Race and America’s history of slavery and how the topics should be taught continue to prompt debate.

Teachers might do well to point their pupils towards the past voices of Black Americans.

Frederick Douglass, the former slave turned abolitionist and orator, W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder of the NAACP; celebrated author and critic Ralph Ellison; and even athletes such as Floyd Patterson, who was very nearly as eloquent with his words as with his fists, have all done America the service of writing down their experiences as Black Americans.

All men provide insights into the nature of the Black experience in American society and culture that offer students the chance to look at one of the most charged topics of the current day from the emotional remove afforded by the passage of time.

Young people wondering about the potential for America’s diverse cultures to learn from one another could consult Ralph Ellison, who, in reference to Spanish culture, observed that Americans found within it “a clarifying perspective on their own,” seeing in an anthology on Spanish folklore an opportunity for American readers to “listen more attentively to the voice of our own.”

Frederick Douglass, who often referenced the works of Shakespeare to energize abolitionists, could also stand as an eloquent example of the mutual relevance of America’s varied cultural additions to one another.

From the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois the ideas of Booker T. Washington and later, Marcus Garvey, one could gain valuable insight into many of the issues that compose current discussion on race.

Finally, Floyd Patterson’s Victory Over Myself allows readers to bear witness to the sensitivity that can exist even in the heart of a man competing in the hardest of sports. Students may also learn that, even amid the harshest, most impoverished circumstances, insecurity and self-doubt can be the most difficult opponents of all.

The rich, varied history of Black voices so generously left behind for us may allow students, even those who might recoil at some of the opinions and perspectives, to at least enter into the inevitable discussions on race as fully informed participants, constructing their opinions in light of the past rather than in ignorance of it.