Black Lives Matter: Rethinking Constitution Day in 2020
The Constitution ratified slavery; it took a Civil War to end it. Photo: Emancipation Day Parade, Richmond, Virginia, 1905. Library of Congress.
Black lives did not matter to the rich white men who met in 1787 to write the U.S. Constitution. About 40 percent of them were enslavers — including George Washington and James Madison, the so-called father of the Constitution. Although this document never mentions “slaves” or “slavery” — or race — the men assembled in Philadelphia made sure to hammer slavery into the foundation of the country they were building. The kidnapping and forced transport of enslaved human beings would be continued until at least 1808. Anyone fleeing slavery and subsequently apprehended “shall be delivered upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” Whatever private qualms some of these men may have had about treating people as property, these did not show up in what they produced.

No. The U.S. Constitution was a document of oppression for enslaved people.

At this moment when school districts across our country commit themselves to anti-racist teaching, they need to help students consider the roots of today’s racial inequality. On this Constitution Day, let’s look deeply and critically at how this document may have offered a republican form of government for some, but denied humanity to others, and contributed to the system of white supremacy we still need to dismantle.
Articles and Teaching Activities
It’s Constitution Day! Time to Teach Obedience or History?
Students deserve a more critical and nuanced exploration of the Constitution — one more alert to the race and class issues at the heart of our governing document. Students need to learn who wrote the Constitution and what interests they represented.
Teaching Resources on 1619 Project Themes
Teach the New York Times' 1619 Project through several people’s history lessons and articles on slavery’s central role in U.S. history, its legacies, and the activists who ended it.
People’s History Lessons for
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
Teachers across the country are meeting, collaborating, and building curriculum based on Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. This young adult book is based on Kendi’s 2016 Stamped from the Beginning.

We hope educators supplement these texts with an equally rich people’s history of racism and antiracism. To help, we have suggested lessons that complement key chapters and moments in Reynolds’ and Kendi’s Stamped.
New! Repair: Students Design a Reparations Bill
In this activity, students take on the role of activist-experts to improve upon a Congressional bill for reparations for Black people. They talk back to Congress’ flimsy legislation and design a more robust alternative.

In crafting amendments and additions to the bill, students must decide what form the reparations should take, how much is due, and argue which needs are the most pressing and fundamental.
Constitution Role Play: Whose “More Perfect Union”? and The Constitutional Convention: Who Really Won?
The U.S. Constitution endorsed slavery and favored the interests of the owning classes.

What kind of Constitution would have resulted from founders who were representative of the entire country?

That is the question addressed in this role play activity.
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