The Past Is Political and Deftly Feared: Toward a Theory of African American Historical Exceptionalism in Interdisciplinary Ethnic Studies

When the current presenter was approached to write an African American history course for high school students in Minneapolis Public Schools I was both honored and discombobulated.  Filled with a renewed sense of purpose, I was thankful for the request and desirous to take on an endeavor that tied my work as a history professor and Chair of the Department of African American & African Studies to a larger social and educational goal. Though honored, I became equally disheartened that the district had no such course already on the books.  What proved more disturbing after a brief period of concentrated archival research were the many attempts made in the 1960s and 1970s by the local civil rights movement in the Twin Cities to change the social studies curriculum through the work of several Ethnic Studies Task Force.  As the first and opening salvo in a larger struggle around curriculum inclusion and transformation, African American history sat at the center of the political enterprise in the broad ethnic studies movements that ran concomitant to the larger struggles for civil rights at both the K-12 and higher education levels.  These ethnic studies task force were charge with overhauling the curriculum and creating academic departments, not only in Minneapolis but also across the country, placing communities of color into the narrative of the United States.  The discipline of history, especially African American history, blazed this ethnic studies trail and served as an intellectual foundation for other fields, such as literature, psychology, sociology, etc. while becoming part of an interdisciplinary coalition of approaches.