were all in grade school.

Our history textbooks were thin on a lot of things, but slavery was presented as evil from the start, and the Civil War a tragic outcome.

[Happy Hoosier]

26. No... but we did have specific lessons at appropriate times. NT

[uponit7771]

27. Went to a 90% black high school, everyday was from a black perspective also

[Midnight Writer]

28. No, not as a stand-alone class. But they did cover Black History in history and social studies.

[Solly Mack]

32. Thank you everyone! I am younger than many of you it seems. Different decade, different answers.

As well as different regions/states making for different answers.

I was just curious. Appreciate people taking the time to reply.

[edisdead]

33. Yes as an elective

St. Paul Johnson 89-93

[bif]

34. No but we had a Black Lit class

In the early 70s. And I went to HS in a very conservative community. Grosse Pointe, MI.