Black History Is for Everyone

A longtime educator and activist explores how the study of Black history challenges our understanding of race, nation, and the stories we tell about who we are.

Black history is under attack from powerful right-wing forces that seek to excise it from classrooms and libraries. Its opponents fail to understand a simple truth: the best education challenges our assumptions and demands we keep at it. It makes us uncomfortable, helps us see larger forces at work, and gives us glimpses of alternate futures.

, award-winning educator and scholar Brian Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history, using his own experiences as a life-long learner and classroom teacher to question everything from the meaning of race and nation to the radicalism of the American Revolution. We see that "race" took centuries to get defined; we follow Frederick Douglass as he grapples with how to relate to the US and, later, to Haiti; we compare the American, French, and Haitian revolutions; and we learn why the study of Black history has always been threatened.

In these pages, Jones offers a persuasive case for Black history and a celebration of the rewards of education. With warmth, immersive storytelling, and good cheer, Jones encourages us to delve deeper into our collective history, explores how curiosity about our world is essential-and reminds us that with stakes so high, the effort is worth it.