In the last stanzas of the 1926 poem 鈥淚, too,鈥� Langston Hughes writes: 鈥淭omorrow, / I鈥檒l be at the table / When company comes. / Nobody鈥檒l dare / Say to me, / 鈥楨at in the kitchen,鈥� / Then. / Besides, / They鈥檒l see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed鈥� / I, too, am America.鈥�
This sentiment remains relevant for Black people today, as K-12 schools continue to grapple with how to best (or even at all) integrate Black history into social studies and language arts curricula. Too often, this essential content is relegated to metaphorically 鈥渆at in the kitchen鈥� by only being introduced during Black History Month. The integration of Black history into U.S. core curricula is a missed opportunity in elementary school, a period in young children鈥檚 development during which there is boundless potential to nurture their creativity.
As the push to suppress marginalized people鈥檚 histories, stories, and lived experiences continues across the country, it has become all the more urgent to preserve, protect, and amplify Black history narratives in schools. Early elementary鈥攇rades K through 2鈥攊s a particularly fertile time for children to learn about and explore these stories, making elementary educators critical in raising students鈥� consciousness and working toward racial justice. Moreover, an expansive exploration of Black history in elementary schools can be used to ignite children鈥檚 ingenuity and investment in school.
There is no manual or checklist for how elementary schools can eschew a Eurocentric approach to learning. However, to elevate, center, and value Black children鈥檚 lives and perspectives, educators must begin with a deep commitment to humanizing, amplifying, and honoring Black history. Elementary teachers must be willing鈥攁nd trained鈥攖o suspend the conventional notions of knowledge building and content mastery, sincerely appreciate the brilliance Black students bring to the classroom, and be willing to continue learning themselves. Only then will schools be able to provide a liberatory education.
Many U.S. elementary teachers and administrators fail to believe in Black children鈥檚 intelligence and refuse to center Black histories. Children can be central to curriculum development and implementation鈥攖hinking alongside one another and the classroom teacher, uncovering and recounting historical narratives that they find relevant and enriching, and documenting their own voices. They can write poetry, design a textbook, pose a question of concern about their community, and generate a multimodal (audio, visual, and/or written) project that proposes solutions.
Before we meaningfully integrate Black people鈥檚 stories and narratives into elementary schools, we must recognize that Black children are themselves knowledge holders and generators. As such, the sociopolitical knowledge Black students already possess should serve as the foundation for facilitating teaching and learning. As naturally inquisitive beings, children can meaningfully inform curriculum and challenge schools to be more equitable.
If provided the opportunity to enact agency in their classrooms, children can take on , whose perspectives matter for what and how they learn. This opportunity is especially significant for Black children who are engaging Black histories that have traditionally been omitted in schools.
In U.S. schools, Black history is often flattened to focus primarily on enslavement, the civil rights movement, and, more recently, the election of President Barack Obama. Elementary schools tend to elevate the lives of well-known individual Black historical giants like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., while ignoring myriad other Black people鈥攍esser known, unsung heroes鈥攚ho have worked for racial justice. Furthermore, narratives of oppression, dehumanization, and anti-Blackness take precedence over Black people鈥檚 beauty, joy, and intellect.
Elementary curricula should also include . Teaching about the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, for example, can enhance the incomplete Black histories that are predominately taught.
What makes these artistic movements ripe for teaching young children? They are models of times when creative expression鈥攂e it literature, visual arts, music, or theater鈥攃elebrated the richness of Black life, affirmed the humanity of Black people, and centered Black resistance to white supremacy and Black liberation. Black cultural production across time can serve as a model for imagination, artistic expression, and innovation, as well as racial justice.
We continue to wait for 鈥渢omorrow鈥� to be 鈥渁t the table,鈥� in the words of Langston Hughes. Black children deserve an education that validates their existence and nurtures their sociopolitical sensibilities. They deserve curriculum that fully accounts for the beauty and ingenuity of their ancestors.
As inequity persists and anti-Blackness abounds, early educators must bring Black history and cultural production to the forefront of how Black children make sense of themselves and society in the classroom. In doing so, we can reimagine elementary schools as spaces that sustain Black students鈥� identities鈥攎aking those identities the source from which we should derive standards, learning objectives, and lesson plans.
We are not a historically mature society until we acknowledge that everyone鈥檚 history matters. In this special collection, a slate of Black history researchers and educators help lead us down that road to historical maturity and LaGarrett J. King offers practical resources for improving Black history instruction.
