By: Manny Cruz, Senior Policy Fellow

Over 30 state legislatures across our country have introduced bills to limit our students from discussing, analyzing, and learning about our nation’s racial history, especially Black History. For 248 years, the attempts by elected officials and institutions to erase and eradicate our nation’s racial history and original sins have been persistent. What does Black history teach us about these educational erasure movements? Ultimately, they fail. For generations, abolitionists, civil rights leaders, students, educators, and organizers have always stood against the forces of erasure. In the Latino community, where many of us find our roots in the African and Black Diaspora, we must renew our own commitment to the teachings of Black History.

Black History Month is more than a commemoration of the past, it is also a defense of the truth of America’s complex racial history. It is a call to action that not only provides us with the opportunity to reflect on past and current oppression, but also to celebrate the often unheralded contributions of Black Americans to our great country and Black people’s contributions to the international community.

In my beloved hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, I served for four years as a National Park Service ranger. Visitors from across the nation would come to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site to see the tall ship Friendship, a replica of an East Indiaman vessel. In this role, it was my duty to interpret Salem’s maritime history, and with each retelling, I was reminded that the city’s prosperity was intricately tied to the forced labor of my ancestors in the so-called West Indies. I often imagined them standing on the shores of the Caribbean, watching ships like the Friendship depart with the fruits of their backbreaking labor, perhaps daring to hope that one day their descendants would live free of bondage.

One such descendant is Charlotte Forten, a free Black woman born in Philadelphia in 1837, who later moved to Salem to pursue a career in education and became the first Black public-school teacher in the city. Charlotte devoted her life to teaching formerly enslaved Black children during the Civil War and risked her personal safety as an outspoken abolitionist because she knew that education was more than reading and arithmetic; it was about liberation, affirming humanity and restoring dignity to a people who had been systematically dehumanized. Her work as an educator and abolitionist was not just an act of teaching and advocacy but of justice and healing.

Charlotte Forten’s life resonates deeply with me, as her commitment to justice and education mirrors my own path. Like Charlotte, I believe education is a transformative tool for the liberation of all children.

Manny attends the unveiling of the Charlotte Forten Statue in Salem at the Charlotte Forten Park in 2024.

In my work with Latinos for Education, I have had the privilege of advocating for policies that increase educator diversity, advocating for innovative and high-quality interventions like Early College to accelerate academic excellence for Black and brown students, and creating pathways for underrepresented communities to lead the next frontier of civil rights across the country.

I’ve also been fortunate to work alongside Black-led and founded organizations like the Teachers’ Lounge and The Center for Black Educator Development. Together, with each victory we achieve in advancing policies, practices, and leaders, we remain grounded in the principles Charlotte Forten championed: justice, access, equality, opportunity, and truth in teaching. Yet, this work is far from complete. The systemic barriers erected to divide and dehumanize Black and Latino communities in the United States have not disappeared; they have simply evolved.

Black History Month reminds us that the fight for educational equity is a continuation of the abolitionist struggle. Abolition, after all, was not merely about ending slavery but about restoring humanity and building systems rooted in justice and equality. Today, that call manifests in the need to dismantle educational inequities that disproportionately impact Black and Latino students.

As we honor the past, we must also act in the present. We must continue to advocate for policies that recruit and retain teachers of color, expand access to early college programs, and ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn in environments that affirm their identities. We must recognize that the work of Charlotte Forten has been passed onto ALL of us. As I walk through my community carrying the aspirations of my ancestors on my shoulders, I know that as the first Afro-Indigenous Latino to serve as the State Representative for Salem and Vice Chair of the Salem School Committee, I bear the responsibility of ensuring all of the descendants of the African diaspora can thrive and lead lives with joy. That is why, now more than ever, I am working to build bridges across cultures to ensure that we harness the power of what has been our greatest strength as a country – our diversity, our solidarity through crisis, and our unrelenting belief in justice for all.

This Black History Month, I invite each of us to engage in this work with renewed commitment. Let us reflect on the sacrifices of those who came before us, honor their legacy with purposeful action, and contribute to a future where educational equity is not a distant dream but a lived reality for all children.

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Manny Cruz is the Senior Policy Fellow at Latinos for Education and a Massachusetts State Representative for the 7th Essex District (Salem). He also serves as an elected school committee member, entrepreneur, and community leader. Manny previously worked as a legislative aide specializing in education and immigration policy and has led advocacy efforts on closing the digital divide and expanding early college opportunities. He serves on the boards of LEAP for Education, The Massachusetts Alliance for Early College, and Plummer Youth Promise. A graduate of Northeastern University, Manny remains deeply committed to youth mentorship and public service.