As Black History Month 2022 wraps up, we again call our readers’ attention to the growing national assaults on teaching and learning about America’s past and the racist policies and practices that have brought our city, state and nation to where it is today – with gaps in education, health, wealth, employment, homeownership and justice that disproportionately impact Black people and people of color.

Without knowledge of and a clear understanding of what happened in the past, we cannot adequately address the issues confronting us today or take the critical steps necessary to put our communities on a better path.

But according to an Education Week analysis, since January 2021, 14 Republican-led states have imposed bans or restrictions on teaching about race or racial issues. Virginia, under new GOP Gov. Glenn A. Youngkin, is among them. The others are Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Montana and Idaho.

Another 23 states have legislation pending that they, too, claim will protect students from “critical race theory indoctrination” or lessons that they fear will make white children uncomfortable.

The result has been the banning of books, an intimidation of teachers and a blanket over the open and honest dialogue in classrooms that leads to real learning and critical thinking.

What many white people are afraid of is critical race truth, or the historical facts that show how race has shaped—or misshapen—today’s laws and practices.

Gov. Youngkin and conservative forces in Virginia seem to be hell-bent on erasing the truth from Virginia’s public schools through executive order and by creating a tip line to report and punish teachers for bringing up what someone feels is a “divisive concept.”

But just like during slavery when many Southern states made it illegal to teach the enslaved to read or write, nothing will keep history, learning or the truth from rising. People across the nation are dedicated to freely sharing resources to lift the knowledge of all who desire to learn and help illuminate the path forward.

One organization, Literacy Partners, is hosting a free, two-day virtual reading of “The Bluest Eye,” a novel by the late Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison that recently has been in the crosshairs of conservatives as a book to ban. It is based, in part, on a conversation Ms. Morrison had with a childhood friend. The first reading day took place on Wednesday, Feb. 23. The second part of the reading will take place 7 to 11 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, and will feature readers such as Angela Davis, Edwidge Danticat, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can sign up at https://events.literacypartners.org/bluesteye/

Individuals and organizations also have been circulating lists of books for people of all ages about Black history that will help the truth percolate to the people.

Below, we offer a list of our own.

And we invite you to share your recommendations with Free Press readers by posting them on our social media sites or by writing in the comment section below this editorial on our website, at www.richmondfreepress.com.

As former President John F. Kennedy said: “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Book list

• “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones

• “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story” by Ruby Bridges

• “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

• “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You” by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

• “An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America” by Henry Wiencek

•“Malcolm and Me: A Novel” by Robin Farmer

• “Mules and Men” by Zora Neale Hurston

• “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” as told to Alex Haley

• “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander

• “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson

• “Faces at the Bottom of the Well” by Derrick Bell