The Guardians of Black Joy: Freedom Schools as Spaces of Healing and Protection for Black Children

• In Event: The Dora Milaje of Black Children in Schools: Black Mother Educators in Pre-K–12 Contexts

Abstract

Author 1 and Author 2 met years ago, long before either of us became mothers. We were enrolled in doctoral programs housed within the same college and both committed to serving Black children through our work as educators, scholars, and civically engaged citizens. During our time as graduate students, we were introduced to the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools by one of our professors, also a Black woman, who was vigilant in her commitment to ensuring that the official Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School was brought to the local community where several non-affiliated Freedom School programs had begun to take root across the city. In an attempt to preserve the authenticity of the CDF model, Author 1, a city native, and Author 2 were selected to serve as Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom School Site and Assistant Site Coordinators. Naturally, our leadership of the freedom school site was informed by our experiences as former public school students and as teachers. The CDF Freedom Schools program is a six-week summer literacy and cultural enrichment program designed to serve Black children in grades K–12.
It was long before we became mothers that we assumed our role as guardians of Black children and their joy; and in becoming mothers, our commitment to Black children, their joy, and freedom has only intensified.

In this paper, we highlight the ways in which our intersectional identities as Black women and mothers have shaped our journeys as mother-scholars and our work in the service of all children, but specifically Black children. We begin by describing some of the challenges we know exist for Black children through our own lived experiences and academic literature, but also from first-hand experiences as the mothers of Black children. Next, we highlight central aspects of the CDF Freedom School program and what we have learned through our experiences as site coordinators in one of the most vulnerable communities in a moderately sized city in the northeast and our transition from supporters of Freedom School to both supporters and parents.

Specifically, we address the role that culturally responsive spaces like Freedom Schools can play in the lives of not only Black children from low-income communities but also Black children like our own who, due to the places we have had to live in search of career opportunities, have been relegated to growing up in often hostile, politically conservative, majority-White spaces where our education and middle-class status do not protect them from the perils and stressors of racism. We describe how our commitment to Freedom Schools have gone from being largely community focused to intensely personal as we fight to ensure spaces for all children--those we have birthed and those we have not, but who we still view as our own. We fight to give them all the opportunity to see reflections of themselves in curriculum and to experience the joy of being in community and solidarity with one another as we work toward building stronger families and communities.

Authors

• Valerie N. Adams-Bass, University of Virginia

• Chonika Coleman-King, University of Florida