Rebel Histories: Challenging State-Mandated History in the Public Sphere

• In Event: In Pursuit of Racial Justice: Contesting State Violence With a Pedagogy for the People

Abstract

In 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law House Bill 2497 which established an advisory committee for the “1836 Project” – an effort forged by decades of right-wing organizing to “promote patriotic education” in public schools. In reality, it contours a history that downplays the brutal effects of indigenous land dispossession, Black chattel slavery, and the violent overthrow of Mexican rule and the subsequent protracted war against Mexican-descent Texans. In this context, the People’s Academy (PA) arm of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Mellon Foundation grant project, Democratizing Racial Justice (DRJ), stepped in as one counterpoint among many grassroots organizations to challenge this blatant white-washing of history.
In spring 2022, the PA coordinated a two-day, public event that centered the Refusing to Forget (RTF) project. RTF recovers the legacy of violence targeting ethnic Mexicans across the borderlands and forces recipients of that knowledge to confront the historical fact that thousands of Mexicans died at the hands of Anglos in the aftermath of Texas secession from Mexico in 1836. As a foundation of Texas history, this fact has been erased from public memory and public education. The scholars in the RTF led-workshops with community members, participated in panel discussions and Q&A sessions, and interacted informally with community members over meals and coffee. This event demonstrated that public engagement with critical histories is necessary as communities grapple with the past to better understand the present.
Modern-day historians contend that Texas politicians and private lobbyists are not the most suitable framers for history education, an argument supported by decades of groundbreaking research. Through the lens of Chicanx historiography, this paper outlines the state of the field and makes an argument for why it is necessary to bridge the gap between academic scholarship and public policy.
I compare the lessons learned from the RTF project presentations and the Texas Educational Knowledge Standards defined by the Texas Educational Agency and draw conclusions about the state of K-12 history curriculum and the need for a fuller public discourse based on academic history.
This paper relies on the extensive research produced by the scholars in the RTF project and public documents produced by the state of Texas and individual school districts throughout the state. Additionally, I incorporate primary source material derived from archival manuscript collections from university special collections departments.
Following the two-day event, it became clear that there is a public hunger for historical research that cuts against the grain of standard K-12 education. Although the PA is part of a grant-funded project, it demonstrates that extra-official relationships between scholars in the community and in educational institutions can and should work together to address this assault on verifiable historical facts.
Overall, this paper argues that community and university collaborations on history research and dissemination is vital for forging a public memory that is co-created and challenges cynical iterations of the past and ongoing epistemic violence of today.

Author

• Jerry Gonzalez, University of Texas - San Antonio