"We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Chains": Community Educational Programs in a Black Liberation Organization

• In Event: Youth Organizing and Social Change

Abstract

This project aims to critically examine the educational initiatives conceptualized by a Black Liberation Organization (BLO) in the political context of the Movement for Black Lives. While investigating the overarching educational philosophies of the organization, this project will also seek to understand the ways in which the BLO members operationalize their learning and skills in community campaigns for transformative social change in the educational sphere. As this BLO is situate within the context of a purported “liberal” and “progressive” Midwestern college town, there are vital lessons to be learned about necessity of community educational spaces and how said spaces are essential to conceptualizing and actualizing radical and liberatory (educational) change.

Author

• Michael A. Davis, University of Wisconsin - Madison