Graduate Fellow Latesha Smith offers this perspective on a few bills at the State House and what advocates can do.
Out of curiosity, I dropped by the NAACP LDF (Legal Defense Fund) table at the Charleston Black Expo on March 12, 2022. There were materials covering key economic and penal justice issues. What stood out the most to me though were their “What You Need to Know About” materials on S.534, H.4392, H4343, and H4605 – a collection of education bills that interest the organization along with its supporters – SC ACLU and newcomer, E3 Foundation.
S. 534 – This bill proposed in session 124 (2021-2022) and so called “Restore America’s Foundation Act,” was aimed at modifying curriculum to teach students a singular perspective of American foundational history and related topics instead of teaching students multiple (i.e. Black and Native American) perspectives of history. The NAACPLDF was advocating to “defend SC educators, students, and truth in education by voting NO on S.534.” The bill was introduced by the Senate in early 2021, but never made it out of the Senate education committee by crossover in 2022.
What does this mean for the arts, arts advocacy, and SC creative professionals? SCAA has taught me that advocacy is about building relationships with other nonprofits and providing useful data and information to help public leaders make better choices. So, this means that advocates must present evidence of how an inclusive and arts integrated teaching approach inherently teaches students history from diverse perspectives. Arts advocates would be amplifying the voices like Oberlin graduate, sculptor Edmonia Lewis who was of mixed African-American and Native American (Ojibwa/Chippewa) heritage. Lewis’ artworks included portrait heads and explored themes dealing with Native American heritage and the Black experience.
So now what? We as arts advocates must continue to find evidence of student learning using the arts and present these facts to our legislators. While they are in recess, we must be in research! See you in session, advocates!
– Latesha Smith
For background –
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S.534 – The Restore America’s Foundation Act
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H. 4392 – The Keep Partisanship Out of Civics Act
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H.4343 – The SC Academic Integrity Act
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H.4605 – CRT
