Education and Self-Determination: Black Power Schools in Harlem as a Response to Educational Injustice

• In Event: 28.033 - Black Power, Black Schools, and Radical Multicultural Reform

Abstract

In response to failed struggles for equal education and integration, Harlem saw a number of schools emerge out of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s. Based on archival collections by community activists and educators who were involved in Black Power schools in Harlem, I argue that these Black Power schools were a response to the fights over establishing quality education within the Black community and that activists tried to achieve these goals outside of the public school system. These schools varied in terms of purpose, methodology, ideology, and curricula, but they each have their origins within the Black Power Movement. Thus, these schools and their approaches provide a unique lens through which to reassess the Black Power Movement.

Author

• Viola Huang, University of Passau