Due to its direct approach and its detailed analysis of race, the "A More Perfect Union" (AMPU) speech makes for a likely primary source to be included in a lesson addressing Obama's racial significance. As social studies teacher-educators who draw from critical perspectives on race and racism, the authors hope to see Obama's speech used as a catalyst for nuanced, historicized conversations about race in the United States. The authors argue throughout this paper that the race speech has the pedagogical potential to create such conversations. Instead, we hope to underscore the potential for using Obama's AMPU speech as a vehicle for promoting a rich, nuanced understanding of race in America. We contend that this speech has the potential to foster both productive and unproductive conversations about race, reflecting theories of both racial literacy and racial liberalism. Examining these curricula does, however, provide a snapshot into how the field of education has begun to conceptualize Obama's historical narrative. Racial literacy calls for an intersectional analysis of race alongside other social factors such as class, gender, or geography. These lesson ideas can hopefully serve as a starting point for moving away from racial liberalist interpretations of the "A More Perfect Union" speech and toward developing greater racial literacy through Obama's iconic address.