‘Tell students the truth about American history’
Clint Smith at The Atlantic
“Millions of Americans have never been taught” that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves, says Clint Smith. “Talking about this part of the American story with students is just as important as teaching them about Jefferson’s political accomplishments.” Many people are “frightened by the prospect of having to reconsider their long-held narratives about the country,” but to “gloss over” Jefferson’s “moral inconsistencies would be to gloss over the moral inconsistencies of the country’s founding — and its present.”
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