Omitted : The Untold Black History Lessons We Need to Change the Future

If we don’t understand the past, how can we understand the now? Why is the teaching of Black history – both in the past and present, and in the UK and beyond – still not only fundamentally flawed, but scarce and inadequate?

So many of us have gaps in our knowledge of Black history – we have been deliberately misled, sometimes even lied to.

Our educational system has failed and continues to fail to equip us with the knowledge to become better allies, to humanise, to contextualise and because of this our understanding of the world remains limited and biased. How can we do better, both right now and vitally, in the future? Inspired by Lavinya Stennett’s work with The Black Curriculum, this book explores these important questions, by providing the reader with a series of accessible social lessons, designed to go beyond the page and provide us with the tools to implement this into our everyday lives. Lavinya will dive into popular misconceptions about Black history, to debunking persistent, archaic (yet still ever present and damaging) myths, to understanding why education still hasn’t changed, even in schools now. Threading in her own experiences and activism, whilst shining a light on crucial people, events and periods, this book endeavours to repair and resolve the gaps in our historical knowledge, providing vital context and illuminating case studies – and ultimately teaching us lessons long overdue.