Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Steve Quester | Brooklyn, NY
I was systematically miseducated about Reconstruction in my own public school education decades ago, in the North. It’s time to teach our White and BIPOC students the truth!
Samuel Eaton | Oakland, CA
Emily Patterson | Atlanta, GA
Deanna Wertheimer | Cary, NC
Laurel Lennon | Annapolis, MD
Fatima Hansia | Mill Valley, CA
Maureen Crocker | New Paltz, NY
Theresa Scott | Upper Providence Twp, PA
It is critical to teach the history of when Black Americans were leaders and doing great things in local, state, and national politics. Further, the erosion of that power and the backlash from those advancements bred Jim Crow laws and backlash against the emancipated Americans. What was borne from those days has continued to bear fruit to this day. We must teach this era and teach it accurately. It was NOT taught it accurately when I was in school.
Virginia Laffey | Providence, RI
Jill Godmilow | New York, NY
I'm making a film right now called For High School Students--Notes and Images From the VietNam War.Back a bit, a friend wrote me "that high school teachers of American history say that the three hardest things to explain to students are 1. Reconstruction, after the Civil War, with new Jim Crow laws... lynching, trauma and terror... a disaster for the civil rights of African Americans, 2. Westward Expansion--genocidal wars against Native American populations... ten million massacred, and 3, the tragic Vietnam War––and I mean tragic. And so that is the opening narration of the book. My film is about the Vietnam war, but next I will try to make a film about Reconstruction–– that terrible page out of US history. Our high school teachers never teach it. Mine didn't. It's time to teach it...NOW.
Sarah Stucky | Glenview, IL
Marilyn Howard | Columbus, OH
If we are to ever understand race in America today, we must have robust, accurate teaching of the Reconstruction era.
JASON NEUENSCHWANDER | Parkersburg, WV
Perhaps NO OTHER period in the history of what the great Sterling Brown dubbed "this place called America" was more pregnant with any sense of potential to snuff out the noxious and poisonous weeds of white supremacy and workers' oppression. Prior to its betrayal, this brief; albeit magical period offered the only sustainable opportunity for this country to redeem itself in the annals of world histories; without accurate knowledge of it students and scholars alike are as, if not more dangerous than Himes' allegorical "blind man with a pistol."
Arianna Marucci | Dolgeville, NY
Russ Vernon-Jones | Amherst Town of, MA
The history of Reconstruction is not well understood by the general public. Without an knowledge of Reconstruction one is vulnerable to many misconceptions about black people, racism, "progress", and who we are as a nation. Teaching about Reconstruction is an efficient way to illuminate key aspects of our national story.
Christine Shaw | Cranston, RI
Barbara Gilday | Bellingham, WA
Matthew Beck | New York, NY
Lance Ingwersen | Anniston, AL
Justi Echeles | Portland, OR
As a prior social studies teacher with keen interest in a more perfect union, I strongly support teaching Reconstruction as valuable to our democracy.
Lincoln Bergman | Richmond, CA
Jeanette Providence | Sacramento, CA
The Reconstruction must be taught and accurately taught to our students.
David Munoz | State College, PA
Not teaching critical eras, like Reconstruction, hinder our nation's ability to understand oppression and racism both in the past and currently. Giving students these foundations in understanding not only help them make sense of the world around them, but it helps society transform and create the possibility of creating an equitable society.
Samuel Richardson | Pittsburgh, PA
The official narrative of the United States is a fairy tale that precludes an appreciation of the legitimacy of the pleas for social justice and reparations. "...freedom and justice for all." has never been a reality in the United States yet that is the stated belief of millions. Effectively negating efforts to address real problems.
Michael Pitblado , ONCA
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