Black History Should Be Taught to Whites, and EVERYONE (my realization of ignorance)

[The Cleaner]

Okay I admit it, I was just watching "That's So Raven" on ABC. The topic interested me, it was about black history.

I am white. I thought I knew of some of the contributions of African Americans, but there's much more than I thought. On the show this morning they said that a black man invented the traffic light. But does anyone know that? And a black man invented ragtime. But where in our school textbooks do they say this?

Who in our educational system is ensuring the truth be told regarding the contributions of African Americans in science, mathematics, technology, and the arts?

I look for a day when we can count the contributions of African Americans with equal standing as whites. It's our history. It's only fair.

[Dracos]

1. History should be taught all

history not just white or just black but ALL HISTORY.I agree with you all os it is our history.

[deadcenter]

4. History

should be studied by all.

[VelmaD]

2. Couldn't agree more

My momma made a concerted effort to introduce me to the history I wasn't getting in school...not just black history but women's history and the history of other ethnic and racial groups and the world history that happened outside of Europe that the basic school curriculum tends to overlook. I know it made a difference in how I see the world.

[butterfly77]

3. Blacks have invented a lot more than that...

there is a whole list of things,can probably be found if googled...

[The Cleaner]

6. here's one

Welcome to the Black Inventor Online Museum ™, a look at the great and often unrecognized pioneers in the field of invention and innovation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Banneker, Benjamin
* Bath, Patricia
* Beard, Andrew
* Benjamin, Miriam
* Blair, Henry
* Boone, Sarah
* Boykin, Otis
* Bradley, Benjamin
* Brooks, C. B.
* Brown, Henry
* Carruthers, George
* Carver, George Washington
* Cherry, M. A
* Crosthwait, David
* Crum, George
* Dean, Mark
* Dickinson, Joseph
* Downing, P. B.
* Drew, Charles
* Elkins, T.
* Emeagwali, Philip

* Faulkner, H.
* Fisher, D. A.
* Forten, James
* Goode, Sarah
* Gourdine, Meredith
* Grant, George
* Hall, Lloyd
* Hawkins, J.
* Jennings, Thomas
* Johnson, Jack
* Johnson, Lonnie
* Johnson, W.
* Jones, Fred
* Joyner, Marjorie
* Julian, Percy
* Just, Ernest
* Latimer, Lewis
* Lee, Joseph
* Lewis, E. R.
* Love, J. L.
* Matzeliger, Jan

* McCoy, Elijah
* McCree, D.
* Montgomery, Ben
* Morgan, Garrett
* Murray, George
* Parker, John P.
* Pelham, Robert
* Purvis, W. B.
* Ray, L. P.
* Reboucas, Andre
* Richardson, A. C.
* Rillieux, Norbert
* Spikes, Richard
* Stewart, Thomas
* Temple, Lewis
* Thomas, Valerie
* Thornton, Benjamin
* Walker, Madame C. J.
* West, James
* Williams, Daniel Hale
* Woods, Granville

http://www.blackinventor.com/

[The Cleaner]

11. Benjamin Banneker

Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731 just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a slave...

After two years of designing the clock and carving each piece by hand, including the gears, Banneker had successfully created the first clock ever built in the United States. For the next thirty years, the clock kept perfect time...

His knowledge of soil gained from his grandfather allowed him to raise crops in areas which had previously stood barren for years...

He soon was able to predict events such as solar eclipses and sunrises and sunsets. In 1792, he developed his first almanac, predicting weather and seasonal changes and also included tips on planting crops and medical remedies. Banneker sent a copy of his book to Thomas Jefferson, at that time the Secretary of State and in a twelve page later expressed to Jefferson that Blacks in the United States possessed equal intellectual capacity and mental capabilities as those Whites who were described in the Declaration of Independence. As such, he stated, Blacks should also be afforded the same rights and opportunities afforded to whites...

Banneker surprised them (the planners of Washington, D.C.) when he asserted that he could reproduce the plans from memory and in two days did exactly as he had promised. The plans he drew were the basis for the layout of streets, buildings and monuments that exist to this day in Washington D.C.

Benjamin Banneker died quietly on October 25, 1806, lying in a field looking at the stars through his telescope. Nations around the world mourned his passing, viewing him as a genius and the United States' first great Black Inventor.

http://www.blackinventor.com/

[MadMaddie]

5. The problem with public education and the books chosen

is the organization that chooses the books and materials is of the far right and very white organization.

They pick and choose the distorted history that is taught to our students. African Americans, Indians and other minorities have decried this practice but have been shut down by this organization which claims that minorities are just crying wolf.


I am glad that more and more people are getting exposed to the contributions of minorities towards building our great country.


Kick::kick:

[Katherine Brengle]

7. Yet another reason why I am seriously considering...

homeschooling my daughter - so I can teach her "American" history, not "rich, white" history.

[msongs]

8. Tell us the name of this mysterious organization...

you refer to it but you neglected to tell us its name

"...the organization that chooses the books and materials is of the far right and very white organization."

Our local latino-majority school board would be surprised to hear this, as would the state of california, which vets the books offered to local districts.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[Bucky]

12. It's "The Man"

Seriously, the text selection process is very political. There's lots of good sources out there about black history. It's a shame more teachers don't use them more. In my class I don't do much "black history" per se, but try to integrate (no pun intended) the materials I have for black history into where they go in the rest of the curriculum. And like the OP suggests, I teach it to all my students.

I don't think there's really any such thing as "black history". There's just history. Either you teach the subject fully or you leave important parts out. I teach it as fully as time allows.

[Cerridwen]

17. Please google and read the history of Norma and Mel Gabler

and their influence on the Texas school board and its impact on textbooks nationwide.

I'll get you started. From People for the American Way

The Right has long looked to public school textbooks as a way of promoting its political agenda. Current right-wing strategies to influence textbook development have their origins in the 1960s, when Texas-based activists Mel and Norma Gabler first led a nationwide effort to purge public school texts of what they viewed as the "mental child abuse" of liberal ideas. The Gablers were among the first to recognize just how influential textbooks can be. As they put it, "Textbooks mold nations because they determine how a nation votes, what it becomes, and where it goes."

<snip>

In no other place is the Right's influence on textbooks so profound as it is in Texas. The Lone Star State is the country's second largest purchaser of public school textbooks. As a result, publishers often go out of their way to gain acceptance for their books in Texas. Publisher efforts to cater to conservative tastes in Texas have a national impact - a fact not lost on the state's right wing. As the field director of ultraconservative Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy puts it, "The bottom line is that Texas and California are the biggest buyers of textbooks in the country, and what we adopt is what the rest of the country gets." link

And, from the Gablers themselves

We are a conservative Christian organization that reviews public school textbooks submitted for adoption in Texas. Our reviews have national relevance because Texas state-adopts textbooks and buys so many that publishers write them to Texas standards and sell them across the country. (emphasis, theirs) link

There's plenty more, but this will give you the gist.

[MadMaddie]

32. I will look for the organization and send it to you

there was a documentry done on their practices several years ago.

I knew I should have had the information before I posted the comment..:banghead:

[Bucky]

9. About the traffic light inventor

Technically he invented "a" traffic light (precursor of the one we use today) but not "the" traffic light. Groundbreaking inventions rarely happen in a vacuum. But the same inventor also developed the first working model of a gas mask for firemen. A small midwestern town was one of the first governments to order them, but when the inventor came to town to deliver his product and they saw he was black, they refused to buy them.

A year later some of their fire fighters died while fighting a blaze.

[devilgrrl]

24. More on Garrett A. Morgan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Morgan

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Actually, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that one man 'invented' ragtime.

It was a synthesis of the European musical tradition with African rhythmic influences...one of those things that just sort of happens when two cultures coexist. Scott Joplin did a lot to popularise it, but you can't say he 'invented' it. Any more than you can say that W.C. Handy 'invented' the blues.

[HamdenRice]

13. "A black man invented ragtime"

I applaud your commitment to learn more about black history. I hope you don't take this as a snark, but I was really stunned by your surprise that a black man "invented" ragtime. It's kind of like being surprised that black people pioneered jazz, or a black man invented soul music.

Ragtime was the black music of its day, so it's actually a bit of an overstatement to say one person invented it.

Perhaps you are thinking of Scott Joplin who was the greatest composer of ragtime, who perfected it and raised it to a high art. He actually composed a ragtime opera called Tremonsha (sp?).

It's a reflection on our contemporary education and culture that most people don't know this. It infuriates me, for example, when I hear people in the general public say that Bix Beiderbecke or Jango Rheinhart (two early 20th century white jazz musicians) "invented" jazz. It's insane.

[dropkickpa]

14. I took African-American history in HS

Me and my friend were the only white kids in the class. A kid in the class asked us why we were taking the class and our answer was "We like history, and want to see what we WEREN'T told in our regular history classes". He just shook his head and said "Nerds are weird" :rofl:

The teacher who taught the class was awesome, one of those history teachers who really love hisory and make you excited to learn more. He didn't just teach history of frican-Americans, he worked really hard to integrate the subject into general history, to illustrate just how much is left out in qa "normal" history calss and text. He himself had a fascinating history, he marched with MLK Jr, was very active in the civil rights movement. I loved that teacher. I was heartbroken the year after I graduated when I found out he'd died of a massive heart attack. I sent a card and letter to his wife when I found out because I wanted her to know how much he affected me and how he made history come alive (again, after 3 years of VERY boring old stuffy white guys teaching in monotone) for me, because I'd never thought to tell him that.

[Meshuga]

15. African-American history is part of American history

And it should be a requirement to all going through school in the US.

[NavyDavy]

16. hey, i am white, and when I was in junior HS we had a

black history competition where we had teams of 3, they asked us questions and we would have to hit a bell to answer the question, I answered all the questions for my team and got everyone correct, my team mates and all the other teams were african american, so it is not just white people who need to know black history.....everyone should since it is a part of US History....IMHO..

[The Straight Story]

18. who invented it....Hmmmmm

Inventing history:
Garrett Morgan and the traffic signal
Morgan's traffic signal

In early 1922, African-American inventor Garrett Augustus Morgan designed a cross-shaped traffic signal, for which he submitted a patent application on February 27 of that year. The patent — which was not even among the first 50 traffic signal patents issued in the United States — was granted on November 20, 1923. For whatever reason, numerous writers and public figures have credited Morgan with inventing any or all of the following:

* world's first traffic signal
* first traffic signal to earn a patent
* first automatic traffic signal
* first traffic signal with a third "all-directional stop" phase
* first signal with a yellow light phase
* the basis for modern traffic signal systems

None of these claims are even remotely true, as rest of this page shows.

http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/trfclt/

[The Straight Story]

19. More info

AT A GLANCE:
Police Officer William L. Potts of Detroit, Michigan, decided to do something about the problem caused by the ever increasing number of automobiles on the streets. What he had in mind was figuring out a way to adapt railroad signals for street use. Potts used red, amber, and green railroad lights and about thirty-seven dollars worth of wire and electrical controls to make the world’s first 4-way three color traffic light. It was installed in 1920 on the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit. Within a year, Detroit had installed a total of fifteen of the new automatic lights.
THE STORY
RELATED INFO
BOOKS
WEB SITES
DID YOU KNOW?
Invention: Traffic Light
Potts Traffic Light photo courtesy The Henry Ford, Greenfield Village
Function: noun / trsffic signal / stoplight
Definition: A road signal for directing vehicular traffic by means of colored lights, typically red for stop, green for go, and yellow for proceed with caution.
Patent: As a government emplyee Potts could not patent his invention.
Inventor: William L. Potts
William Potts photo courtesy Mr. Trafficlight
Criteria: First practical. Modern prototype.
Birth: Unknown
Death: Unknown
Nationality: Unknown

Milestones:
1918 U.S.Patent # 1,251,666 issued January 1, to J.B. Hoge of Cleveland, OH
1919 U.S.Patent # 1,307,544 issued June 24, to Oscar A. Erdmann of Detroit, MI
1920 William Potts invents and installs a three color, four direction taffic light in Detroit, MI
1923 U.S.Patent # 1,475,024 issued November 20, 1923 to Garrett Morgan for traffic signal
ARYs: traffic light, traffic signal, stop light, William Potts, Garrett Morgan, J Hoge, Oscar Erdmann, history, invention, stroy, facts, biography, inventor.

At about the same time, Garrett Morgan of Cleveland, Ohio realized the need to control the flow of traffic. A gifted inventor and reportedly the first African American to own an automobile in Cleveland, Ohio, he invented the electric automatic traffic light. Though it looked more like the semaphore signals you see at train crossings today.


http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/trafficlight.htm

[CBGLuthier]

20. While this may be true

I find it damn interesting to find an entire website devoted to debunking the claims of black inventors.

Here is the page to find the list

http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/


Sure have to wonder why soemone would go to so much trouble to debunk these claims.

[The Straight Story]

21. Understand and apology on that

I just did a google on it - mainly because of what I had been taught (and did not examine that one source, though I found others):

There is a small town here in Ohio with a museum that claims to have the first traffic light ever hung. I did not remember the details of it, so I was googling on traffic lights and found that site. After posting I thought it a bit biased as it was only bitching about one guy, so I kept looking :)

I like to keep history straight, so I don't care the color or sex of who did what.

[Nikki Stone1]

26. If you trust Wikipedia at all, the honors go to a Utah man

"On 10 December 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the British Houses of Parliament in London, by the railway engineer J.P. Knight. They resembled railway signals of the time, with semaphore arms and red and green gas lamps for night use. The gas lantern was turned with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. Unfortunately, it exploded on 2 January 1869, injuring the policeman who was operating it.

On Potsdamer Platz, Berlin Germany, it is widely claimed (though this is subject to some disagreement), that the world's first electric street lights were installed there in 1882. What is not refuted is that Europe's first traffic lights were erected there in 1924 in an attempt to control the sheer volume of traffic passing through. These lights were mounted on a five-sided 8.5 metre high tower, at the top of which a policeman sat in a small cabin and switched the lights manually, though they were automated after a few years (a replica of this tower was erected in the late 1990s close to its original location).

The modern electric traffic light is an American invention.<4> As early as 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah, policeman Lester Wire set up the first red-green electric traffic lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Based on the design of James Hoge, it had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer to provide a warning for color changes. The first four-way, three-color traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit in 1920.<1> In 1923, Garrett Morgan patented a traffic signal device, although it did not directly impact the evolution of the modern traffic light <5>."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

[Igel]

22. To the extent ragtime's taught, its

ethnic background is discussed. It shows up from time to time, but is usually folded in with jazz, I think.

As for traffic lights ... We discussed Eli Whitney's cotton gin in high school, not because of dear Mr. Whitney, but because of the invention's economic impact. We discussed Edison, briefly, as a prelude to the impact of telephones and electrification.

We didn't discuss any other inventors, to be honest, either in high school or my one year of college history. Marconi was a blip, I think the teacher mentioned him, although the textbook didn't. Ford was mentioned, not because of any patents, but because of company towns and the impact of automobiles.

Not discussing somebody who contributed to the traffic light is up there with not discussing the other folk that contributed to the traffic light, to those who invented road pavers, the heating elements in my stove, those who contributed to cement trucks or forklifts or transistors or the internal combustion engine or microwave ovens.

[Nikki Stone1]

23. Re: ragtime: There are lots of Af-Am composers out there, including lots of women

http://www.amazon.com/Spirituals-Symphonies-African-American-Women-Composers/dp/0252074548/sr=8-1/qid=1170524830/ref=sr_1_1/102-4527372-6312136?ie=UTF8&s=books

[ChiciB1]

25. As A White Female... I Totally Agree With You... I Say It ALL TheTIME!

Even though I was born a Yankee I've lived most of my life in the south, and I've seen a lot that I wish I had not!

On a very simplistic level and an argument that I used to have with a lot of "red-necks" was the "sports" thing! Those white guys out there hooping and hollering for their particular team, and I would always say.... "so where would they be if they were ALL WHITE?" I got so beat up with that all the time.

Doesn't happen all the much anymore, but many many white people still don't really KNOW reality!

And let's not forget just WHO were the most vocal against this Administration from the get go. Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Al Sharpton, Cynthia Mckinney and I could go on and on. Many of our whites in Congress just sat on their butts while it was those who put it on the line!!

[porphyrian]

27. Everyone cares about education until it's time to fund it. - n/t

[LostInAnomie]

28. Not that I don't agree that multi-cultural history should be taught...

... but to reduce history to basically who invented things and what color they were seems kind of shallow.

[The Straight Story]

29. I almost agree with ya (and do some)

I think the reason we have them is temporary - to swing the balance back to showing that the history we have had for so long was white male centric.

Ideally, it would be color blind and sex blind to me, but the message it seems to have shown over time is that a few white guys made the world as it is and everyone else was incidental.

We need to change the whole system of education to recognize the contributions of all people - as we transition though I think this is a stepping stone.

See too though my post here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x117253

[shance]

30. All history should be included as "history". There really is no "black" or "women" history

It's all history. The privileged white males decided to separate everyone else out to imply that somehow women's history or black history was somehow different or less than. Of course nothing could be further from the truth.

So I think a better idea is to include more historians who are simply white male. Let's be more inclusive and honest and accurate in our history. And lets have everyone tell their story, not just those who have lots of money.

[sweetheart]

31. If you want it taught, teach it better

There are no serious websites of 'DU'-like proportions i can find that
are 100% targeted at the urban black person who's not commerical-culturite,
but a serious person who wants to know the real history, with youtube
interviews with living teachers, and online video courses from outstanding
lecturers on the subject, like a public resource to really raise the awareness
by being artful with technology and adeptly more intelligent:

http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/home.html

I'd say the ignorance is systemic in the way black history has been represented,
any history for that matter, and we all suffer for it.