"Hands shot up across the auditorium. "What do we know about him?" I asked. "He was the president!" one said. "He had funny hair!" said another. "He wrote the Constitution?" one remarked, half-asking, half-asserting. I responded to each of their comments: "Yes, he was our country's third president." "That's actually how many men wore their hair back then. Many men even wore wigs.""
"Recently, I visited schools in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina, all states where legislators have passed laws and implemented executive orders restricting the teaching of so-called critical race theory. I was on tour to promote the newly released young readers' edition, co-written with Sonja Cherry-Paul, of my 2021 book, How the Word Is Passed, which is about how slavery is remembered across America."
"Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman, gave birth to at least six of Jefferson's children (beginning when she was 16 and he was in his late 40s). Four of these children survived past childhood; Jefferson enslaved them until they were adults. Talking about this part of the American story with students is just as important as teaching them about Jefferson's political accomplishments; to gloss over his moral inconsistencies"
Many middle school students identify Thomas Jefferson as a president, a writer of founding documents, and recognize period hairstyles, yet remain unaware that he enslaved hundreds of Black people. Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello, gave birth to at least six of Jefferson's children starting when she was sixteen and he was in his late forties; four survived and remained enslaved into adulthood. Several Southern states have enacted laws and executive orders limiting instruction on critical race theory. Teaching Jefferson's political achievements alongside his moral failures and the realities of slavery provides necessary historical context for students.
Read at The Atlantic
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