Chatbots are spreading misinformation about our history. But centuries before the first chatbot spread the first lie, Black history was being smeared. Here’s how:
#1: The Dunning School of Historiography: From the 1930s to the 1960s, historian Charles Dunning and his followers portrayed Reconstruction as a “shameful period when congressional Radicals vindictively imposed a harsh and punitive peace on the poor, downtrodden South.” He also claimed that Black people were ignorant and did not deserve the right to vote. The Dunning thesis has since been discredited.
#2: The Daughters of the Confederacy - The United Daughters of the Confederacy, formed in 1894, led the “Lost Cause” to whitewash U.S. history. It erected monuments to Confederate generals and pretended that enslaved Black people “were the happiest set of people on the face of the globe.” The organization has lost most of its clout.
#3: Tulsa Massacre of 1921: Following the burning of Black businesses and the killing of an untold number of Black people, a Tulsa grand jury blamed the riot on “armed Black people.” It was never a secret that white Tulsans planned and carried out the massacre. And for almost a century, the city stayed silent on the truth.
Now AI is getting it wrong. We owe it to our ancestors and our descendants to protect, defend, and preserve the truth. What white lies would you like to see debunked?