September 2001

As summer draws to a close, I recall the long car trips taken by my family back in the days before on-board VCRs, game boys, and personal CD players. Then the interstate highway system was not a seamless line of concrete stretching from coast to coast. Rather, it was a patchwork of state highways and country roads winding through small town America. Every "burg," it seemed, had a story to tell. My mother insisted we stop and carefully peruse each and every historic marker on the side of the road. So omnipresent did these signs appear at one point on a trip out Route 66, that it became my brother's "job" to try and distract her by feigning illness or picking a fight with me in the back seat. As much as we joked about Mom's obsession back then, these "tidbits of history" must have seeped into my subconscious, for I earned a B.A. in U.S. History which was later transformed into an M.L.A. with an emphasis on political science and history.

As a parent and erstwhile history lecturer, I have endeavored to instill in my own children a curiosity about the past. I am a firm believer in the adage, "those who don't know their past are doomed to repeat it." Fortunately we live in one of the most historic areas of the United States. Just walking out of your front door you can trip over some Civil War site, not to mention all the Colonial history that surrounds us. Then, of course, there is Washington, DC itself.

In addition, as a parent in a multiracial family, I feel it is imperative to supplement the "textbook" history doled out in most schools - a version which, unfortunately, is still written with a white male western bias. In this regard we again are blessed to live in an area rich in diverse opportunities for historical exploration. Recently, the Washington Post listed several sites in DC connected with the Underground Railroad, which I have included at the end of this article. I strongly encourage IFC'ers to visit these places as a family outing and to talk about the importance of this multiracial endeavor. Men and women from such disparate backgrounds, faiths and geographic areas would literally risk life and home to help people they did not know and would never see again escape the institution of slavery. This provides for our children a lesson we cannot afford to leave untaught. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, we can organize an IFC tour of DC based on the book From Civil War to Civil Rights. Until then explore and enjoy!

-Kate Knox