Black History : How American Schools Changed The Story Of Slavery'' #blackhistory #america #shorts

Indexed: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]So, here on on page 346, [music] it says, "In the deeper South, many free blacks were The term, though, is a racist slur against biracial people. The book also includes this map, referring to enslaved Africans in 1775 as immigrants, alongside the Dutch, the Scottish, and the German. To refer to them again as immigrants insinuates that [music] they chose to come.

[00:00:25]The African people who almost totally were forced to come and certainly did not want to come to the United States in chains. Just to see if things have changed, we looked at the latest edition of the book, published this year. The map is still there. The assignment asked students to put a price on slaves. What and how students learn about history is different everywhere, and sometimes problematic.

[00:00:48]>> The teacher, who is white, told them to write funny captions on images [music] of freed slaves.

[00:00:54]>> There are reports the teacher made black students act as slaves. There is no national standard for what history is taught. Each state [music] sets standards which outlines what students are expected to learn. CBS News took a look at the social studies standards for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We found seven states do not directly mention slavery, and eight do not mention the Civil Rights Movement.

[00:01:17]Only two states mention white supremacy, and 16 list states' rights [music] as a cause of the Civil War, which Kendi says is a problem.

[00:01:25]>> This was the term that the Confederate states, that later segregationists and even some slave holders utilized to hide that they were really fighting for the rights of slave holders. Kevin Ellis is the chair of the Texas State Board of Education. About 10% of the nation's students attend a Texas public school. In 2018, [music] the state changed its standards to teach slavery as the central cause of the Civil War, but it still mentions states' rights. Should states' rights even be taught at all? So, I think even when you look at states rights, it focused around slavery. And so, what we're what we're doing now is just being clear that those states rights that the South was fighting over was states rights for them to have slavery.

[00:02:10]Kendi also took a look at this textbook, Texas History, which is adopted by the state to teach middle school social studies. It covers topics including slavery and the Civil War. This is a picture and the caption says, "Some US settlers brought slaves to Texas to help work the fields and do chores." And, you know, I don't I don't think we should describe slave labor as chores. A few pages later, Kendi pointed out this image. The caption for this picture says, "What characteristics of slave life does this image show? Does this depict slavery?"

[00:02:43]If we were going to have a single picture that depicted slavery, it should be a picture that demonstrates terror and violence. We also asked Ellis what he thought about the picture.