Happy History

By Mr. Gerald Greenwood

In third or fourth grade I remember reading about slavery in a history book at school. One page I remember had a beautiful white mansion with a big porch at the front with a Colonel Sanders figure sitting in a rocking chair.. He was drinking something while in the front of him in a large yard a black child played. She was running in the yard and her pig tails were flying. She appeared to be enjoying herself. On the opposite page black people picked a large field of cotton. They appeared to work diligently. The text described these scenes as being typical. That is all that was said about slavery. Nothing else before these pages or after. No discussion that I remember nothing.. I was getting short changed but that was the way it was. I do not even studying the history of blacks and of slavery in other grades period. Now the Florida schools are covering black history as I did. Little or not at all! It is ok to gloss over the subject because it may be uncomfortable for white children to learn the whole truth about slavery. Well that's tough. White washing history only postponed when one learns the truth. Hiding the truth does not prevent the truth from being known eventually. Much of the violence and poverty we see comes from people in situations who have been ignored, shut out discarded and animalized.. think about it !!