We Must Critically Engage With the Past or We Are Doomed to Repeat It

In order to understand the present and prepare for the future, we must understand the past and the ways that the past impact the present. As Frederick Douglas put it in his 1852 speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future.” When we deny students the opportunity to learn about…