Sifting through an astounding array of textbooks from the colonial era through the 20th century, Donald Yacovone reveals how Northern publishers perpetuated the pernicious myth of white supremacy through the teaching of American history. Yacovone’s newest book-Teaching White Supremacy marshals a wealth of evidence to show how racial bias insidiously endured in our education system, how it burrowed into the heart of our collective national identity, and why the topic of race in education is still hotly contested today.
Join us for an important reminder about the power of history to shape a nation, for better or for worse.
Donald Yacovone is a lifetime associate at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research and has written and edited nine books, including Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity. He won an NAACP Image Award (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) for The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross and received the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in 2013, Harvard’s highest honor in African American studies.