06/05/2020
“Teach for justice, not for privilege.”
Paul Bushnell, Professor Emeritus of History, 1994
The IWU History faculty supports the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests and rallies here and around the world in reaction to the violent and horrific events of the last few weeks. We stand with those who are protesting not only the senseless and violent death of George Floyd, but also the long history of racial and economic inequality. Because historical inquiry is about understanding the myriad ways that ordinary people have changed the world, History gives voice to not only the powerful, but also the powerless. History teaches us that change comes through struggle.
Lonnie Bunch, the Director of the Smithsonian Institution and founding Director of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, recently wrote in response to the current moment:
"Frederick Douglass famously said, 'Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground… The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle.' At this pivotal moment when the eyes of the nation and the world are upon Minneapolis, will we join the struggle to seek justice and equality? Will we heed the call of courageous figures throughout history who spoke out against slavery, marched on for voting rights, and sat in for basic equality? Will we challenge the nation to live up to its founding ideals? In the memory of those taken from us and for the good of the country, I hope that we do."
We reaffirm here our commitment to these challenges. In history, we read, we watch, we listen. When Paul Bushnell taught one of the first African-American History courses in the country at IWU in 1968, a Peoria journalist asked him if there were enough books on the subject to teach such a course. He calmly replied, “Well, there are several hundred to start.” There are many lists of thousands of excellent books on African-American history and the history of race. We suggest a place to start, as we take on the challenges demanded by this historic moment, is with this excellent digital narrative on the historical foundations of race, part of the new “Talking About Race” portal developed by the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/historical-foundations-race
The world got along without race for the overwhelming majority of its history. The U.S. has never been without it. DAVID R. ROEDIGER Race is a human-invented, shorthand term used to describe and categorize people into various social groups based on characteristics like skin color, physical features,...