History might not repeat itself, but students at Oak Park and River Forest High School are learning how differentiating responses to racial injustices in the country’s history can continue to be relevant in their present day.
Mike Stephen, history teacher at OPRF, said that the history of resistance to racial prejudices is not only a story for Black History Month, it is a story that should be continued to be told.
“Instead of just telling a one-sided, top down, oppressor-oppressed, we want to look at the other side of how there is resistance and the excellence that was born out of that resistance and how that impacts us today,” Stephen said.
But during Black History Month, Stephen emphasized the importance of learning about the Jim Crow Laws and that specific dark moment in history.
Students learned about the Reconstruction Era, 1866 through 1877 according to the Library of Congress, which was the historic period in U.S. history aimed to reorganize the Southern states following the Civil War. Students also studied Jim Crow laws, state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation, and the effects it had on society.
“It is almost like people didn’t need to look at the laws anymore,” Stephen said. “They grew up in a culture and society that was segregated they knew ‘oh you don’t go to this restaurant,’ ‘you don’t go to this side of town.’’”
To be able to give students the proper context to understand the time period, Stephen said it was also important to not shy away from the violence and the lynching that was occurring at the time.
Prominent civil rights activists and leaders were studied, including Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B Du Bois, and students discussed the various methods and differentiating opinions in how they addressed the injustices of the time.
“These approaches … it’s not that one was right and one was wrong, it was kinda just where everyone was at that moment in time,” Stephen said.
The perspectives of the activists varied from boycotting white businesses to advocating for a broad liberal arts education to fighting back.
The collaborative discussions between the students help bring into the conversation the varying experiences of Black Americans during that time as well as fresh perspectives from each other.
“They tend to gravitate immediately towards Ida B. Wells, because what we read from her she was advocating…for immediate action in terms of boycotting white owned businesses, so I think that for a teenager, it is almost exciting, like ‘yes, these are the good guys’,” Stephen said.
But there is not always a simple answer, which Stephen makes sure students understand.
The context of the times matters.
“Some of the media action could be met with physical violence,” Stephen said. “There were already lynchings. What if you have a family? What if you had a business that could be targeted because of your activism? Would you maybe think about what you are doing twice?”
While Stephen said that the popular saying “history repeats itself” might not always be true, he does say that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”
Throughout the course, Stephen tries to relate U.S. history to where we are in 2024.
“It is not always clean and it is not always a perfect repetition of what we see in history,” Stephen said. “We try to find those historical rhythms in what we do.”
Students have discussed certain issues such as Black Lives Matter and the struggle for racial equality in the 21st century.
“We start to see that it is really tempting to say ‘I am going to get out there and make some noise,’ but then I say to them ‘great, you should do that,’ but then what happens next,” Stephen said.
Elianna Brucato, sophomore at OPRF, said breaking down the varying responses to Jim Crow Laws through the three primary activities studied helped students dive deep into their methods of creating change during that time, which they did a project on.
“It’s been really great learning about these specific three characters,” Brucato said. “The whole class has really been empowered by these three leaders because I feel like a lot of kids in my class didn’t know [about them] and most of us didn’t know their varying responses.”
For Brucato, she sees the progression of the varying responses during the Reconstruction Era today in the halls of OPRF as students of all different backgrounds and nationalities work together.
While the students learned about these prominent figures, Brucato said one lesson came from the class itself.
“We talked about these heavy topics; they are not easy topics to talk about because we obviously have a heavy American history,” Brucato said. “In these classes, it is very important that we learn to listen and respect one another. Even though we may not agree with what one another said … I think a lot of students in my class are able to carry that out into the world.”
By studying these different approaches to racial injustices in history, students will be better equipped to decipher current issues and find a way to contribute that works for them.
“That could change in six months, that could change in six years but we have a story to look at to see what has come before us to inform where we are headed,” Stephen said.
