Kerry Washington Opens Up About How She Plans To Teach Black History To Her Kids

Kerry Washington made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday (June 8), where she opened up about how she’s teaching black history to her children.

The 43-year-old Little Fires Everywhere star explained that she hopes social change will inspire a new way of educating children on Black History, including her own two, Isabella and Caleb.

“The thing I’ve been thinking about a lot, honestly, with my kids—and with my friends’ kids — I’ve been thinking a lot about education and a lot about talking about race and introducing ideas of race,” she shared. “And really thinking about the idea that for a lot of kids—kids are introduced to race at Black History Month or in the concept of change-makers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.”

Kerry went on, “It’s really important that we start to introduce the idea of race with a Black History that begins before teaching kids what black people were told they couldn’t do, right? So, there’s Maasai Warriors and the kingdoms of Ghana and Queen Nefertiti and the pyramids of Egypt.”

“But this idea of teaching kids that Black History and Black people were a lot of things before segregation and Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement,” Kerry added. “So that we understand the beautiful complexity and elegance and richness of Black History before refusing to be put in the back of the bus.”

Kerry has been outspoken about the surge of racial injustice protests on her social media, and even hosts a yoga hour on her Instagram for fans.

Here’s what she recently shared about fans starting to stream her movie, American Son, to learn more about systemic racism.