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4frankAWhifeONElems facing Indiana educators and those of the nation is rewriting history books to fairly present the role of the Negro.Militant blacks of Shortridge High School burned the historybook in use,considered the1best of ourK(§l®f£** times. The t ■ f school is nowA writing its own history. ThisMk instance pointsup turmoil that Mr. White has eruptedthroughout the U. S. A. To approach this problem, educators representing 15 large Indiana school corporations, the Indiana State Board of Education and the Indiana Department of Public Instruction met in intenseconference. They met with human rights groups of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission and state officers of the National Association for Advancement ofColored People, the UrbanLeague and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.WHEN I WAS in school, about all I knew about the role of Negroes was that the man pressured to help Christ carry His cross to Golgotha was a black and that Crispus Attucks,a Negro, was first to die in the American Revolution.The present history crisis is a part of the civil rights movement. Demand is made by militant black groups that there be no more “downgrading” of Negroes, such as recording in histories that they were tribal slaves. They point out Negroes _ were cowboys and soldiers in ’ the Revolutionary War.The National Association for Advancement of Colored People has at least 175 new history books and supplementary books, which it seeks to have schools use. They are described as “tell q it as it is.” tiTHIS STRUGGLE that has Vrocked the educational world ®; has some very sharp edges. Chi-cago has 28 per cent Negro population. Schools were boy-|d cotted on this issue for quite j S'awhile, as they were in some w other urban centers. clt;The demands included that m black teachers instead of white ci teach Negro history and black |slt; culture. In such centers as NewYork City school boards found r• i • •« « j i l • J • _ _ _ J _ O* _ J I ^impossiblequalified black teachers. ^The struggle in Denver, that |clt; has 10 per cent Negro populace S1 was extended to revamping li-|Sj braries and museums to betterportray Negro culture. It has gone so far as demanding that H Negroes be fairly represented in Jlt; arithmetic problems and hlt; spelling books. ofTHE STATE department of Public Instruction has samples of the many new, beautifully gj printed and illustrated supple- q, mentary books for history stu- ^ dents. The pendulum has swung from almost no mention of the q Negro to an opposite extreme s0 in many hastily wcitten books. r(Vi 111 __ _ 1.1 • !• ^1 _ 1. timestabilizejffin the center of the extremes.sthe new history books. A book| jcan History” is one-third devoted to Negroes. In the section “Law and Government” it omits mention of George Washington I? and Woodrow Wilson. But it speaks in glowing terms oft Earl Warren, chief justice of1 the , U. S. Supreme Court, as a friend of Negroes. It omits any!pa mention of Warren being one of the chief architects of the concentration camps in the U. S. A. for those of Japanese descent.IN A SECTION on industryand labor in one of these new books, Negro union leader A. Phillips Randolph is accorded prominent play but there is nomention of John L. Lewis.beGiHemfrlt;tirIn one of these new books ere is a prominent and admir-0 sketch of W. E. DuBois asone of the founders of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People. It omits entirely that DuBois in his later years was a militant Communist who lent his name to the DuBois Clubs at Indiana and Purdue Universities and elsewhere .INVOLVED IN the work of ring the Negro a fair “break” histories are many questions. ie is, whether the story should given as integrated, or as an pendage. What about roles of » Irish, Poles, Italians and ler ethnic groups?IUnZoitodeaiIonlatwharcdisVedloorhe foregoing is but a small et of the complex problems janJ olved in history teaching, det ht here in Indiana. ' T
Newspaper Details
Greensburg Daily News
Greensburg, Indiana, US
Thu, Nov 14, 1968
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
MI, USA 10 Jun 2019
Other Publications Near Greensburg, Indiana
Greensburg Review
Greensburg New Era
Greensburg Decatur Press
Greensburg News
Greensburg Daily News and Greensburg Daily Review
