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black history
Trump May Try, But It’s Impossible to Erase the Legacy of Black People in This Country
Having overcome enslavement, Jim Crow, and more, our striving to thrive in a country with so-called leaders who would prefer to keep us living on the margins only exemplifies the America we aspire to.
Feb 10, 2025
It’s a trend that’s been building for a few years now.
Books by predominantly Black authors are being banned around the country. School curricula have been amended to skip the history lesson on slavery and racism. Critical Race Theory (CRT)—and anything that vaguely looks like it—is under attack. And the concept of “wokeness” has been misconstrued and weaponized.
Fast-forward to February 2025 and there’s been a doubling down on these attempts to erase Black history. U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI, anti-“woke” rhetoric has led major companies and even many federal agencies to avoid observing Black History Month.
One thing Black people are going to do is to be Black—and proud. We don’t need a month to know that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
As I consider the president’s campaign promise to “make America great again,” I wonder if he means to make America “white” again.
From failing to condemn white supremacists for their violent march in Charlottesville, Virginia during his first term to blaming “diversity hires” for January’s plane crash in Washington, D.C. this year, Trump and his allies seem to have a difficult time acknowledging the diversity that actually makes this country great.
This has been especially true for Black people feeling the brunt of his Executive Orders. These haven’t just eliminated recent diversity and inclusion initiatives—one even rescinded an Executive Order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to end discriminatory practices mostly aimed at Black Americans.
During a speech at Howard University in 1965, President Johnson said that Black Americans were “still buried under a blanket of history and circumstance.” Following widespread protests, it was Johnson who signed the landmark Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law. Now both historic milestones are under threat by the attempts of Trump and many others to erode the social and economic gains made by Black Americans.
It’s as if we are reliving a time akin to the nadir of race relations in America—the period after Reconstruction, when white supremacists regained power and tried to reverse the progress Black Americans made after the emancipation of enslaved people.
Today, from the U.S. Air Force [temporarily] removing coursework on the Tuskegee Airmen to orders by many federal agencies, including the military, canceling Black History Month celebrations, these extreme rollbacks will set a new precedent impacting all minority groups.
I can’t help but to return to sentiments shared by The 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones: “The same instinct that led powerful people to prohibit Black people from being able to read,” she wrote, is also “leading powerful people to try to stop our children from learning histories that would lead them to question the unequal society that we have as well.”
There is nothing comfortable about the history of Black Americans—it’s a history that shatters the myth of American exceptionalism. Nevertheless, Black history is American history. Instead of banning it, we must teach it.
It would be impossible to erase the legacy of Black people in this country. Ours is a legacy that endures—one that will continue to endure no matter who’s in the White House.
One thing Black people are going to do is to be Black—and proud. We don’t need a month to know that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Having overcome enslavement, Jim Crow, and more, our striving to thrive in a country with so-called leaders who would prefer to keep us living on the margins only exemplifies the America we aspire to. And it’s a fight that’s made this country better for struggling people of all races.
Like it or not, Black history is every day.
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Let This Black History Month Remind Us That Progress Is Still Possible
The African American tradition of struggle advances the entire nation. In that spirit, we must continue to build coalitions that address shared socioeconomic challenges across racial and ethnic lines.
Feb 07, 2025
I lead the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, America’s Black think tank. When we opened our doors in 1970, there were only 1,469 Black elected officials in office across the United States. Today, there are over 10,000.
These milestones are historic, yet they also compel us to confront the sad reality that African Americans are still far behind their white counterparts in terms of overall economic well-being and political representation.
This duality—celebrating progress while recognizing the challenges in front of us—defines the spirit of Black History Month for 2025.
While congressional power remains fluid, with the Senate and especially the House narrowly divided, strategic coalition building can help us address persistent disparities and create a more equitable future.
While the growth of Black political leadership is encouraging, representation alone doesn’t guarantee systemic change. And today, even that progress in Black political representation is threatened.
Under the last administration, African Americans held 11% of the highest ranking, commissioned officer positions within the White House—nearly reaching our 14% share of the U.S. population.
The current administration, by contrast, has appointed only one Black cabinet nominee, returning our country to the poor Black representation of the 1980s. And following guidance from the White House, many federal agencies have now canceled their Black History Month celebrations.
But outside the White House, Black political representation has reached historic highs.
Today, we have one Black governor, Wes Moore of Maryland—only the third Black governor elected in U.S. history. We’ve set a new record with five Black U.S. Senators: Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) now has 62 members—its largest membership yet.
At the local level, Black political leadership is flourishing with a record 143 Black mayors across the country. Black leaders are at the helm of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. These leaders are shaping not only their own cities, but urban policy across the nation.
Economic progress has accompanied these political milestones. Black Americans have achieved record levels of economic well-being in recent years, including historically low unemployment rates, a median income of $56,490, and median household wealth of $44,900.
But while these figures are encouraging, they remain overshadowed by persistent racial disparities. White households, for instance, maintain a median wealth of $285,000, highlighting the country’s deep racial economic divide.
The African American tradition of struggle advances the entire nation. In that spirit, we must continue to build coalitions that address shared socioeconomic challenges across racial and ethnic lines. Economic security, the need for a living wage, access to affordable housing, and moving communities out of asset poverty—these are the battles that our historic number of Black elected officials must continue to fight.
Recent attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are another area demanding focus. We cannot allow the Trump administration’s witch hunt for those who’ve advocated opportunities for underrepresented communities to turn back the slow, gradual progress in Black political power.
The Joint Center was born from the Black freedom tradition—not from a desire for surface-level diversity, but from the need for true systemic change. As we navigate these challenges, we draw strength from this tradition and our remarkable progress.
The next two to four years present unique opportunities for collaboration and advancement. While congressional power remains fluid, with the Senate and especially the House narrowly divided, strategic coalition building can help us address persistent disparities and create a more equitable future.
Let this Black History Month remind us that progress is possible, even in the face of persistent challenges. Together, we can honor the sacrifices of those who came before us and pave the way for a brighter future for generations to come.
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House Dems Slam 'Racist Tropes' in New Florida K-12 History Curriculum
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost led the letter against "bigoted teaching standards in Florida that want kids to learn that Black people received 'benefits' from being enslaved."
Jul 22, 2023
Four Black Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday joined the growing chorus of critics opposing "racist tropes" in Florida's new K-12 history curriculum, which includes teaching middle school students "the resurrection of one of the greatest lies America has ever told itself, that slavery benefited the enslaved."
"Your decision to rewrite history to ingrain white supremacy into the minds of children is a colossal step backward and an insult to Black people, descendants of slaves, and the intellect of the American people," three Florida Democrats—Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, and Frederica Wilson—and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) wrote to the state's Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and Board of Education Chairman Ben Gibson.
The first-of-its-kind standards approved Wednesday by the Florida board "are not the truth of American history but riddled with falsehoods that minimize the unique racial terror experienced by Black people in America throughout time," the lawmakers argued.
"These standards are out of touch with reality and will leave future generations of Floridians out of touch and disadvantaged in the world outside of Florida," they warned. "Even worse, it plants the sinister thought that enslavement and continued harm toward Black people today is also acceptable and beneficial."
Flordia's mandated instruction that enslaved people developed "skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit" has garnered national attention but "is not the only dangerous falsehood," the quartet highlighted. They pointed out that the curriculum for middle school students "also requires downplaying and tempering the horror of American slavery by requiring it is coupled with teaching, 'how slavery was utilized in Asian, European, and African cultures,' 'the similarities and differences between serfdom and slavery,' and 'comparative treatment of indentured servants of European and African extraction.'"
Additionally, for high schoolers, the standards "list massacres of Black people in America as, 'examples of acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans,' falsely assigning shared responsibility to Black victims," the lawmakers noted.
"We demand the Florida Board of Education immediately reverse its decision," they concluded. "Not repealing these new standards would dig up the corpse of the worst version of our nation and force our children to live in it."
Frost, Cherfilus-McCormick, Wilson, and Horsford aren't the only critics of the Florida curriculum in Congress. U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a Black former teacher and principal, tweeted Friday that "this is an outright attempt to rewrite history and ignore America's past of racial exploitation and violence and the trauma from the impact of slavery on Black Americans."
Congressman Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.)—a son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson—thanked Vice President Kamala Harris "for standing up for the truth" by blasting the Florida standards and declared that "we must be true to our history, even when it's painful."
The national alarm over Florida's curriculum comes after the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis—now a GOP 2024 presidential candidate—earned widespread criticism earlier this year for rejecting an Advanced Placement course about African American studies for high school students.
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