ABSTRACT
White and black children and adolescents in Oakdale entered and exited U.S. history classrooms with conflicting concepts of race and rights. Developed from their experiences and interactions with family members and other trusted adults, as well as from peers, mainstream and popular media and their experiences as members of privileged and marginalized racial groups, the differences shaped their overall interpretations of U.S. history, school knowledge, national identity and civic responsibility. White students’ interpretations of history and society were largely congruent with those presented in history classrooms and white children and adolescents affiliated with national and civic identities grounded in ideas of individual rights and equality. Black children and adolescents encountered in-classroom interpretations of U.S. history and civic/national identities that contradicted those which they had learned about at home and through the community. Consequently, black adolescents, like adults in Oakdale, learned to distrust the historical knowledge taught in schools and turned to family, community members and black oriented texts and venues to teach themselves and others about blacks’ contributions and experiences. They affiliated with a civic identity tied to a sense of responsibility to the black community, and associated contemporary society and national identity with racism and inequality.
