That Flag

By Erin Green

I read the powerful picture book That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown, aloud to my preservice teachers last week. (Thanks to the recommendation of Social Justice Books and the Zinn Education Project.)

Our class session was about how to address race and racism in elementary social studies, and this book is *the* book you need in your classroom to discuss the legacy of slavery and anti-Black racism in the United States.

In this story, two young girls, one Black and one white, are close friends at school. Keira loves playing with Bianca at school, but Bianca’s (white) family flies a Confederate flag on their front porch. Keira isn’t allowed to play with Bianca outside of school. When the girls take a field trip to the Southern Heritage Museum, Keira’s dad comes along on the trip, and under his guidance, Keira learns more about the racist history of the United States and the meaning of the Confederate flag. The conversation that begins at the museum continues at home, and she learns more about her own family’s experiences and histories with racism and resistance.

After the field trip, her conversation with her family, and a local racially motivated killing, Keira wrestles with how she can maintain a friendship with Bianca. Bianca’s family takes their flag down, but Keira is left with more questions than answers.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat racism. It doesn’t wrap everything up with a happy ending. It does a brilliant job of teaching the realities of the history of racism, the Confederacy, and racial terrorism in the United States, and it reveals the pivotal roles that teachers and families play in these conversations.

With my preservice teachers, we discussed:

How does this text approach racism?
What role do the families play?
What role does the teacher play?

I cannot recommend this text enough. It’s a must have for teachers, teacher educators, and families.

Erin Green is a teacher educator in Austin, Texas, and an author at Rethinking Schools.

Classroom Story

Nashville teacher Lauren Gray uses the book That Flag to help students understand the Civil War and what that flag means today.