“It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten”--- saying in the Twi language spoken in Ghana.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and other right-wing conservative legislators would like us to believe that the field of African American studies is “woke’ indoctrination and has no value in K-12 classrooms or college and university curricula. The governor has even promoted the idea that teaching about anti-Black racism in U.S. history makes white children feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, and psychological distress,” without any consideration of Black students’ feelings of isolation and unimportance. Clearly, legislators’ denouncement of African American studies is a denouncement of Black people, Black history, and Black culture. It sends a clear message of disrespect for a group of people who have lived and worked in the U.S. for hundreds of years, voted as citizens, fought in consequential American wars, and significantly contributed to American culture. 
Dr. Cheryl Holcomb_McCoy
Over the last month, we, like so many justice advocates, have been troubled by attempts to erase Black history from schools and classrooms. Many of our colleagues and friends have taken to the streets in protest or written letters to legislators describing the need for students to learn the history of all of America’s people — including Black history, not just history that elevates whiteness. There is a vast movement of white nationalism in the U.S. that is prominent in state legislatures, university systems, and local school boards. We believe this is dangerous and threatens to reverse our country’s progress toward creating a more perfect union, as our founders called for in the Constitution.
We believe that higher education faculty and administrators play an integral role in combating the faulty assumptions, racist ideas and harmful policies put forth by white nationalists. If successful, they will not only erase African American history and culture from schools, but also limit educators’ academic freedom, women’s reproductive rights, marriage equality, immigrants’ rights, and progress on racial and gender diversity. We’ve been here before, and we don’t want to go back.
Close to 100 years ago, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the ‘father of Black history,’ believed young Black students were being deprived of learning their own history and, as a result, would not have the confidence and pride in their own capacity to achieve great things. He instituted Black History Week, which is now called Black History Month. It’s hard to believe that today there is still resistance to teaching Black history in schools — from the history of enslavement to the Black Lives Matter movement. There is truly a fear of acknowledging Black history and, more importantly, Black progress. Dr. Eddie Glaude, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, emphatically states that the U.S is in the throes of a “White reprisal” to the racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd. For some, according to Glaude, America’s movement toward understanding and acknowledging the effects of racism on Black and brown people became too much after Floyd’s murder. Terror and panic settled in. The College Board’s AP African American Studies course debacle is also proof of the fear surrounding full acknowledgment of Black people’s history in the U.S. 
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole
