It can be tempting to think that textbooks present impartial accounts of the past. However, textbook writers and publishers have a variety of motivations in choosing what to include in textbooks, including creating products that the companies believe are likely to be purchased. In this lesson, students analyze two history textbook passages about the Jim Crow era, one published in 1942 and the other in 1974. With the help of a timeline, students contextualize these highly contrasting accounts to answer the question: Why might history textbooks have changed what they say about the Jim Crow era?
Taxi cabs in Georgia, 1962. From The Library of Congress.
