Education, Reparations, and the Elusive Quest for Black Educational Justice in Evanston, Illinois

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Since 2022, our multidisciplinary, intergenerational research team has been wrestling with conceptions of reparations and notions of educational justice amidst a historic reparations initiative in Evanston, IL. We explore how Black educational struggle across generations has affected present reparatory commitments of the local government and school district. In this session, each presenter foregrounds Black voices while examining dissent and dissonance related to current efforts to remedy decades of educational inequality. We then envision what types of remedies would be most responsive to local history and Black Evanstonian’s expressed needs in the ongoing fight for educational justice in a purportedly progressive, resource-rich suburb.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• Shannon Paige Clark, University of Maryland - Eastern Shore

Papers

• An Education That Serves Us: Black Sensemaking of Educational Reparations - Gershwin Penn, Northwestern University

• Stewarding Social Changemaking and Repair through Youth Activism: Reflections on Teaching and Learning - Corey A Winchester, Northwestern University

• Anti-Black Wolf in Liberal Clothing: “Nice White Parents” Attempt to Derail Educational Repair Efforts - Karla R. Thomas, Northwestern University

• Oral Histories as Bloodlines, Lifelines, and Thru Lines for [Educational] Justice - Shannon Paige Clark, University of Maryland - Eastern Shore

Discussant

• kihana miraya ross, Northwestern University