Why the Necessity to Hide Black History
Too Hard to Explain to Their Children
Take a good look at the cover photo. Elizabeth Eckford is the Black student, one of the Little Rock Nine, who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Three years after America’s schools were allegedly integrated with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Elizabeth was fifteen when she had to be escorted by a federalized National Guard to ensure her safety along with the other eight Black students. Remember when the National Guard used to protect minorities?
This photo is of the second attempt of the Little Rock Nine to enter the school. The first incident occurred two weeks earlier, when the Arkansas National Guard, acting under orders from Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, blocked her from entering. The Little Rock Nine originally intended to meet and arrive together, but the meeting place changed the night before. Elizabeth’s family had no telephone, so she didn’t get the word and came alone.
After the National Guard turned her away, Elizabeth fled to the bus stop through the mob. Some were threatening to lynch her for daring to come to their school. A white reporter sat next to her, saying, “Don’t let them see you cry.”
Eckford has nothing to hide about her history. Little Rock Central temporarily closed the following year, saying they couldn’t afford the cost of constant security. Eckford had enough credits to attend college. She received a BA from Central State University, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in Wilberforce, OH. Elizabeth served in the United States Army and became a civil rights activist. Elizabeth Eckford has no reason to want her history omitted from the history books.
Now imagine you were part of the mob surrounding her; look at their faces, see the hatred. Hazel Bryan is the white girl with an open mouth, screaming at Eckford.
“Go home, nigger! Go back to Africa!” — Hazel Bryan
Years later, Bryan, then Hazel Massery, reached out to Elizabeth to apologize. Hazel left her racist church and supported Black causes. The two became friends of a sort, appearing together publicly to discuss their experience. The friendship didn’t last because Massery didn’t receive the complete and public forgiveness she sought from Elizabeth, who didn’t absolve her of her racist actions.
Elizabeth Eckford and the story behind her iconic civil rights photo — Upworthy
Massery could well have solicited Eckford’s friendship to erase the oft-publicized image of her verbal assault and unbridled rage. She wanted to change a history in which she didn’t look good. Hazel had received critical mail for years after her photo was published across the country; she ultimately changed schools, her parents concerned for her safety.
Look again at the cover photo, and see the faces of all the other girls whose racist attitudes are evident. How do they explain their actions to their children? A dilemma facing many white Americans.
How do they explain Emmett Till?
Or how you treated Martin Luther King, Jr. before you killed him?
I haven’t even touched on America’s reliance on enslavement, Black Codes, Jim Crow, and voter suppression to keep down those who continue to demand equality.
Part of the reason given for denying American History is the desire not to make some people feel bad. It’s why America never talks about the rape and forced breeding that grew the workforce at an astronomical rate, preferring to call it a “natural increase.”
Part of the reason for denying history is to have the ability to repeat it. Systemic racism and voter suppression can’t be eradicated because it has never been admitted. Alcoholics know the first step to resolving their problem is Acceptance. Racists need to learn the same lesson.
It's hard for a drunk to say "I'm a stinking drunk." Admit, repent, ask for forgiveness,make amends and go about being a better, descent human being. America is a stinking drunk racist joke. Its addictive, compulsive, behavior of stink history 🦨 is there in the books 📚. It's a sin that it will not confess, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of. So they sell trump Bibles, post commandments on the bulletin board at school and lay collective "HANDS" in prayer on Donald Trump, the man of god, the man of the hour.⏳Why bother to explain? "Deny, deny, deny." Thanks again Mr. Spivey. Keep the record straight.🇺🇸
It is not hard to teach ... oh, I believe in the dignity of all people regardless of their foreparents, ethnic origin, and even their chosen religion, except if that chosen religion leads the person to treat others without dignity. I am white and have lived in Virginia and Tennessee. I have been in California for over 50 years and taught secondary students for 41 years. I learned in my 4th-grade class from Mrs. Matthews about slavery in Virginia.
I imagine for racists, teaching the truth about slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, the internment of citizens of Japanese descent, the Jewish, Armenian, and other holocausts is as difficult for religious fundamentalists to have their children sit in biology classes where evolution is taught and creation science is mythology with no scientific basis or in English classes where their children might have to read Bless Me Ultima (Ultima is accused of being a witch--she isn't), Huckleberry Finn, or the Color Purple.
People who live with hard-core beliefs based on untruths, ignorance, and prejudice have no desire to learn or have their children learn. I saw this too often during my years of teaching in Santa Clara, the heart of Santa Clara County -- in the Santa Clara Valley, which the world calls Silicon Valley--an hour south of San Francisco. This area is relatively progressive in temperament and belief. I cannot imagine trying to teach in a red state, which rejects truth as being woke, and fights to perpetuate a system that keeps their states poor and, according to national exams, more ignorant than blue states.