Last spring we posted Five Ways Textbooks Lie About Reconstruction by Mimi Eisen.
Eisen examined commonly used U.S. history textbooks. The first of five themes she found is that textbooks center Confederate states and ex-Confederates.
A contemporary textbook asks students to imagine themselves as former Confederate soldiers traveling the South and witnessing, with dismay, the destruction of “plantation manor homes.”
Textbooks encourage students to view Reconstruction from the perspectives of those who fought to preserve enslavement.
See more themes and textbook examples, and read our full national report, Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle.
Send us examples from YOUR history textbooks.
Invite students to read the article and examine their textbook. Send us what they find and in appreciation, we’ll highlight their work as textbook detectives and send you a signed copy of Black Was the Ink for your classroom.
Textbook Critique
HRE USA 