America needs to learn black history as some Republicans impose restrictions, Biden says

“History matters and black history matters,” Biden told an audience of black members of Congress and administration officials. Americans “can’t choose to learn what we want to know,” Biden said. They need to learn “the good, the bad, the truth and who we are as a nation,” he said.

His comments come from the East Room of the White House as some conservative Republicans, notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, push for changes in how black history is taught in American schools. DeSantis could be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

Florida is one of about 18 U.S. states that in recent years has banned the teaching of complex race theory, a graduate-level course that examines systemic racism.

“We will not build a better future for America as a nation by trying to erase America’s past,” Vice President Kamala Harris said ahead of Biden’s comments.

Last week, Biden gathered families of those killed in hate crimes for a screening of the movie “Till,” about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy who sparked the civil rights movement in 1955.

According to the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau, about 50 million Americans, or about 15% of the U.S. population, identify as “black only” or “of some other race.”

Presidents in the past have often used Black History Month to highlight unfulfilled promises made to black Americans.

Ronald Reagan declared the month a holiday in a 1986 proclamation, saying, “The American experience and the American character cannot be fully understood until knowledge of black history is given its due place in our schools and in our scholarship.”

According to Reagan, many Americans are “fighting,” “for the full and unfettered recognition of the constitutional rights of all.”

Then-President George W. Bush, the theme of the 2008 celebration, historian Carter G. In a speech honoring Woodson and “the origins of multiculturalism,” he pointed out: “Our nation is strong and confident because of the labor of generations. We must help America fulfill its promise of equality and the great truth that all God’s children are created equal.”