This dissertation focuses on the role of tradition and ritual in historically Black education, particularly combating the legacy of antiblackness in school discipline. The study argues for the use of prophetic disruptive rituals that are grounded in meaning, hope, and love. Using Morehouse College as a philosophical case study, the project draws…

Integrating critical literacy and conscious Hip-Hop in the classroom setting offers numerous benefits. It allows students to engage more effectively in conversations about contemporary topics, enhances their ability to integrate cultural perspectives, and provides a fresh perspective on the challenges they face in school and within their…

As school board meetings are integral sites of local education policymaking, scholars must consider how structural racism manifests in these spaces across various district contexts. We examine how racialized institutional logics undergird the interactions between majority-Black district leadership and a local Black community during school board…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have had a solid and rich legacy of providing Black students educational opportunities since the late 19th century. Having a distinct educational history, HBCUs have a historical purpose linked to providing an educational experience to Black students during an era when higher education…

This article pushes towards the integration of the history of Black Adult Education (AE) into the broader history of AE literature and it contributes a critique of the field's general omissions and misrepresentations of Black history. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to critique the white-dominated history of AE texts and (2) to provide a…

As education reform continues a seemingly endless cycle of incremental advancement for students and teachers of color followed by the inevitable White-centric backlash threatened by ideas like equity and anti-racist curricula, it is essential to consider perhaps now more than ever, what the past has to teach us all. Inspired by three voices from…

Use this inspirational resource to engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. Drawing from a critical case study of K-3 teachers who used Pro-Black teaching in their daily instruction, this important book puts forth positive perspectives regarding Blackness and Black people…

The linking of school choice and charter schools to the legacy of Black alternative education and civil rights initiatives is a central discursive galvanizing and organizing tool for charter proponents, as it aims to provide legitimacy to the charter movement, while simultaneously coopting Black critiques of the institution of education to advance…

White backlash is the immediate, violent response of some white people to the actual and perceived racial and educational progress of oppressed groups. In this paper, we take a historical detour to map this phenomenon, specifically in the history of K-12 Black education. We demonstrate that the current state of education is not an exceptional…

Discussions of Black anarchism are rarely, if ever, found in the fields of educational theory and research. Characterizations of Black anarchism often paint it as a philosophy and praxis to be feared--as a movement that promotes violence and chaos. Yet, as the authors of this piece argue, Black anarchism is exactly the opposite: promoting a vision…

During a time of racial unrest and attention to social justice, Black communities are developing a deeper understanding of prevailing systemic flaws in policing, policies, and education. There are movements within the Black community toward rebuilding systems constructed to subjugate. While much of the existing research focuses on ways to reform…

Restorative justice has the potential to re-frame schools as caring and politically conscious educational spaces. As it moves to the mainstream, however, it risks being co-opted by the carceral logics that undergird the schooling of Black students in the United States. This ethnographic analysis interrogates how restorative justice provides…

African American learners deserve liberating learning experiences, yet rarely receive them. We argue that the framework of Afrofuturism is a productive strategy for reconceptualizing the work of mathematics teaching as liberating and empowering for African American learners and the Rights of the Learner Framework offers useful tools to enable…

Although statistically unlikely, early-onset breast cancer tends to be more aggressive and leads to greater mortality than breast cancer among women of screening age. Young African American women are disproportionately impacted by early-onset breast cancer compared to women of other races. Given the racial disparities and because young women are…

Black students were not allowed to enroll in Missouri public schools until 1866. During the fugitive school era (prior to 1863), keeping Black children and youth safe from white terrorists committed not only to disrupting nascent learning but burying Black bodies became priority one for clandestine school leaders (Williamson 2005). Later, when…