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OUT OF MANY, ONE.

The United States is a multiracial democracy. It stands in a long line of nations on this continent to seek its harmony and prosperity through self-government.

We declare these ideals we stand for — but our textbooks seem too afraid to teach the real lessons that a citizenry would need to understand one another and share in the blessings of liberty.

Those writers are too stuck to a script to acknowledge one simple truth: our history was written by the choices and worth of people of every kind. What happened on this continent has been a massive experiment of people encountering their differences. It hasn’t gone smoothly.

History is an act of citizenship

#PlainTalkHistory is a future home to the most important history lessons of a multiracial democracy. These are the deeper stories glossed over in standard textbooks (but they are actually more interesting). Each lesson will be packaged here ready for teachers’ use — or for anyone who has an hour to spare. To rectify the dominant misleading narratives mandated by State Governments, these stories are often about (and centered on) people of color who wove the fabric that ties us all together as the people of the United States.

We celebrate many voices,

and the

joy of learning something new,

and a

respect for so many shoulders we stand on.

we have a

WHOLE lot of heroes

1880-90s

Wong Kim Ark

He was born in San Francisco to parents who also lived there 20 years. In 1894 he went to visit them in China, and was not allowed back into the US as a “non-citizen.” His Supreme Court case is…
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1940-50s 1960-70s 1980-1990s

Dorothy Porter

In the 1940s, the Dewey Decimal System had one category—325.26—for any book (at all) written by a Black person. Ms. Porter said no way.
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1960-70s

Pvt. Walter Pawlowski

The spokesperson for a peaceful sit-down by 27 teenagers. They wanted to protest the overcrowding, lack of food, and backed-up human waste in their jail. For this offense, superior officers threatened…
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1940-50s 1960-70s

Gen. Benjamin Davis, Jr.

Escort fighter pilots in WWII had a tendency to veer off to engage the enemy, leaving the US bomber planes unescorted and vulnerable. But the Red Tail Airmen who served under Col. Davis, over and over,…
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1940-50s 1960-70s

Shirley Chisholm

The first woman to run for president in the Democratic Party was also the first Black woman in Congress (12th District, NY). Her slogan “Unbought and Unbossed” was an apt description of…
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1910-30s

Jovita Idár

When an angry group of Rangers arrived to destroy the print shop of her newspaper, Miss Idár faced them squarely in the doorway and stopped them from coming inside.
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1940-50s 1960-70s

Pauli Murray

In the age of “separate but equal,” attorneys fought to show the ‘equal’ part wasn’t true. It was Pauli who proposed that the ‘separate’ idea should be challenged instead.
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1940-50s 1960-70s

Jo Ann Robinson

We always remember MLK Jr., who launched his career from the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Less often do we celebrate Jo Ann Robinson, who created that Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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1910-30s

Leonidas Dyer

A man of principles for the rule of law and proudly of the party of Lincoln. He could not accept how mobs were blatantly disregarding the law by killing black men who they claimed “should” be g…
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1900s 1910-30s

Walter White

Disguised by his fair complexion, Walter White mingled in groups of white supremacists to obtain information about the crimes they boasted. More than once, he narrowly escaped vigilantes who discovered…
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1940-50s 1960-70s

Jessie Parkhurst Guzman

She continued the cataloging at Tuskegee Institute begun by Monroe Work. Her database of the lynching records goes uncited, but has been used by nearly every modern scholar to name those murdered.<…
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1910-30s

Jessie Daniel Ames

She contested a racist & violent culture, speaking out against the idea that white women “needed protection” from African-American men. She founded an org that secured pledges from law enforcement…
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1910-30s

Monroe Work

He was an introvert: smart, quiet, and kept meticulous records. In his career, he felt compelled to document every known lynching that was happening in the United States. He made the entire nation hear…
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1880-90s 1900s

Ida B. Wells

72 years before Rosa Parks changed the South forever, in 1883 Ida Wells also refused to give up her seat when the conductor ordered her to move for a white man from the First Class traincar.
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So many ‘normal’ people in history did amazing things without a powerful title. Click here to suggest your hero, too.
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we have a

WHOLE lot of heroes

photo of Ida Wells and her children

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