Such efforts raise questions about whether students in the U.S. will ever be able to engage in free and meaningful discussions about the history of slavery in America and the effect it had on the nation.

As , we see a potential venue for these kinds of discussions that we believe to be an overlooked and poorly used resource: plantation museums.

If slavery is, as , 鈥済round zero for race relations,鈥� then the hundreds of plantation museums that dot the southeastern U.S. landscape seem like to confront the difficult history of America鈥檚 slave-owning past.

Exploring that possibility is one of the reasons why 鈥� along with fellow , , and 鈥� we received a to .

We think these plantation museums could be important sites for an educational with this difficult aspect of America鈥檚 past. But that鈥檚 only if the people who run these museums are committed to telling the truth about what took place, rather than perpetuating . This is particularly important as policymakers seek to curtail discussions about racism 鈥� or even 鈥� in America鈥檚 K-12 schools and colleges and universities.

Usages of these sites have traditionally life before the Civil War and . They have also downplayed the resistance and resilience of enslaved communities, thus preventing the nation from getting a fuller and more accurate picture of American slavery.

Reforms needed

In order to make better use of plantation museums as places to learn about racism and slavery, the museums must be reformed in a major way and do more than just . Rather, this reform demands a reworking of almost every facet of the museum 鈥� from misguided tours that gloss over the harsh living conditions of the enslaved to artifacts and marketing materials that emphasize the opulent and picturesque mansions that belie the horrors of what took place on the surrounding grounds. In , we discovered plantation museums where 50% of the tours never mentioned slavery. Our work provides practical guidance to the changes that need to happen.

Problematic places of learning

Within the United States, there are at least 375 plantations open for public tours scattered across 19 states. Based on nearly 2,000 surveys our research team conducted, visitors have indicated that they go to plantations to 鈥渓earn about history.鈥� The general public considers historical sites, such as plantation museums, to be . Therefore, they deserve to be held accountable for the educational experience they provide.

School field trips are an important revenue source for these often .

At Shirley Plantation in Virginia, field trips . At Meadow Farm, near Richmond, Virginia, . At Boone Hall in South Carolina, visit the site annually.

Whitewashing of history

At one Virginia plantation museum, we observed school children go on where they take on the roles of white slave owners. In one case, the children deliver a message between the white slave owner鈥檚 son 鈥� a Confederate soldier 鈥� and his sick mother while their plantation was occupied by Union troops. This, we believe, leads the children to identify and empathize with the white slave-owning family as opposed to the individuals they enslaved.

Toward reparative education

calls for plantation museums to engage in a more form of education. This education would come to terms with the injustices of the past and in the present, which in turn harms and .

Repairing these historical fallacies is not just about getting the facts correct about the enslaved and the enslavers. It also requires the public to about how slavery is a source of pain and tension in America. Lessons should show how this tension continues to impact . Often to construct buildings, roads, ports and rail lines we use in America.

found that many plantation museums were reluctant to highlight Black lives and histories. But there is promising evidence of change at sites like McLeod Plantation on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina, which opened in 2015, less than a year after the more well-known in Louisiana.

We see both museums 鈥� Whitney and McLeod 鈥� as exceptional in plantation tourism. Combined, our research found these two sites attract a more racially diverse visitorship than many other plantations because of the inclusive stories being told. Our surveys with visitors suggest public interest in the topic of slavery increased after taking guided tours that focused on the experiences of enslaved communities. In our view, this is a needed counterpoint to of some visitors pushing back against hearing these sober discussions. For instance, tour guides at McLeod reported white visitors yelling at them, claiming the tour their ancestors.

Both of these plantations represent a new way of educating the public about the realities of slavery. Here are three things that stood out during our assessment of the Whitney and McLeod plantations.

1. They incorporate slavery and the lives of the enslaved throughout the tour

We think it鈥檚 important to feature slavery and the lives of the enslaved and not keep it separate in a special exhibit.

Visitors should be given an opportunity to make thoughtful connections to those who were once enslaved by learning names and details about their lives. At Whitney, for example, visitors are encouraged to make emotional connections. One way they do this is by receiving a lanyard at the start of the tour that features the words and image of a formerly enslaved child.

2. They provide visitors a space to contemplate

We know the plantation can be an especially fraught and emotional experience, . During our fieldwork, Black visitors would often describe the land as sacred and a powerful place to . Some of these plantations have even hosted . Whitney Plantation provides opportunities for visitor reflection and contemplation throughout the tour, such as benches near a wall that memorializes and honors all of the people who were enslaved there.

3. Tour guides were well prepared

McLeod鈥檚 management purposely hired guides who would disrupt romantic notions of the plantation and engage meaningfully with themes of slavery, race and social justice. They also to guides doing the of challenging or complicating long-held plantation myths.

Managers at McLeod acknowledged the stress experienced by their tour guides when they focused on enslavement and its aftermath. They took extra steps to ensure that their guides were supported by initiating a 鈥済olden hour.鈥� This was a time for staff to come together and reflect on difficult encounters with the visitors, who sometimes challenged guides鈥� historical knowledge and fairness. It was also a time for the guides to develop strategies to cope with the of the hostility they faced while doing their jobs.

, Associate Professor of Geography, and , Professor of Geography,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Under the new law, a 鈥渢eacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.鈥� The law doesn鈥檛 define what a controversial issue is. If a teacher does discuss these topics, they must 鈥渆xplore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.鈥�

It also requires at least one teacher and one campus administrator at each school district to attend a civics training program that will teach educators how race and racism should be taught in Texas schools.

There are more than 1,200 school districts in Texas. The the training program alone would be about $14.6 million annually, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

, passed during the Texas Legislature鈥檚 second special session ending Sept. 2, replaces , which Gov. signed over the summer. At the time, Abbott said more needed to be done to 鈥渁bolish鈥� critical race theory in Texas classrooms and lawmakers went to work to craft a more restrictive measure. The result was SB 3.

鈥淚t’s not just about what a teacher may or may not say,鈥� said Chloe Latham Sikes, deputy director of policy at the Intercultural Development Research Association. 鈥淚t’s also how they go about their class, how they design the class 鈥� how they might address really sensitive issues of race and gender and identity and sexism in their classrooms.鈥�

Critical race theory is and not limited to individuals. It鈥檚 an academic discipline taught at the university level. But it has become a common phrase used by conservatives to include anything about race taught or discussed in public secondary schools.

The new civics training mandated by the new law that requires attendance by at least one teacher and one campus administrator from each district will be created by the Texas Education Agency and it must be implemented no later than the 2025-2026 school year.

The state education agency has not yet released what this civics training program will look like. The law also requires the TEA to set up an advisory board for the training program.

The earlier attempt at a law to restrict what is taught in school caused so much confusion among educators that a informed teachers at a training session in October that they had to provide materials that presented an 鈥渙pposing鈥� perspective of the Holocaust.

In records obtained by The Texas Tribune, the TEA has been advising school administrators that teachers should just continue teaching the current curriculum until the State Board of Education revises the social studies curriculum over the next year.

The new law also zeroed in on the , a collection of essays that centered on how slavery and the contributions of Black Americans shaped the United States. With this law, students cannot be required to read the 1619 Project essays. It also bars students from receiving credit for working as a volunteer with a political campaign or interning for companies or organizations where they will be lobbying. Also, any school district that uses an online portal to assign learning material has to give parents access.

鈥淎ll of this is really about routing out any acknowledgement of the salience of sex, race, gender and silencing those conversations, which, in the end, ultimately hurt students of color and students in the LGBTQ community,鈥� Sikes said.

Disclosure: New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

Brian Lopez is an education reporter at , the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. This article at TexasTribune.org.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not extinct,鈥� the young student ventured, nervous about contradicting the lesson, but feeling she had to speak up. 鈥淚鈥檓 a Narragansett.鈥�

No response came from her teacher or classmates, recalls the Chariho Regional School District alum, who graduated in 1986.

鈥淚t just didn’t matter,鈥� she told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淵ou were insignificant.鈥�

Now, decades later, Baker has two children in the same school system who have navigated similar experiences of hurt and invisibility. Sometimes, the racism has been overt, like when a classmate muttered the N-word at her daughter in middle school. But more often, it comes in the form of quiet erasure and inaccurate tropes.

鈥淚n history class, it鈥檚 mostly the history of the colonizers,鈥� said her daughter Nittaunis Baker, 19, who graduated from Chariho High School in spring 2021 and now attends the University of Rhode Island. 

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 really talk about Native people that much,鈥� she told 蜜桃影视.

Even now, as the topic of how to teach U.S. history in schools is receiving an unprecedented level of public attention, Indigenous parents say the debates still largely exclude lessons on Native people. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 [been] very Black/white centric,鈥� said Samantha Cullen-Fry, a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe who has two young children in the West Warwick School District. She agrees that highlighting the Black experience is important, especially in wake of the police murder of George Floyd. But efforts to diversify K-12 curricula are incomplete, she says, if they fail to accurately teach about Native people. 

When English colonists first came to New England in the 17th century, the Narragansett people had been living in the region for some 30,000 years 鈥� making the vast majority of North American history, chronologically speaking, Indigenous history. In the following centuries, Native people have continued to live in the region.

鈥淭here is no United States history, there is no Rhode Island history, without Indigenous history,鈥� the West Warwick mother told 蜜桃影视.

Across the country, fights over critical race theory have elevated conversations over social studies curricula to the central stage in many . CRT is not an ideology, but rather a scholarly framework that views racism and inequality as ingrained in law and society. Still, in Oklahoma, a bill to restrict its teaching led to the removal of classic books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Raisin in the Sun from reading lists, according to a recent ACLU lawsuit. In Texas, the crackdown prompted a school administrator to . 

The Ocean State has emerged as a hotbed for the controversy. Over the summer, a South Kingstown mother made national headlines for filing more than investigating if the district taught terms like 鈥渟ystemic racism,鈥� 鈥渨hite privilege鈥� or the 鈥�1619 Project.鈥� Education writer Erika Sanzi, a former Rhode Island teacher and school board member, has become and other curricular changes her group, Parents Defending Education, see as divisive.

And although Rhode Island was not one of the to enact laws restricting teaching on race and gender, a bill to do so was introduced by state legislators in spring 2021, though it failed to pass.

Its author, Rep. Patricia Morgan, did not respond to questions from 蜜桃影视 asking whether topics such as the , which took place just miles outside the Chariho school system鈥檚 present day boundaries, would be among the 鈥溾�� that the bill sought to ban. In the event, 1,000 English colonial soldiers, joined by about 150 Pequot and Mohegan soldiers, attacked and burned a Narragansett stronghold, killing hundreds, including women and children. In late October, the Rhode Island Historical Society transferred the 5-acre South Kingstown site back to the Narragansett Indian Tribe, nearly three and half centuries after the deadly event.

In Chariho schools, where more than 9 in 10 students are white, alumni of the district who are Indigenous and graduated in recent decades have recounted experiences of being by their counselors. In nearby Narragansett Regional School District, Cullen-Fry had to spend a post-grad year doing unnecessary pre-college work, she said, because her counselor did not send in her paperwork, assuming she couldn鈥檛 afford higher education. The experience, she learned later at a high school reunion, was shared by numerous peers of color.

Chariho Assistant Superintendent Michael Comella said he was not aware of Indigenous students having had issues with the district鈥檚 college counselors in the past, but mentioned that the school system is working with local Narragansett leaders to improve school policy and providing professional development sessions on equity and inclusion for teachers. He said teachers typically cover the Great Swamp Massacre in fifth grade during lessons on King Philip鈥檚 War. 

鈥淭he district remains committed to ensur[ing] that we account for all important information and history as it relates to our tribal community,鈥� he wrote in an email to 蜜桃影视.

Though there is much more work to do, the elder Baker appreciates that the Chariho district has made some efforts to better serve its Native students. The high school has a on staff and, recently, has begun engaging in conversations with Indigenous parents about further improvements.

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 about bashing the Chariho school district,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is about recognizing that there are issues that have affected past and present generations of Indigenous students who have attended this school system and they need to be addressed on behalf of present and future generations.鈥�

Chariho has formed an that has been meeting since the fall of 2020 in pursuit of more equitable school policies, practices and curricula. Some residents, such as the Bakers, say that the changes are sorely needed, but others staunchly oppose them.

鈥淚 do not support, at this point, the anti-racism task force,鈥� audience member Jim Sullivan said during public comment at a Nov. 9 . 鈥淚 am concerned about their bringing racism into the Chariho system.鈥�

鈥淲e are not domestic terrorists,鈥� he added, referencing escalating tensions nationwide at board meetings that recently prompted the National School Boards Association to send a letter to the White House requesting increased support and security.

The pushback does not phase endawnis Spears, who recently joined the Chariho School Committee after a member鈥檚 resignation. Spears, who does not capitalize her first name, is a member of the Navajo Nation, with ties also to the Chocktaw, Chickasaw and Ojibwe people. Diverse perspectives, she believes, are necessary to the development of all children.

鈥淚 want to ensure that teachers have everything they need to prepare their students 鈥� all of their students 鈥� to be able to navigate citizenship in the United States,鈥� she told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淭hat includes Indigenous histories.鈥�

鈥淭he lack of nuance around Indigenous histories also is a form of erasure,鈥� she added. 鈥淚t continues the process of erasing Native people from this landscape.鈥�

Statewide, Lor茅n Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum for Indigenous history, culture and arts in Exeter, Rhode Island and related to endawnis Spears by marriage, believes officials must work to better represent the state鈥檚 Native students.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 been very teacher-by-teacher, the improvement, rather than the system of education improving,鈥� she said on a of the Boston Globe鈥檚 Rhode Island Report podcast. 鈥淚 would like to see, you know, the Department of Education really take an active role in ensuring that the history is inclusive and includes Native people.鈥�

State social studies standards do not stipulate that schools teach specific aspects of Native history or culture, said the Rhode Island Department of Education, instead leaving those decisions up to districts.

鈥淚f materials [that districts] use presently from a publisher do not adequately address Indigenous representation, [the state education department] would strongly encourage school leaders to develop materials they can use to meet the standards,鈥� Communications Director Victor Morente wrote in an email to 蜜桃影视.

Accurately representing Native Rhode Islanders means addressing certain truths that may be difficult, said the younger Baker. But covering those facts in schools, rather than mythologized narratives of harmony between colonists and Native people, doesn鈥檛 mean placing blame on any students, she said.

鈥淭he establishment of this country was pretty much the murder of a lot of Indigenous people, including my ancestors,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don’t think that [white] kids should feel ashamed because it’s not really them. It鈥檚 their ancestors.鈥�

It鈥檚 only shameful when students shy away from those histories, she believes. 鈥淚f they refuse to acknowledge that that happened, then you kind of become complicit in not recognizing the struggles that [Indigenous] people went through.鈥�

In school, the only time she remembers a lesson on Indigenous people was a brief mention in fifth grade around Thanksgiving. She doesn鈥檛 recall any lessons on the Great Swamp Massacre. Additionally, in high school, outside of class, she had a teacher who held a reading group focused on Native sciences, which discussed a book written by a member of the Potawatomi Nation. She enjoyed the experience, and wishes there could be official courses devoted to such topics. 

鈥淓ven having a class just on the history of Indigenous peoples, like how they have classes on ancient Greek and Roman things, that would be really cool,鈥� said the college freshman, who is studying marine biology. She receives free tuition at URI thanks to her status as a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Teachers can cater Indigenous history and culture to learners of any age, said Cullen-Fry, who works as an educator at the Tomaquag Museum. For example, many classes visit the museum in November, Native American Heritage Month. She corrects the youngsters鈥� misconceptions about Thanksgiving, teaching them that it鈥檚 traditional in many Indigenous cultures to celebrate 13 Thanksgivings, one for each of the year鈥檚 moon cycles.

States such as Oregon have moved in recent years to require that schools teach , and to bring tribal educators .

But until such shifts, large and small, are incorporated into Rhode Island schools, the Baker family will celebrate progress on a more personal level.

When Nittaunis walked across the graduation stage in May 2021, she was adorned with tribal jewelry and ornamentation, passed down from her ancestors. Her mother, after so many of her own personal experiences of feeling that her Indigenous identity was erased by the world around her, wanted people to know: Another Indigenous child just graduated from Chariho High School.

The proud message was simple.

鈥淪ociety doesn鈥檛 think that we鈥檙e here,鈥� the elder Baker said. 鈥淲e are here.鈥�