An all-white conservative-led school board in St. Louis, Missouri reinstated elective courses on Black history and literature, reversing their vote last week to cancel the classes, after backlash and petition from students.
But there’s a catch.
The Francis Howell School District board says that the new curriculum must be “rigorous and largely politically neutral,” and members must approve before it is sent to schools in the district.
“After thorough discussions, we believe there is an appropriate path forward to offer Black History and Black Literature with an updated curriculum standard in the 2024-2025 school year,” Francis Howell School Board President Adam Bertrand and Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos said in a statement to the St. Louis Dispatch.
The conservative-led board voted 5-2 last week to drop the courses that were being offered at the district’s three high schools since 2021. All five members who voted to eliminate the courses were elected last year and in April this year. Their campaigns were backed by Francis Howell Families, a conservative PAC that opposed Critical Race Theory.
The board said at the time that they dropped the courses because students were taught using “Social Justice Standards” developed by the Southern Poverty Law Center with a bent toward activism, the Associated Press reported.
More than 100 students took the courses this semester in the predominantly white suburban area.
The board’s decision to drop the courses was met with protest by students and parents who gathered outside the meeting chanting “Let them Learn.”
Still, this new plan for an updated curriculum that must be approved by the board is being met with some push back.
“Black History and Black Literature cannot be taught from a ‘politically-neutral’ perspective because our entire experience in America has been impacted by socio-political movements,” Heather Fleming, founder of the Missouri Equity Education Partnership, said in a statement.
Before eliminating Black history and literature classes, this same board voted to revoke an anti-racism resolution adopted in 2020 after the murder of the George Floyd.
The resolution said the school district would “speak firmly against any racism, discrimination, and senseless violence against people regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability.”
