Radio Atlantic Black History Month Is Different This Year
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Feb 19, 2026 Adam Harris, writer who covers education and race, and Clint Smith, poet and author exploring slavery’s legacy, discuss federal efforts to sanitize Black history. They describe examples of erasure and legal pushback. They talk about practicing Black History Month differently through personal and local stories and the political stakes of whitewashing the past.
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Federal Effort To Reframe History
- The administration is working intensely to distort and erase parts of American history, especially Black history.
- Clint Smith says honest accounts of slavery force us to confront contemporary inequality rooted in that past.
Uplifting Narratives Hide Complicity
- Presenting only uplifting aspects of historical figures hides their complicity in slavery and oppression.
- Adam Harris argues that sanitizing founders prevents people from rethinking America's founding story and themselves.
Cyclical Pushback, Now Federal
- Pushback against Black progress recurs historically after gains like Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era.
- Clint Smith notes the current iteration is unique because it is top-down and state-sanctioned at the federal level.