Flashpost: Reflections on the "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" Executive Order

Reading the latest on the broad attack of American Education I can't help but think of W.E.B. DuBois, "The Propaganda of History," chapter in Black Reconstruction in America (1935).

After 35 years of a Southern re-telling of Reconstruction that ignored, erased, and distorted the period of Reconstruction, DuBois fought back by providing a more comprehensive narrative that centered the accomplishments and achievements of the freed people and rejected the myths of southern patriotism and Black inferiority (the famous "lost cause" agenda).

But even more compelling is his argument that History requires the ugly stuff, without it history has no value. While this latest EO is unsurprising, it is still distressing that we are being strong-armed into an early 20th century approach to education and history. Yet, I find hope that people like DuBois gave us the tools of resistance.

We have to keep fighting back with the truth, telling our stories, telling the uncomfortable stories of the past, and drawing connections in the present.

The South has always maintained that it would "rise again" and while it seems that the ideology of late nineteenth/early twentieth century will again become prominent - what is just as clear is that resistance to that ideology ALWAYS follows.

In the meantime, I am very interested in how public organizations such as museums and sites of historic remembrance will be affected by this shift. Only time will tell, but it is possible that public history will return to a more shallow, less comprehensive space.