Petition to School Boards to Teach Reconstruction

Signatures

This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.

Alexandra Haridopolos | New York, NY
Esperanza Romero | Shafter, CA
Joan Mccalmont | Arlington, MA
Only when we start teaching truth will things change in our society and in our country. We must be honest about our past no matter how ugly, and it starts with education in our schools.
Dr. Anthony B. Mitchell | Mckeesport, PA
The Reconstruction Era is a period of great African American achievement in areas of social uplift, education, politics, and economic development. It shows how African Americans strived to make a better world for themselves and future generations prior to the emergence of "Jim Crow" and the 100 years of attack on Black lives and Black communities.
Holly Schroeder | Somerville, MA
It is important to learn about because it is fundamental to understanding how our system works today and why white privilege is a thing.
Anonymous | El Paso, TX
Alden Dearborn | Bellmead, TX
Lou Ann Horstman | Springfield, OH
Jennifer Wakefield | Charleston, SC
Right now, Reconstruction is just a blurb in SC teaching standards. The current US History course should be a two year course, the Foundations (Colonization - WWI) and the Modern Era (Interwar Period - 9/11). In doing so, much more focus could be spent on topics like reconstruction, which has so many important lessons for today's students.
Katherine McMillan | New York, NY
Aubrey Monaco | Buffalo, NY
Sharon Kim | Buena Park, CA
David Nanninga | Fort Wayne, IN
Reconstruction is incredibly important to teach because it destroys the idea that history is ever progressing in terms of "things getting better as time goes on." That idea allows for everyone to be complacent in our everyday lives, but in reconstruction we see an opportunity where things got better, where freed African-Americans were given in mass land to farm, real estate, an opportunity to lift themselves into prosperity (Special Field order 15), and less than 6 months later it's taken away from them by the U.S. Gov. -Things got better, then got incredibly worse-that is a crucial lesson to teach and for all Americans to know.
Sarah Judson | Asheville, NC
Diana Kamin | New York, NY
David Cloniger | Nashville, TN
Lila Rubio | Decatur, GA
susana hennessey lavery | Fort Bragg, CA
Tom Riviere | Solna, Stockholm, SE
“No lasting victories can be achieved without the transfer of control of public resources directly to the people.”
Amy Weinstein | Willimantic, CT
Jon Gottshall | Portland, OR
I do teach it. It has lessons we can apply today.
Marissa Mendoza | San Anselmo, CA
April Bennett | Los Angeles, CA
Aja LaDuke | Rohnert Park, CA
Jerise Fogel | New York, NY
This incredible period of American history, when so much of our current miasma could have been prevented by heeding the watchdogs of civil rights and human rights of the time, deserves study, in my opinion, because it could bring us all to face up to some painful facts, and offers us a chance to reimagine and begin to realize America's promises of freedom for all.