Revealing Black Educational Histories: A Historiography of “Unthinkable” Framework Possibilities

• In Event: Persistence of Unjust Systems: The Consequences of Sustained Inequality

Abstract

In this paper, I examine secondary sources that deal with the history of black educational frameworks to determine new perspectives in black education that have previously been “unthinkable.” I draw on Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s perspective that the process of historical production produces silences. I critically examine late 19th and 20th-century histories of black education, seeking silences and revelations within the various frameworks used. These studies showed that twentieth-century scholars of black educational history framed their studies around integration, desegregation, and citizenship, which silenced black education that were centered around liberation and revolution. This essay contributes to the literature that pushes for the use of interdisciplinary frameworks in the history of the black experience.

Author

• Stacey Akines, Carnegie Mellon University