NORTHAMPTON — As they studied a well-known 18th-century painting, titled “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill” by American artist John Trumbull, the fifth graders in teacher Roxanne Nieman’s class at Leeds Elementary School were asked to write down what they noticed about the painting, and what it made them wonder about the subject material.
Though at first glance it appears everyone in the painting is white, through discussion, students realized that there is one Black person, located in the bottom right of the painting.
Educator Michael Lawrence-Riddell, a guest teacher leading Wednesday’s lesson, explained that the Black man in the painting was once thought to be a soldier by the name of either Peter Salem or Salem Poor. Recent research, however, revealed that the man was a slave owned by Thomas Grosvener, a colonial officer. This is one of many examples of how previous perceptions of history can be incorrect, Lawrence-Riddell said.
“I think it’s interesting, because we don’t usually do things like this,” said Vera Baldi, 11, on the lesson she and her classmates learned. “It’s history, but it’s also fun.”
Wednesday’s lesson was intended to teach students a new view of history of the American Revolution that emphasizes the stories of African Americans during the time period. It was led by Lawrence-Riddell and Ousmane Power-Greene, educators who founded Self-Evident Education, or SEE. The organization seeks to have educators and students “think critically about the role of race and institutional racism throughout United States history,” according to SEE’s website.
“We’re bringing this education to schools and the communities, to really bring the history and the reality of the way race functions in this country,” said Power-Greene, who lives in Northampton and is an assistant professor of history at Clark University in Worcester.
The two men met while organizing a Martin Luther King Day Jr. celebration and quickly realized they shared an affinity for history and exploring the legacy of racism in the country. SEE was created in 2019, with the mission of providing educators material to teach students about racism in Massachusetts and beyond.
“I entered the education profession because I saw education as a powerful place to exert pressure on dismantling systemic racism,” said Lawrence-Riddell, who worked as a teacher for 20 years in places such as Boston and Amherst. “The idea is to build a library of multimedia modules, where each module is a short documentary film and then a suite of follow-up curriculum that helps to give birth to topics and themes that are brought up.”
On Wednesday, the Leeds students also continued a lesson from a previous class, learning about Elizabeth Freeman, or Mum Bett, the first enslaved African American to win her freedom in Massachusetts in a lawsuit. Students were given several dates regarding Freeman’s life and legacy and asked to identify the five dates they thought were most important.
“It was really cool,” said Marlow MacDonald, 10, regarding the lesson. “I really like it when people come to the class and we do special things.”
Lawrence-Riddell and Power-Greene said that in addition to the local work done in the Northampton area, they have been in contact with schools in other parts of the country, such as Georgia, Virginia and Texas to help provide a curriculum for teachings on race.
SEE’s mission of providing lessons on the topic of race comes as parts of the country are pushing back against the topic, with Florida passing legislation restricting the teaching of race in schools and several other states proposing similar bills.
“There is a concerted, organized and well-funded pushback on the kind of work that we are doing,” Lawrence-Riddell said. “But at the same time, there are people in institutions in those places who are committed to this kind of critical thinking and truth-telling work that we are doing.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.