From Freedom Schools to Freedom University: Liberatory Education for Undocumented Youth in the U.S. South

• In Event: Analyzing and Confronting precariedades, exclusiones y emergencias among Latino Youth

Abstract

In my essay, I give a detailed account of Freedom University, a modern freedom school that provides liberatory education, scholarship assistance, and leadership development to undocumented students in Georgia. I provide historical context to the spread of anti-immigrant legislation in the U.S. South and discuss the recent passage of Policy 4.1.6, which bans undocumented youth from applying to the top public universities in Georgia. I engage with social movement theory and philosophies of critical pedagogy to illuminate the practice of creating safe learning sanctuaries and its impact on students’ sense of identity and political efficacy. I also present a photographic essay that documents how undocumented youth who are combining strategies of non-violent civil disobedience of the Black Freedom Movement with new cultural repertoires that communicate the undocumented struggle through visual means. Moreover, by focusing on the interracial and intergenerational dialogues between undocumented youth and veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, I explore how the legacy of Southern Freedom Schools and student activism in the Black Freedom Movement is shaping the undocumented student struggle in Georgia today.

Author

• Laura E Soltis, Freedom University