The all-white school board voted 5-2 to stop offering Black history and literature courses.
A Missouri school board that previously voted to rescind an anti-discrimination resolution has voted in favor of removing elective Black history and literature classes.
The seven-member Francis Howell School Board voted 5-2 Thursday night to stop offering Black History and Black Literature courses, which had been offered at the district’s three high schools since 2021, KSDK reported. All seven members of the board are white.
“Our students really wanted these electives,” Harry Harris, whose son is a student in the district, said during the board meeting. “Our families really wanted them and our teachers really wanted them. It’s important. It’s been great.”
In July, the conservative-led board revoked an anti-racism resolution that had been passed in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd.
A Black Literature course actually sounds really interesting. I’m familiar with some of the more well known authors and works, but there have to be so many gems that are either too obscure or too radical to break into mainstream western literature.
Taking a literature elective in college was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It rekindled my passion for reading, which had almost been stamped out by high school.
I imagine the opportunity to both target the humanities and sweep America’s racial issues under the rug was too much for those white conservatives to miss.