5.

“GONE WITH THE WIND”

THE INVISIBILITY OF RACISM IN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS

History, despite its wrenching pain,

Cannot be unlived, and if faced

With courage, need not be lived

again.

—MAYA ANGELOU^1

The black-white rift stands at the

very center of American history. It is

the great challenge to which all our

deepest aspirations to freedom must

rise. If we forget that—if we forget

the great stain of slavery that stands

at the heart of our country, our

history, our experiment—we forget

who we are, and we make the great

rift deeper and wider.

—KEN BURNS^2

We have got to the place where we