That’s a good approach. So many things are left out and passed over. Unfortunately it’s up to us as parents to fill in the gaps. Here’s my own personal brush with infamy.

I live and grew up in Birmingham, Al. In school we had a page or 2 about the civil rights movement. We learned about Bull Connor, and the water cannons, and the dogs. We learned about Fred Shuttlesworth and Rosa Parks. That was about it.

I was in my 30’s when I learned that my uncle was the last man to arrest Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before he was assassinated. My family didn’t talk about it. My school didn’t talk about it, and it made me realize just how much of our lesson on that subject had been glossed over.

Since my uncle lived longer than King. My uncle got to say in interviews much later that “he knew he was in the presence of greatness” and “I didn’t want to arrest him but I had to”. He may have fooled someone with that nonsense. But, I know that generation of my family used the n-word daily till they died.

A history that’s as truthful as possible is super important. It doesn’t matter who it embarrasses, or upsets, because it’s already happened. We can’t change it, but we can try not to do it again.