Petition to School Boards to Teach Reconstruction

Signatures

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

Heather Rooney | Arvada, CO
The recent trend of book banning and curriculum bans in the United States frightens me. Citizens deserve for their children to be taught the truth, not a whitewashed version of it. We can never be a fully democratic society if certain truths are suppressed, and without reckoning the harm white people have caused over the centuries.
Nancy Gallavan | Carlsbad, CA
United States history must include the history of ALL of US. K-16+ teaching, learning, and schooling must be truthful, transparent, and trusted in ways that are cognitively, socially, and emotionally, i.e., developmentally appropriate. All people living in the US must be granted their voice and their choice in order to comprehend the content and context; connect with people, places, and perspectives; co-construct, create, and contribute new knowledge and new experiences situated in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. NO ONE should control the narrative, especially the nuances, via distracting messages and disallowing membership.
Jennifer Collins | Austin, TX
It is time to shout the TRUTH.
Shifra Teitelbaum | Culver City, CA
I believe we can be better, stronger people if we can grapple with complex, often painful realities. It is problematic to shut down students' (people's) exposure to nuanced history and pretend that everything America does and has done is right and pure and just. This creates a rigid and defensive world where complexifying or challenging that narrative is treasonous. I want students (people) who are critical thinkers, who can ask hard questions, can grapple with and incorporate new ideas and perspectives and can take action to make the world just for more people.
Rosemary Furst | Minneapolis, MN
Teaching the truth, the facts, of the history is critical to understanding who we are today.
Faith Therrien | Fall River, MA
James Valentine | Surprise, AZ
Khalifa Khaliq MN
Leah Graniela-Loving | Oakland, CA
Teaching Reconstruction is long overdue. ALL youth need to know about the amazing gains made by African Americans during this time as well as the systematic efforts to suppress and destroy the progress. This backlash is very relevant to what is happening right now!
Sheila Cox | Eatontown, NJ
I would like the reconstruction era after the civil war of the this country USA taught in all schools
Josh Kayne | Aromas, CA
Our systems will be better apt to create affirming spaces to students when accurate history is taught.
Linda Stringer | Fort Worth, TX
All history matters
Leslie Gleaves | Springville, UT
It’s never been more important for adults and students alike to participate in learning the lessons of the Reconstruction era so that we can apply them to the challenges we face today.
Taylor Nisley | South Bend, IN
True history is important and must be learned in its entirety.
Annie Egan-Robertson | Madison, WI
Devaki Douillard | Longmont, CO
Jackie Martin | Marietta, GA
I didn’t learn anything about my history as a white southerner whose family enslaved in Alabama. I’d like to know what they did (did they actually free the slaves as I was told?) and what happened until 1965.
Francisca Rios | San Francisco, CA
Amanda Moore | Edmond, OK
The negative events we see happening in this country are directly related to the lack of knowledge most have about their own country. This could easily be remedied if more school boards understood the importance of Social Studies classes, but specifically Reconstruction. No more brushing past the difficult topics!
James Gunner-Zoerman | Wyoming, MI
As a teacher in the US, it shames me that the Confederacy appears to be alive and well. It's up to us once again to oppose them.
Caitlin Freer | Cascade Twp, MI
If we fail to teach the truth, we are bound to continue repeating past mistakes. Our students deserve to hear the truth in history.
Debora McClellan | Holland Twp, MI
If we don’t, not only teach, but face the truth of our history, then it is doomed to repeat itself. America is a nation of immigrants and those force-ably “immigrated” by slave traders. Slavery is repugnant, those forced into it should be regarded as heroes not lesser beings. Their descendants should be celebrated, not denigrated. Teach the real history of this country. Without it, we are no better than any other third world nation; ignorant followers of dictatorial “leaders”.
Elizabeth Marsden | Grand Rapids, MI
In order for us to learn from our history, we need to teach what actually happened.
Holly Reil | Wyoming, MI
Ignorance is not bliss.
Rachel Cain | Hudsonville, MI
Our students need to be taught the factual history of the world around them, in a way that trusts they can critically grapple with hard truths. I refuse to sanitize our history for the comfort of those who prefer a “negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”