KQED's Forum Historian Jarvis Givens on Who Made Black History
Feb 2, 2026
Jarvis Givens, Harvard professor of African and African American studies and author of I’ll Make a World, explores 100 years of Black History Month. He discusses early classroom memories, how segregated schools preserved Black memory, balancing trauma and agency in teaching, the diasporic roots of Black history, and current fights over removing Black history from classrooms.
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Early Black History Lessons Shaped A Life
- Jarvis Givens remembers Miss Myron Ruth Butterfield as his first Black history teacher in Compton who staged serious annual programs.
- Those performances embedded pride and community memory into his early education and shaped his career focus.
Childhood Lesson About Nat Turner
- In third grade Jarvis learned Nat Turner's story from Ms. Shirley Topman and was shocked by its brutality and truth.
- He later felt ashamed to doubt his teacher when graduate research confirmed her account.
Balance Truth And Agency In Teaching
- Teach Black history honestly about both brutality and creativity to preserve hope and agency.
- Jarvis emphasizes agency as central: Black people organized, created, and imagined more beautiful worlds.
