Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past

George Orwell, 1984

This fact has been brought to light once again by Black Lives Matter, a movement seeking to end systemic racism in the United States and throughout the world. But of course this situation is nothing new. From the beginning of American history, slavery was a part and parcel of the economic system, and it provided the rationale for the brutality inflicted on enslaved black people, especially at the hands of white authorities. Unforgivably, this brutality continues to the present day.

Beyond that, racism has caused past contributions by black people to be overlooked or ignored altogether. Whether building national monuments (like the White House and Capitol), constructing railroads, digging ditches, growing food, raising families, or giving birth, enslaved black people had a hand in every facet of American culture from…