The depiction of African-Americans in popular high school United States history textbooks published in the period 1968-1971 and their revised editions published in 1990-1995

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the depictions of African-Americans in U.S. History textbooks in the years 1968-1971 with the revised textbooks from the same publishers published between 1990-1995. A total of seven U.S. History textbooks were used in this study and were selected by their 1995 publishing rank order. Four textbooks were used for a comparative analysis and were examined page by page. Two textbooks were surveyed for additional information. A seventh textbook was used as a multicultural model and compared with the three revised texts. Eleven historical topics were evaluated in each of the textbooks. Topics and subcategories emerged during the content analysis of the initial textbooks. The author assigned an estimation of the number of paragraphs assigned to each topic. The revised texts dedicated more information to the history of African-Americans and the information tended to take account of African-Americans perspectives. Conclusions concerning areas of strength in each of the revised textbooks were given.