Educational Ideas in the Movement Era: A Narrative and Document History of the Politics of Race, Class, and Knowledge in the Detroit Public Schools, 1954–1974

• In Event: 29.038 - Activism in Urban Spaces

Abstract

This paper excavates the educational visions of ordinary folks who engaged in varying forms of educational activism in the Detroit Public Schools during the movement era of 1954-1974. Utilizing oral history and archival document methods, this paper elevates the voices of grassroots educational actors and argues that diverse social processes including migration, urban resettlement, racially stratified employment patterns, and community-movement building crafted an indigenous set of visions connecting educational justice to a broader radical social politic. This study contributes to our understanding of the relationship between what happens outside of the school house as constitutive of the educational visions stakeholders bring with them in their efforts to transform educational spaces to meet the needs of the oppressed.

Author

• Bianca Ayanna Suarez, University of California - Berkeley