As members of the Department of History, we stand in solidarity with our students and colleagues who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) at Framingham State University and all those calling for equity and justice. The scourge of state-sanctioned violence against Black people and other communities of color is pervasive in history, as are the traditions of activism and protest rooted in the Black community that undergird the present calls for change from protesters across the United States and around the world.

We dedicate ourselves as a department to increasing public understanding of the maltreatment and injustice suffered by BIPOC over the centuries. In so doing, we reaffirm the principles articulated in the recent statement by the American Historical Association on “Confronting a Sordid History of Racist Violence in the United States.” We intend accordingly to engage in the following activities during and beyond the 2020-21 academic year to enhance student and public awareness of and understanding about the history of race, racism, and other forms of discrimination:

• Review and potentially revise course descriptions to clarify which existing courses address issues related to race, racism, and the experiences of BIPOC;
• Encourage faculty to review syllabi to ensure accurate and broad representation of BIPOC voices in both historical and scholarly sources;
• Review general education and major course rotations to ensure availability of courses that examine issues related to race, racism, and the experiences of BIPOC;
• Explore expanding general education and major course offerings to include additional courses related to race, racism, and the experiences of BIPOC;
• In collaboration with our MSCA colleagues in other academic departments, advocate for additional general education requirements to ensure that students have the regular opportunity to study the histories of peoples across the globe and of socially, economically, and politically marginalized peoples and communities in the United States and around the world;
• Advocate for the preservation of tenure-track faculty lines in the histories of peoples across the globe and of socially, economically, and politically marginalized communities;
• Provide cohort-building, mentorship, and leadership opportunities for BIPOC students;
• Confront issues of racism, discrimination, and racial violence in our classes in an open, honest, and respectful manner that also acknowledges the impact these topics might have on BIPOC students;

• Engage in outreach in order to enhance public understanding of the origins, nature, and dynamics of discrimination against individuals and groups on the basis of race and other categories of identity.

We welcome the thoughts and suggestions of all members of the Framingham State community as we undertake this work during the coming year.

In solidarity,

Department of History

Framingham State University

June 2020