To high school senior Erika Alvarez, some of her most important history lessons didn't come up in class at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy.
Instead Erika, 17, learned some of that history on social media, like in this about the perpetrated against one of the wealthiest Black communities in the country 鈥� a community nicknamed 鈥淏lack Wall Street.鈥�
鈥淣ever, never even heard the term Black Wall Street before,鈥� Erika said. 鈥淎nd now over the summer, I learned and I realized, 鈥榃ow, like that is something I definitely missed out on.'鈥�
Across Texas, there have been efforts to change what public school students learn about racism. And with the election earlier this month, advocates for those efforts had hoped they鈥檇 get a boost if Democrats flipped more seats at the Texas Board of Education. But that didn鈥檛 happen.
So now, students like Erika are moving ahead to try and make their own changes, so other students don鈥檛 miss out on a fuller picture of history.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 really question it until you realize just how much exactly you didn鈥檛 learn,鈥� said Erika, who came to Katy from Venezuela about four years ago. 鈥淗onestly, most of the United States has a very Eurocentric, Western civilization approach. You don鈥檛 learn about prominent figures from other races or other backgrounds. You don鈥檛 learn about the very rich histories of South America or Africa.鈥�
She and other other students have and now are pressing school districts in Greater Houston to teach what they call an anti-racist curriculum.
What do they mean by 鈥渁nti-racist?鈥� Erika said it's like stopping a bully.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a bully, there's a victim, there鈥檚 also a bystander,鈥� Erika said. 鈥淚f you're, like, simply just not racist, you are that bystander.鈥� Erika said.
鈥淎nd they tell you in school, they teach you, being a bystander is bad, because you鈥檙e complicit in the act,鈥� she said.
To be be anti-racist is to stop watching and 鈥渢o take action if you see injustice,鈥� Erika added.
Another grassroots group pushing for anti-racist curriuculum is called Diversify Our Narrative. College students in California started it after George Floyd's death.
Cheryl Lee, 16 and a junior at DeBakey High School, is with . She said they're asking teachers and administrators to give more emphasis to non-white, non-European perspectives.
In her school, for example, Cheryl said required reading for students taking college-prep English has changed. This year, they read 鈥溾��which details how doctors took cells from a young Black woman with cervical cancer without asking, and how those cells never died and launched a multi-million dollar industry.
Lee said it 鈥渃onnected a lot of things in my brain,鈥� including racism, sexism and medical bioethics.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 best to do it from a bottom-up level, because I feel like that鈥檚 the best way to gain traction as a movement, because you can personally use your personal connections, and then kind of reach out to people,鈥� Lee said.
And once there鈥檚 鈥渁 big enough crowd,鈥� Lee said she believed it would be easier to get support from the Texas Board of Education, which approves learning standards for the state's 5 million public school students.
The Republican-dominated state board has a reputation for controversial and politicized learning standards, such as and in the Civil War.
President Donald Trump has also taken up curriculum as a major issue, creating a 鈥�.
Still, in recent years, the Texas board has revised its learning standards to teach slavery played the 鈥�. And the board has approved new ethnic studies courses, such as African American studies. Those offerings fill in the gap, according to Board Member Barbara Cargill, a Republican from Conroe. Cargill also said that teachers can pull current events into social studies classes.
鈥淚n light of current events, our social studies teachers will integrate appropriate lessons for their students, as they are trained to do. The (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) are the minimum standards that are required to be taught, and since history is alive and evolving, our teachers know to use them as the baseline while adding the impact of current events. That is what makes history 鈥榗ome alive鈥� for our students!鈥� Cargill wrote in an email earlier this year.
But State Board Member Aicha Davis, a North Texas Democrat, said she's looking ahead to 2023, when Texas does a full review of its learning standards for social studies.
鈥淭his is an opportunity to really make changes so that we are again, teaching truth, and so that that curriculum is anti-racist, and that it focuses on the building of America that is diverse, and that you have all these different cultures that have contributed to who we are,鈥� Davis said.
And, Davis said, teaching against racism, is not just about history. It touches all subjects, including math and science, which the Texas Board of Education will have a chance to address as it reviews science and health standards this week, Tuesday through Friday.
鈥淵ou will have a student who鈥檚 graduating from a Texas public school, and they can鈥檛 name not one black or brown scientist or engineer or inventor or anything,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o we have to change that.鈥�