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Lesson Plan Segment: The Truth Liberal Faculty Hide About Black Women

Learning Objectives (with examples)

• Students will analyze how academia sanitizes Black women’s histories Example: Students compare the textbook version of Rosa Parks (“tired seamstress”) with her actual work investigating the gang rape of Recy Taylor.
• Students will evaluate the impact of omitted violence on historical understanding Example: Students examine how removing Fannie Lou Hamer’s forced sterilization changes the meaning of her political activism.

Learning Outcomes (with examples)

• Students will identify at least three ways institutions distort Black women’s stories Example: A student explains how Wangari Maathai’s beatings are erased, how Althea Gibson’s poverty is hidden, and how Miriam Makeba’s exile is reframed as a “career move.”
• Students will produce a written or verbal critique demonstrating the need for "unsanitized" history Example: A student writes a paragraph arguing that Wilma Rudolph’s fight against segregation is more historically significant than her Olympic medals.

Four Questions Students May Ask Faculty

1. Why are Black women’s experiences with state violence, sexual assault, and medical racism rarely included in our curriculum?
2. Who decides which parts of Black women’s history are “appropriate” for classrooms — and why?
3. Why do textbooks highlight Black women’s achievements but erase the brutality they survived to reach them?
4. How does faculty discomfort shape what we learn about women like Daisy Bates, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Miriam Makeba?

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