A trio of trappers were patrolling remote backroads when a 16-foot python jumped out. They teamed up to capture it.

While the designs changed, one thing stayed the same, Pezdark says: “Every float that we ever made won first prize.” Even now, some 60 years later, Pezdark’s pride in those floats is palpable.

Ibram X. Kendi is a professor of history, director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University, and author of How to Be an Antiracist. To fix the original sin of racism ...