Washington Post
"African American History, Never forgotten...Hopefully"
By ELEEDREA HARRISON
July 30th, 2015

Pre-Columbian Era, The New World, The Colonies, Slavery and the Struggle for Empire, World War I, The Sixties and The Conservative Turn of America. These are some highlight chapter titles from a standard United States history textbook. Notice how there is a chapter in the textbook focused on slavery. Slavery is a very dark time in American History; where blacks were captured, brought to America and forced to live in devastating conditions. The American school system has forcefed this timeline of history to it's citizens from grades K-12. White American children in the United States school system learn the "ups and downs" about American history (depending on how much they pay attention). Whereas African American children also learn that same information but lack the full understanding of their own history in America.
Slavery is an important aspect of United States History but not the only aspect of history that African Americans were apart of. African Americans have been soldiers, inventors, doctors, writers and teachers. They have made vast contributions to American society. Nevertheless, children growing up in the United States K-12 school system no very little or none at all of African American accomplishments. Since African Americans have done so much to contribute to America, shouldn't their history be told in schools?
Carter G. Woodson, a historian, author, and Harvard graduate, explains in his book Mis-education of the Negro that, "Afrcian Americans have been educated away from their own culture...and attached to the fringes of European culture... African Americans often valorize European culture to the detriment of their own heritage". Stemming of Woodson's perspective, I believe that this can be combated if all children were taught the full