Diversity Brings Breadth to U.S. History

American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. They hear about how white Northerners freed the black slaves, how Asians came in the mid-1800s to build Western railroads. The lessons have left out a lot.

Forty-two years before Jamestown, Spaniards and American Indians lived in St. Augustine, Florida. At least several thousand Latinos and nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought in the Civil War. And Asian-Americans had been living in California and Louisiana since the 1700s. Yet such details are rarely mentioned in American history books.

Now, more of these and other lesser-known facts about American minorities are getting more attention. The main reason is the nation's growing diversity. The nation is slowly awakening to the fact that our freedom was won by whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Orientals alike. Advancements in art, literature, industry and sports were made by the people with widely varied ethnic origins.

Erin Texeira of the Associated Press has written an excellent article about America's diversity. I think it should be required reading for all Americans, especially students. You can read the article on many newspaper web sites. I found it on the Seattle Post Intelligencer at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Forgotten_History.html.

Comments

[Jason Presley]

It's high time American school started teaching a more representative view of our history instead of focusing solely on the Western European (usually meaning almost entirely English and French) settlers. Reading history textbooks for the past 20-30 years, you'd think the only significant non-whites were Pocahontas, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Martin Luther King, Jr (and maybe Jackie Robinson). Another part of the problem (at least when I was in school ) was that we were taught the exact same things in Social Studies year after year. How many times to students need to learn about Columbus, the pilgrims and the Civil War from 3rd-12th grade? Maybe if it weren't presented so dryly the first time, we wouldn't have forgotten it all every summer.

[Bob Greene]

The AP article goes to the very heart of a newly published book, "Maine's Visible Black History," published by Tilbury House, $35. The reason it is called "Visible" is because for too long the history of African Americans and all other minorities have been invisible. In my case, I have ancestors who were born in Cumberland County, ME, in 1783, and my ancestors or descendants have fought in every American conflict from King Philip's War to Iraq. This new book is just part of an emerging trend around the country to tell the real American history story.

Bob