Adam Harris

And one of the things that we did kind of between the celebrations and the festivals and the parades is we got in the car with my mom and went to her elementary school, which is no longer there.

It's a school that was called T.J.

Semmes.

And we went there because my mom was among the first black students to desegregate that school or to integrate that school.

She was there after, you know, there were the four little girls, including Ruby Bridges, who integrated New Orleans schools in 1960.

And I brought my kids there with my mom in this moment because I've been thinking a lot about this.

what it means for people to understand Black history, not only as something as like about Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, but also as this thing that's the people who are right next to us, right?

Like their grandmother, not Martin Luther King, not Rosa Parks, not these people in the books, like their grandmother was among the first wave of students to integrate a school.

in New Orleans, and I want them both to understand that because of their proximity to it, but also in this specific moment, I think it's a reminder that the Trump administration can try to change a museum.

They can try to change how things are taught in school.

They can try to take away DEI and higher ed.

They can try to do all of these things, but we still, within the sort of micro units of families and communities, still have the power to share this history in ways that I think can be really meaningful.

for all of us and for young people.

And it wasn't just for my kids.

Like, I got to hear my mom talk about her experience going into this school.

And I think all of these things, for me, when I think of Black History Month, it's about both understanding and appreciating the sort of Jackie Robinsons and the like, but it's also about remembering that

those larger figures are only possible because of the sort of what's happening on the most granular level.

I tell people all the time, America is a place that has provided unparalleled, unimaginable opportunities for millions of people across generations in ways that their own ancestors could have never imagined.

It has also done so at the direct expense of millions and millions of other people.

And both of those things are the story of America.