Carlton A. Funn Sr., teacher who focused on black history, dies at 80 - The Washington Post

Carlton A. Funn Sr., teacher who focused on black history, dies at 80 - The Washington Post: Carlton A. Funn Sr., a Washington area schoolteacher who championed the preservation of black history for more than a half-century, died Sept. 11 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He was 80.
He had congestive heart failure, said his son Marc Funn.
 
Mr. Funn, an Alexandria native who taught in the District and several Northern Virginia school systems over a 38-year career, began working in classrooms during an era when racial segregation was being forcefully challenged.

While teaching a history class to Alexandria seventh graders in 1957 — three years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed public school segregation — Mr. Funn said he was shocked to see the school system using a dated and racially offensive text on Virginia history.

It depicted slaves as cheerful and docile. It was also the same book the Alexandria school system had used when he was a student. He complained to the principal but was ordered not to make waves.