TEACHING ENSLAVEMENT AND EMANCIPATION

Teaching contemporary black history starts with enslavement. My earliest memory about the history of slavery was watching Roots in 1977. I would sit in my parents’ kitchen watching every episode on a twelve-inch black-and-white television. What I remember most is the music; it was fantastic. I don’t recall much else, I just know it was on every night. It wasn’t until I got to college that I truly learned about slavery. Like many other Americans, I was largely clueless about the full scope of African enslavement in the United States. (A note on language. I don’t use the word “slave.”