Deep in the heart of Texas

History’s lessons for Black (social studies) teachers who humanize Blackness

Abstract

From my position as a Black social studies teacher educator and interdisciplinary historian of education who calls Texas home, I explore in this essay how critical educators might consider what some of Texas’s most recent “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” statutes signify about the effectiveness of critical Black social studies teachers’ work thus far. I underline what Nobel laureate Toni Morrison said about the heightened restriction she faced given her writing: that it can often indicate our work is indeed disrupting the ongoing, systemic project of white domination and antiBlack subordination. Then, I highlight how Black educators of the Jim Crow era navigated political atmospheres comparable to the one in which Texas educators, among others, now find themselves. Looking back at these educators’ subversive practices, which sought to undermine the status quo of white supremacy and antiBlackness, I suggest how their work might guide those engaged in similar projects today.