'School systems have failed us': Some North Carolina students say more Black history needs to be taught

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina students certainly learn about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. in school but there's no guarantee they'll be taught anything about the 1898 Wilmington massacre or other parts of the state's Black history.

Some teachers and students say North Carolina's social studies standards are written in a way that makes it easy for schools to ignore national and state Black history, according to the News and Observer.

During Black History Month, these same educators and students say Black history shouldn't be relegated to February, if at all.

"I'm a Black girl," Victoria Smith, 18, a senior at Enloe High School in Raleigh, said in an interview to the News and Observer's T. Keung Hui. "I have to know my history. Because if they won't teach me, who else will? Sadly, the school systems have failed us when it comes to learning about Black history."

Smith is founder and president of the Wake County Black Student Coalition. In addition to calling for counselors to replace police officers in schools, the coalition also wants the Wake County school system to make a Black History course a requirement for students.

You can read the full News and Observer article here.

Thad Ogburn has more on the story in the media player above.