Dear Mrs. Thomas:
I was very pleased to notice that you were very attentive when I was giving testimony at the State Board of Education hearing in Sacramento last Thursday, in relation to the proposed history-social science curriculum.
You have probably read my book AFRICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS published by the University of Illinois Press recently in paperback, or perhaps my much earlier AFRO-AMERICANS IN THE FAR WEST: A HANDBOOK FOR EDUCATORS (1967). In any case, the materials found in both of these books is entirely left out of the proposed curriculum.
I am a Native American scholar but I am also interested in all other ethnic groups. I believe that the future of our children depends upon us including vital information about African-Americans, Asian-Americans and women in the curriculum, material that is now left out in the proposal.
There is literally nothing in the curriculum about Black Americans in early California during the Spanish, Mexican and early U.S. period. Moreover, Black pioneers in the founding of Los Angeles are completely left out, as are the Black pioneers of San Jose and San Francisco. I am enclosing for you a copy of an early article of mine which talks about Black pioneers of California as an example of what has been totally ignored.
I know that what I am going to ask of you will take a lot of courage! Someone has to stand up and speak out! What I am asking is that you take the lead in asking that the Board postpone adoption of the history-social science standards until a task force can be assembled to carefully go over the standards to be sure that all ethnic groups and women are adequately included. Such a task force should be from the topmost California scholars of African-American, Native American, Asian-American, European-American, Arab-American, Indian (South Asian) American, Southeast Asian-American, Pacific Islands American, Jewish-American, and Mexican-American/Latino American ethnicities (for example), with equal numbers of women and men, to make sure that our standards are the best that can be created!
I believe that you are a believer in our youth, or you would not take the time to serve on the Board. Then you will agree with me, that there is no rush. What we want is quality and accuracy, not a hurried product that has not been adequately reviewed by expert historians and other scholars. What harm can it possibly do to wait a bit longer, in order to give experts on content a chance to be involved?
Of course, what is really at stake are the future of our children, all of them. We cannot tell Black students that nothing of value happened in Black culture after the 1920's! We cannot lead them to believe that only slavery and Reconstruction tell the African-American story before this century! We need to have Black explorers, writers, navigators, soldiers, artisans, and freedom-fighters as a part of the curriculum; and the same is true for other ethnic groups.
Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you or to the Board.
Sincerely yours,
Jack D. Forbes
Professor Emeritus