Black History in Reprise: Choruses of Social Change, Conspiracies to Mute, and Hopes for Resounding Encores

The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. 

“Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,” these lyrics from the Black National Anthem chronicle the painful but also resilient history of Black Americans. As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, states in the former confederacy have moved to silence the powerful song of Black history represented in these lyrics. Bearing the brunt of their efforts have been educators singing ballads reflecting the true history of the African diaspora in the United States. Florida, Arkansas, and South Carolina have attempted to mute – through legislation - the voices of educators. In 2023, Department of Education officials in Florida, the site of the murder of Trayvon Martin, banned the Advanced Placement African American studies course from Florida schools for violating Florida law, deeming that it “significantly lacks educational value.” In 2023, elected officials in Arkansas, the epicenter of the battle over racial integration, prohibited the Advanced Placement African American Studies course from constituting graduation credits. In 2024, lawmakers in South Carolina, the site of the mass shooting of Black parishioners at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, moved to eliminate college credit and statewide funding for Advanced Placement African American Studies in high schools.

These efforts to silence the powerful harmonies of Black History must be contextualized: for centuries, there have been attempts to muzzle truthful melodies in response to moments of race-related social upheaval. Take, for example, the Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina. This rebellion represented the largest recorded uprising of enslaved Africans in the southern colonial era. The chorus of their cries for emancipation reverberated melodies of fear in the ears of the white enslavers throughout the South. Consequently, lawmakers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and Alabama passed new laws that prohibited teaching enslaved Africans how to read.  The enslavers knew the power of literacy as a tool to learn the notes of liberation. The enslavers knew that the lyrics of those songs would disintegrate chains of oppression. Through laws the political leadership endeavored to silence the growing crescendo of notes, in that case literacy, which would lead to anthems of freedom.

In 2026 lawmakers in Southern states – through their legislation – are singing the same song of subjugation sung in the wake of the Stono Rebellion.  They seek to restrict the teaching of Advanced Placement African American studies. These courses became more widely available after the racial justice uprisings in 2020. Since then, they have amplified the ballads of Black History. Though lawmakers cannot legally prevent the descendants of enslaved Africans in their states from learning the basic notes of liberation anymore, they instead seek to ensure that their constituencies cannot read advanced chords. These elected officials seek to ensure that Black Americans do not have the historical context or the language to fully name the oppressive requiems that are coming out of governor’s mansions, general assemblies, and state department of education committees. These acts of muzzling seek to obscure knowledge that would reveal the true intent of legislation meant to take us back to the dirges of state sanctioned discrimination. These elected officials seek to remove knowledge that would both combat these dirges and inspire songs of organizing, political engagement, activism, freedom, and liberation. 

Though lawmakers cannot legally prevent the descendants of enslaved Africans in their states from learning the basic notes of liberation anymore, they instead seek to ensure that their constituencies cannot read advanced chords.

Fortunately, we have heard this song before, and we know how it ends. Despite efforts to deny Black Americans literacy, Black Americans, not only gained literacy, they used their knowledge to found colleges and universities to ensure that generations after them would be empowered to pursue their God given talents and gifts. Seeking to further cement these gains, they became politically organized and engaged, ready to build a multiracial democracy that reflected the nation’s highest ideals. This led to some 2,000 Black Americans holding public office during Reconstruction when just a few years before Blacks were legally barred from literacy. These pioneers joined their voices to all white southern choirs who never contemplated having to include their melodies.

It is the knowledge of this history, a history of anthems of liberation born out of attempts to silence Black voices, which motivates the reprise of old southern conspiracies and the censorship of Advanced Placement African American studies. Unfortunately, the song of liberation that reconstruction started slowly trailed off into silence. But my hope for Black History Month 2026 is that we begin to write melodies that will finish the composition that reconstruction left unfinished. The last verse of the Black Nation Anthem reads, “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; thou who hast by thy might, led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray.” My prayer is that despite the repeated conspiracies which seek to mute our voices, the crescendo of liberation will come. My prayer is that this Black History Month we dream of compositions that will create enduring melodies ushering in perpetual encores of liberation. May we begin humming those songs right now.