Why Young Americans
Need To Know these Facts
About Slavery

Sheldon M. Stern, an African-American

historian at the John F. Kennedy Library

and Museum (1977–1999)—where he

designed the museum’s first civil rights

 exhibit, notes:

“Failure to educate young Americans

about the whole story of Atlantic slave

trade threatens to divide our nation and

undermine our civic unity and belief in the

historical legitimacy of our democratic

institutions. Education in a democracy

cannot promote half-truths about history

without undermining the ideal of

“e pluribus unum”—one from many—and

substituting a divisive emphasis on many from one. The history of the slave trade proves that virtually everyone participated and profited—whites and blacks; Christians, Muslims, and Jews; Europeans, Africans, Americans, and Latin Americans.

Once we recognize the shared historical responsibility for the Atlantic slave trade, we can turn our attention to “transforming the future” by eradicating its corrosive legacy.”

Read this complete article,

“It's Time to Face the Whole Truth about

the Atlantic Slave Trade” at

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/41431

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