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Q.February is Black History Month. What are some examples of racism in historic educational literature? Also, why do we have Black History Month? A. Black History Month in the United States is a time of remembrance and celebration honoring the contributions and history of African Americans throughout the United States. It is particularly important because so much African American history has been diminished, obscured, ignored and outright dismissed by historians and, unfortunately, the public school system. As a collector of late 19thand early-20th century juvenile history and geography textbooks, I see this firsthand.* Many of the books in my collection often only mention African Americans in terms of their skin color and “characteristics” of their race. School books at this time focused on “levels of civilization.” People were “classified” in a pseudo-scientific way as “red, black, yellow and white.” For example, In the book titled, “The Elementary Geography Book” published as part of the Indiana Educational Series from the Indiana School Book Co., 1889, the levels of “civilization” and “Races of Men” are discussed in detail (p.20). Public schools throughout the country used this book to teach children not only geography, but overt racism. At one point the book blatantly says, “The white race is called the Caucasian. It is the ruling race of the world.” (p.20) The writing exercise in this chapter of the book asked the children to:
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