Chapter 4: Do we Need to Redefine who we Classify as Founders?: Black Founding Fathers and Mothers of the United States

Both the way social studies curriculum is constructed and how educators teach the founding of the United States is flawed. In K–12 social studies classrooms, the official curriculum—the formal curriculum represented through textbooks, curriculum materials, state and national standards, and other formalized historical narratives—rarely changes. Hero-worshipping of great men (and sometimes women) are the norm with notable figures, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, being etched into our historical memory. Social studies educators regard that these Founding Fathers as brave souls and underdogs, who stood up and won against the tyranny of the British to gain freedom. Social studies educators speak to the various ideas concerning developing a democratic nation by borrowing from the philosophies of Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and others. We even debate the merits of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederations, and the Constitution, acknowledging that within the context of the United States, ideas of egalitarianism were not practiced. Social studies educators may even point out that while White citizens were fighting for liberation from an oppressive regime; they simultaneously developed the foundation of a racialized state through the institution of slavery, with the majority of the enslaved population being of African descent.