Kentucky Association of Teachers of History

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a powerful research report on the teaching of history of American slavery. Entitled “Teaching Hard History” the report concludes that we, collectively, are not adequately teaching this important part of U.S. history in high school. Indeed, since slavery was at the core of our beginnings and formation as a nation-state, we must face squarely this history’s part in the persistent disparities African Americans face today.

The report details the SPLC findings:

• High school seniors struggle on even the most basic questions about American enslavement of Africans.
• Teachers who are serious about teaching slavery struggle to provide deep coverage of the subject in the classroom.
• Popular textbooks fail to comprehensively cover slavery and enslaved peoples.
• State content standards are timid and fail to set appropriately high expectations. 

“We can and must do better. Read the report. Take the quiz. Engage with hard history.”