Teaching Black History - The Complete Picture with LaGarrett King

Many of us WANT to include more Black History in our curriculum but we don’t know where to start. Black History is such a rich and complex subject area. Like the way that many of us were taught, we tend to spend too much time in the areas of Enslavement and Jim Crow. But Black History is more than this time of great oppression, and Black individuals are more than their oppression.?

LaGarrett J. King is an expert in the area of teaching Black History and he reiterates this point as well. He is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. His framework for teaching Black History has six principles: Power and Oppression, Black Agency, Resistance, and Perseverance, Africa and the African Diaspora, Black Joy, Black Identities, and Black Historical Contention. Read more of King’s faculty bio here: Faculty Profile - Department of Learning and Instruction - Graduate School of Education - University at Buffalo?

While the first of these principles does dive into the areas of oppression and hate, they are not the entirety of Black History as Black History is not a monolith. LaGarrett King encourages educators to branch beyond this realm because living here exclusively can lead to many problems, such as emphasizing “Black Messiahs” and painting historical Black individuals as “passive, powerless, and ultimately” accepting of their own oppression. That is why he suggests that we also teach Black Joy and Black Agency.?

While we must touch on Power and Oppression in order to paint the complete picture of Black History and paint the image of Anti-Blackness, we must acknowledge that there is much more to the story as well. We must balance this by teaching other principles as well.? While we have dove into power and oppression here, it is crucial to teach all six principles to paint the complete picture of Black History. To read in more detail about the six principles, and implementing them in your classroom with essential questions and teacher resources, check out this link: se8406335.pdf (socialstudies.org)?

Last year, our Executive Director - Chaka Cummings - taught a session on these six principles to our Fellows as they began their fellowship with us. These six principles are a fantastic foundation when it comes to implementing Black History in any curriculum. LaGarrett King suggests that Black History should not just be regular history taught in “Black Face”, but rather we should research deeply and reimagine how we implement black History in our classrooms.?

JA