JUNETEENTH’S DIVISIVE HISTORY

By Niara Savage

Contributing Writer his year’s Juneteenth will mark the first June 19th—the date commemorating the emancipation of the last enslaved people in the U.S. in 1865—that will be formally recognized by Minnesota as a state holiday, after the bill was signed by the Governor Walz in February. But in states where classrooms have become battlegrounds for the political warfare surrounding how race is discussed in school, educators planning lessons about “Freedom Day” could be forced to navigate legislation that seeks to censor American history.

In Virginia, teachers are prohibited by the state’s Republican governor via executive order from discussing “divisive” or “inherently racist concepts,” including critical race theory. Gov. Glenn Youngkin also set up an email tip line for parents to report instances in which they feel schools are engaging in socalled “divisive” practices. “We should not be teaching our children to see everything through the lens of race,” said Youngkin last year in a state that has had a long legacy of slavery.

In Florida, similar rules under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop

WOKE Act limit race-related conversations in schools. Dozens of states have introduced or adopted laws that restrict conversations about race in schools, according to a 2022 report by Chalkbeat.

The burden of these laws falls especially heavy on teachers, said

Yohuru Williams, distinguished professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

“Teachers are under assault right now,” Williams said. “I do a lot of talks for teachers. They have to be very cautious. We’re living in a moment where there are ramifications for an educator who is actually trying to teach their students to think critically about history, then finding themselves on the wrong side of history.”

The dangers of censorship of history in the classroom extend beyond the walls of American schools and have major societal consequences, according to Williams. Without confronting the horrors of the country’s bloody history through education, we run the risk of losing “the willingness to go deep to do the work necessary to dismantle systems of inequality,” he said.

“They’re trying to argue that it is in some way psychologically damaging or traumatic for

■ See JUNETEENTH on page 7

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