Discovering Forgotten History

So I am recovering today after helping chaperon a field trip to Fort Niagara yesterday.

And the students kept telling me that they never knew that the fort existed.

Seriously? How?

Well, the last time they had received any history about NY was 4^th grade for some of them. Possibly 7^th, depending upon what NY has does to the Social Studies curriculum.

So, what have they been learning in history class in either 4^th or 7^th grade for all these years? The same old boring stuff.

Reminds me of the aphorism – repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth.

So they have not been hearing about the history in their own back yard.

They were excited to meet a member of the Tuscarora Tribe who was a reenacting as a First Nations member that was loyal to the British rather than the rebels. (Evidently the First Nations peoples thought that the British would screw them over less? Pardon my snark.)

Next year the students are talking about going up to Victor NY and visiting Ganandagah (sp?) which is a First Nations museum that is dedicated to preserving the history of the Hodinöhsö:ni' people. We all learned that “Iroquois” - the French word for the First Nations tribes – meant “snake people” or something similar to that. And in the Christian culture that the French settlers lived in “snake” is a derogatory symbol that is associated with Satan or the Devil. So Iroquois means “Devil people,” I'm guessing? I'd love some more information on that.

So, why spend time on this?

Up in Rochester was the hotbed of the anti-slavery movement. How well does that get covered? Frederick Douglass is buried up in a cemetery and his grave site is now being preserved. Other notables in the fight against slavery were in the area as well.

Over in Seneca Falls is the Women's History Museum with some of the documentation of Susan B Anthony and others in the fight for women's suffrage. I say some because she burned most of her work because when she offered it to museums and other organizations they declined it. That is how much opposition there was to women voting in that time period.

Over on the East Side of Buffalo, on Broadway (I believe) is the Colored Musicians club. Want to know some of the best jazz players from 1920 on? (Possibly earlier. I need to go and visit.) Go visit that. My High School music teacher has never heard of it. Should he have? Should students be informed of this history that is in their backyard?

Then again, pull out a history book and look for the Ludlow Massacre and other working class uprisings of the mid to late 1800s. Not much, if any coverage of the workers. Tons for the men – the Carnegie Famil JP Morgan, and other capitalists – that had the workers' camp burned and women and children murdered. That used private detectives and hit men to harass and murder union organizers.

Nor will you find the history of the early socialist movement that shaped and influenced history from the Civil War on.

Eugene Debs ran for President from prison and won nearly one million votes in a society and age when only males 21 and older could vote. And African Americans had to pass ridiculous voting tests and other Jim Crow legislation in order to vote.

Look to the militant workers movements of the 1930s that forced the government to do something about chronic unemployment. We call it the New Deal. It died with the war and aftermath.

Look at the anti-war movement in the 1960's. Socialists aren't even mentioned and yet they had a strong voice and organization that fought against the war.

We won't read or hear about any of that.

Then again, on the way home from the museum students were talking about all they had learned about history – what they called real history and not the textbook crap – and it was pretty interesting.

So was the conversation about the primary that is going on. The die hard conservative of the group was of course attacking Hillary. It's too easy honestly. But he was also going after Trump too. And was not too keen on the Republican Party or leadership. And the lefties were more into Bernie and his ideas than into Hillary and the Democratic Party.

And I think there is a door open to other ideas with this generation. They are tired of the same old story and want something new. Or at least something different.

For people ages 18-30 socialism is more popular than capitalism. We have been at war since 2001 and they are tired of it. They are tired of the way the government protects the capitalist system and those that profit from it. They want something else.

We can do something with this. If we want to.

They are talking about our ideas – fair wages, health insurance for all, equality for the different genders. environmentalism, and so much more.

Let's reach out and use what they are telling us they want to build the movement they need to succeed.