Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites Initiative Urges School Boards to Teach Accurate Early American History

In Light of Declining Civics Education, 1776 Unites Scholars Encourage
School Boards to Reject Racial Grievance Narrative
 
WASHINGTON, DC - The Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites initiative today urged the National School Boards Association, and School Boards across the country, to adopt civics and history curriculum that embraces the principles of America’s founding and accurately tells the history and resilience of Black Americans.
 
In a letter from more than 20 Black scholars, they encourage the School Boards to use the Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites initiative lessons as examples of American history that show what is best in our national character, and what our freedom makes possible even in the most difficult circumstances. The curricula maintain a special focus on stories that celebrate Black excellence, reject victimhood culture, and showcase the millions of African Americans who have prospered by embracing their country’s founding ideals.
 
The letter reads, “The Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites initiative stands in unqualified opposition to any curricula that depict America as irredeemably racist; teach that the legacies of slavery, racial segregation, and other appalling crimes are insurmountable; or fail to provide examples from history of black achievement against the odds. We ask that your schools instead adopt curricula that, rather than completely reject our founding values, instead embrace the ideas of family, faith, and entrepreneurship that have enabled all Americans – including Black Americans -- throughout history to move from persecution to prosperity, and will continue to do so for generations to come.”
 
The Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites initiative is a Black-led, nonpartisan and intellectually diverse alliance of writers, thinkers, and activists focused on solutions to our country’s greatest challenges in education, culture, and upward mobility. 1776 Unites reinforces America’s founding principle that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
 
The letter to the School Board continues, “We ask you, as stewards of public school systems around the country, to lead by example and embrace materials that will inspire the next generation, like those before them, to overcome challenges, achieve their goals, and live in a spirit of service to the common good.”
 
On August 18, the Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites initiative will host a free back-to-school webinar about civics curriculum entitled, "How lesser-known stories from Black History can inspire students of all backgrounds." Woodson Center Senior Fellow Ian Rowe will discuss with three  panelists how they use the Initiative’s  free high-school curriculum based on the “Woodson Principles” of Competence, Integrity, Transparency, Resilience, Witness, Innovation, Inspiration, Agency, Access, and Grace.
 
About the Woodson Center:
 
Led by former civil rights activist Bob Woodson, the Woodson Center has worked for over four decades to empower indigenous leaders in troubled neighborhoods to address problems of their communities through innovative initiatives that increase public safety, spur upward mobility, and inspire racial unity in America. Our most recent initiatives include a series of seed investments in our Community Action Network (CAN) groups around the country, and the launch of the Voices of Black Mothers United initiative to bring forward voices of mothers of children killed by street violence. Learn more at www.WoodsonCenter.org

[From the Woodson Center]