In the late 1990s the Clinton administration convened a multiracial advisory panel to launch a national “initiative on race”—an ambitious project entailing research on racial issues, dozens of community dialogues on race relations, and proposals for resolving racial problems. In its 1998 report, One America in the Twenty-First Century: Forging a New Future, the advisory board presents several suggestions for improving race relations, including the recommendation that educators teach in a way that “accurately reflects our history from the perspective of all Americans, not just the majority population.” The report goes on to assert that “teaching a more inclusive and comprehensive history is just one of the ways we may begin to become more comfortable about our nation’s growing diversity.”

Part of the incentive for starting this initiative on race, the panel...