A Legacy of Contestation: Lessons From Black School Reform History

• In Event: Division H Vice-Presidential Invited Session: Do African American Male Students Still Lag Behind Given the Multiplicity of Changes in Programs, Policies, and Practices?

Abstract

The “problem” of educating Black children, particularly Black boys is a particular obsession of 20th and 21st century policy makers. While the cultural priorities of public education changes over time, an emphasis on the necessity to reinvent Black children through schooling endures through every era. In tandem with this history is a Black tradition of advocating for systems of education built on the assets of Black communities and responsive to the needs of Black people. This paper offers a historical analysis of 20th and 21st century Black boys’ education by juxtaposing the grassroots and establishment movements that emerge to serve this population. Such an historical analysis contextualizes contemporary empirical studies on Black boys’ education by drawing attention to the intertwined and divergent relationship between school policy and racial justice.

Author

• Khuram Hussain, Hobart and William Smith Colleges