‘Denialism erases nothing’: Biden hits out at book bans and whitewashing of history
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Washington: He was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, mutilated, and dumped in a river after being accused of offending a white woman.
Now, almost 70 years after his brutal killing galvanised the US civil rights movement, President Joe Biden has honoured the memory Emmett Till and used his story to weigh in to the growing political battle over book bans and how history is taught in schools.
US President Joe Biden signs a proclamation to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.Credit: AP
On Tuesday (local time), Biden established a monument honouring Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who famously called for an open casket at the 1955 funeral of her brutalised son to “let the people see what they did to my boy.”
A picture of Till’s disfigured body also appeared in the black media at the time, and an estimated 250,000 mourners attended his funeral.
Speaking at the White House, Biden used the occasion to hit out at fresh attempts by some conservatives to erase parts of US history.
“In a time when there are those who seek to ban books and bury history, we’re making it clear – crystal clear: darkness and denialism can hide much, but they erase nothing.”
An undated photograph of Mamie Till Mobley and her son, Emmett Till, whose lynching in 1955 became a catalyst for the civil rights movement.Credit: AP
“We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know; we have to learn what we should know,” he said. “We should know everything: the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation.”
Biden’s comments come as race relations and the teaching of US history take centre stage in the Republican battle for 2024 presidential nomination.
In Florida, for example, the Education Department came under fire last week over a new African American studies curriculum that suggests that some enslaved people benefited from the experience.
Donald Trump’s biggest Republican rival, Ron DeSantis, appeared to double down on the contentious changes this week, telling reporters that while he didn’t write the new standards, some slaves may have “eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”
Leading Republican figures: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US president Donald Trump.Credit: AP
The new curriculum has been welcomed by some who believe that American children are too often taught ideological or unpatriotic accounts of the nation’s past.
But civil rights leaders, teacher unions, and Democrats are outraged, and at least one Republican who is also vying for the nomination, former US congressman Will Hurd, criticised the move.
“Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills,” tweeted Hurd, the son of a black father and a white mother.
“It was literally dehumanising and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.”
Meanwhile, across the US, politicians, parents and lobby groups last year made a record 1269 demands to censor library books and resources, many of which were written by or feature people of colour, Indigenous people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The growing trend prompted former president Barack Obama to pen an open letter to the nation’s librarians last week, thanking them for “standing on the frontlines” of the culture wars as he also warned critics: “the world is watching.”
“If America – a nation built on freedom of expression – allows certain voices and ideas to be silenced, why should other countries go out of their way to protect them?” he asked.
Back in Washington, Biden echoed Obama’s concerns about the rise of book censorship and called for Americans to embrace their full history.
Part of that, he said, involved acknowledging the harsh truth of killing such as Till’s, which took place in Mississippi after the black teenager was accused of whistling at 21-year-old white woman Carolyn Bryant. Bryant’s husband and brother-in-law then kidnapped, tortured and shot Till, dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River.
The memorial announced in honour of Till and his mother will span three sites: the river in Mississippi where his body was found; the church in Chicago where his funeral took place; and the courthouse in Mississippi where an all-white, all-male jury acquitted his killers in 1955.
“Only with truth comes healing, justice, repair, and another step forward towards forming a more perfect union,” said Biden. “We’ve got a hell of a long way to go.”
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