President Joe Biden said Monday that “history matters, and Black history matters” during a White House reception marking Black History Month, a forceful declaration that comes after the state of Florida blocked a new advanced course on African American studies from being taught in its high schools.
“It’s important to say from the White House for the entire country to hear: History matters. History matters and Black history matters,” Biden said, to murmurs of agreement from the roughly 400 people inside the East Room of the White House. “I can’t just choose to learn what we want to know. We learn what we should know. We have to learn everything, the good, the bad, the truth, and who we are as a nation."
