Black History: More Than Slavery and Civil Rights

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Originally published in TEACH Magazine, January/February 2017 Issue

By Meagan Gillmore

A Grade 1 student expected Nikki Clarke to discuss slavery, so Clarke showed a picture of a potato chip bag.

As president of the Ontario Black History Society, Clarke often speaks about Black history in schools. A former teacher, she regularly asks students what they know about Black history. Children don’t sanitize their answers.

Clarke remembers this particular Grade 1 student responded simply: “Black history is when we’re made to feel bad about the Blacks because they were slaves.” Some teachers chuckled uncomfortably or gasped, but Clarke continued with her presentation, telling children how people of African descent invented things they all loved, like the potato chip (George Crum) or the super-soaker water gun (Lonnie G. Johnson). She wanted to show students that Black history is part of everyday life—and worth celebrating.

“Black history isn’t about a blemish in history as this [student] understood it to be,” she says. Helping students learn this presents challenges. Most North American students associate African, or Black, history with slavery. Teachers may be the first to introduce students to that history.

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Meagan Gillmore is a freelance writer in Toronto, ON.

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Meagan Gillmore
Meagan Gillmore
Meagan Gillmore is a freelance writer in Toronto, ON.

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