reflected

A conservative leader found fault with how “respect for our nation’s heritage” had been mostly stripped from the textbooks of public schools. “From kindergarten right through the total school system, it almost seems as if classroom textbooks are designed to negate what philosophies previously had been taught,” the conservative leader lamented. “[M]any textbooks are actually perverting the minds of literally millions of students.” A teachers organization shot back, saying the underlying motive for some attacks against books has “unquestionably been racial.” This might sound like a back-and-forth from recent debates over removing books from school classrooms and libraries. Often, critical race theory – an academic framework for understanding racism – has been at the center of these debate...

In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” “He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the audience of 2,000 delegates. “I consider him a friend. I consider him a great friend of humanity.” That man was Sidney Poitier. Poitier, who died at 94 on Jan. 7, 2022, broke the mold of what a Black actor could be in Hollywood. Before the 1950s, Black movie characters generally reflected racist stereotypes such as lazy servants and beefy mammies. Then came Poitier, the only Black man to consistently win leading roles in major films from the late 1950s through the late 1960...

Tag: reflected

Conflicts From The 1980s Reflected In Battles Over Book Bans

Hollywood’s First Black Leading Man Mr. Sidney Poitier Reflected The Civil Rights Movement On Screen