["The American Negro as a Politician"] Page: 3 of 12
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ind the minor scientist George Washington Carver, whose attitudes aiuout
ace relations are least distrubing to conservative whites. Equally o:
ore worthy of inclusion by the standard of historical relevan e are
ike Denmark Vessey,, Nat Turner=
,nd the Rev. Martin Luther Xin,
ways and everywhere our childm s .
hole truth, as near as the best current scholarship can brig us te.
elusivee quality. This means, among other things, not obscuring the ki
spects of the truth-the fact that Negroes entered American society c
,Ylaves, the brutalities of slavery, the racism of the Reponstuxction _
ost-Reconstruction era, and the continue
ooks we have examined is the virtual owisaio ns the e ro. As seve.
-f the individual reports point our, the Negro does not exist' in thc
oo1ks . The authors of the books must know that there aye Negroes in
.erica, and have been sice 1619, but they evidently do not care to me.
iem by name too frequently. In one book there is no account of sla.t
n the colonial period; in a second, there is not a single word abor
egroes after the Civil War; in a third (composed of documents and
connect ionP
3 Ralph El . , g l g 4, _ atoes, wracesk equ m
s not "see" Negroes. But Negroes are Americans, their history is p
f American history. They need to be "seen" in textbooks. The space
given Negro history will, of coarse, depend in part on the nature of
textbook, and minimum standards of coverage are proposed later inz this
sport. What is especially important is that the discussions of egrc
ppear as an integral part of the book. Pertu
acry other groups in America. Negroes were not just another I migra
group: no other group could be so readily identified by its color o
,her group was so systematically enslaved, and no other group has b
; .1rnt d to as persistent asd virulent discrimination. From the seven
to our own dao, Negro life has been filled with violence
:hlight another failing of these textbooks that is al}.
3 distressing as the invisibility of Negroes in them All the texts
kay down or ignore the long history of violence between Negroes and
ales suggesting in differernt ways that racial contacts have been 6
inguished by a prog essive armony . The tone of a textbook is almost
important as anything it has to say. In their blandness and irorr
ptimism these books implicitLy deny the obvious deprivations suffered
-groesd In several. places they go further, irImplying approval for t,.
.)p1re$jif o? Neg>
Sa free society
a should now like mdetai L 1 Ye
-ve elements relating to Negroes that should be Iiuded in textboo:
VerieW the whole period of Aierican history These su;gesions :do
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["The American Negro as a Politician"], text, 1964/1966; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1884504/m1/3/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.