When I heard that some school curriculums were going to teach that those held in slavery often learned valuable skills, I thought I needed my hearing tested. I soon realized that it was the voice of someone who wanted to alter the public perception of slavery as pure evil.

Then I heard a speech from the pulpit of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, that put things into perspective. She said that she made her first trip to Alabama “to commemorate and mourn, celebrate — and warn.” She spoke on the 60th anniversary of a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan that killed four young girls arriving for Sunday service. “If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history,” she said.

On Aug. 28, 1963, 250,000 people rallied in Washington, D.C., for jobs, freedom, fair wages, voting rights, education, long-overdue civil rights protections and an end to segregation. The UFT and all national teacher organizations should recommend making Aug. 28 a national holiday. Students, teachers, administrators and parents would be reminded that civil dissent is not disloyalty. Some might say it is a responsibility in our efforts to make this a more perfect union! Acknowledging our historical (and contemporary) sins is a vital part of a liberal education, but, more important, we must acknowledge and celebrate the steps taken by many individuals to right past wrongs.

Larry Hoffner, retired