n a t b s

As black children went to school [during reconstruction], they were encouraged by teachers, black and white, to express themselves freely, sometimes in catechism style. The records of a school in Louisville, Kentucky:

TEACHER:  Now children, you don’t think white people are any better than you because they have straight hair and white faces?

STUDENTS:  No, sir.

TEACHER:  No, they are no better, but they are different, they possess great power, they formed this great government, they control this vast country…. Now what makes them different from you?

STUDENTS:  Money!

TEACHER:  Yes, but what enabled them to obtain it? How did they get money?

STUDENTS:  Got is off us, stole it off we all!

-A People’s History of the United States