A recent directive from the Department of Defense Education Activity, which oversees schools at Army bases, has been interpreted by staff at Fort Campbell to include purging of any books which reference slavery or Civil Rights, according to Clarksville Now.
As offensive as this is, I hope that the order will be taken quite literally, and not selectively, just so we will be able to see and know what is at stake. Why am I saying this? Let’s play this out.
Start with the Founding. Enslavement is in the Constitution. Right there in Article I, Section 2. It’s known as the “three-fifths clause,” where enslaved people were counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of the census which determined how many representatives a state would get in Congress. So if you are purging any book that mentions slavery – you will of necessity have to eliminate any books that discuss the Constitution. And, well, quite literally, the Constitution itself, I suppose!
Books about the American Revolution will have to be purged, because numerous enslaved people fought for the British, because the British promised them freedom in exchange for their support.
Books about the Lewis & Clark Expedition will need to be removed. William Clark’s enslaved man, York, was an essential part of the Corps of Discovery.
Many of the stories of Westward Expansion will have to be removed. The Northwest Ordinance which served as the foundation of most of the Midwestern states, was notable for its prohibition against slavery. And if you talk about the exclusion of slavery, that begs the question – what should I know about slavery? Clearly it must have existed in order for it to be specifically mentioned and excluded.
And the list goes on. The creation of the Mason-Dixon Line. The Missouri Compromise. Bleeding Kansas. And at last, the Civil War.
To omit all books containing reference to slavery also means that books about our greatest and most beloved president, Abraham Lincoln, will have to be discarded. After all, you can’t have the Emancipation Proclamation if you don’t acknowledge slavery.
Add on to that the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution, which contain direct references to slavery and the birthright citizenship of those people formerly held in bondage.
Slavery is the foundation stone of racial discrimination that persists and has real consequences in the present day. The aftermath of slavery can be traced beyond the Civil War into Reconstruction and racial violence, Jim Crow laws, the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine, segregation, unfair housing and redlining, underfunded schools, poverty, shortened lifespans, hate crimes, police violence, mass incarceration, obstructing voting rights, and more.
Truly if you erase slavery, you erase the entirety of American history. You simply cannot study the American past, without acknowledging and knowing about the evil institution that was an inherent part of our country from the very start. The legacy of slavery continues to cast a long shadow over American freedom and civil rights, still to this day. It is something we all need to know more about – not less.
Learn more:
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibrahim X. Kendi (affiliate link to Amazon)
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein (affiliate link to Amazon)
The Legacy Museum, Montgomery, Ala.