On the day of the 60th anniversary, September 15, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke from the pulpit of that church. This was her first visit to Birmingham, and she was there because, “I felt in my spirit that I had to come.” As the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, she reflected on the fact that it took 232 years for a Black woman to be appointed to the highest court in the land. Beyond her personal journey to the court, she focused on the need for all of us to learn about and face the uncomfortable parts of our racial history because, “the uncomfortable lessons often teach us the most about ourselves.” She also pointed out the reality of our current national atmosphere in which facing these uncomfortable lessons is discouraged and even outlawed by predominantly white authorities and legislators in many parts of the country. She offered the following challenging words about what is at stake in the ways we choose to teach and learn our shared history, “If we are going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth, or history.”
Just this week in the Washington Post, a story featured a high school teacher in South Carolina who was reprimanded because she encouraged her students to read about and discuss challenging parts of our nation’s racial history and relate them to our contemporary social situation. This had been a regular aspect of her teaching for many years. Based on a few student and parent complaints about feeling uncomfortable, she was forced to continue teaching “without discussing this issue with your students.” At school board meetings, some people wanted her to be fired, and a Republican state representative called her a lawbreaker. You can read the full article by clicking here.
This is a very difficult and challenging time for public educators who want to equip students without allowing, “concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth, or history.” In addition to supporting teachers who desire to teach in this way, those of us in faith communities can teach the truth of our history if we have the commitment and courage to do so. This is not about promoting a particular ideology or political agenda. Rather, it is about faithfulness to God’s call to justice for all people.
The first video posted below features brief clips from Justice Brown-Jackson’s speech at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The second video includes the entire speech. The section about teaching the truth about our history begins around 18:55.