This article considers a subset of lawsuits in which emancipated people sued to have their enslavers' bequests to them honored. It contends that we should see these suits as contests over reparations. By exploring this unappreciated history, this article argues that enslavers themselves believed reparations were due and were willing to pay them,…

The Freedom School Movement originated at the nexus of the struggles for liberation and full citizenship. Beginning with the articulation of education as a means to freedom during the era of enslavement, the ideology behind Freedom Schools was an integral aspect of the long Black freedom struggle in the United States. Freedom Schools have…

Reparations policies that seek to make amends for a harm incurred face exigent challenges. In this article we focus on what makes reparations successful and what policy components are necessary, if not sufficient, for success. To study the success of reparations policy design we employ a case study approach. Our analysis investigates the…

The background and resources presented in this article support teaching about two Tent/Freedom Cities--in Fayette County, Tennessee, and in Lowndes County, Alabama--that were built as a form of civil rights resistance and for housing Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers evicted by oppressive white landlords for marching, attending mass…

Positive youth development (PYD), while embraced in many sectors of youth work, has faced criticism for its primary emphasis on positive personal change and adaptation, without a strong emphasis on social justice and culture, especially relevant for African Americans. Additional models of PYD addressing these conceptual gaps have emerged, however…

In this 2020 Organization of Educational Historians Presidential Address, Davis shares a bit about her own life experiences, talks about what it has meant and means to be Black in America, and challenges educational historians to rise to this momentous occasion and provide the world with their expertise as keepers of precious stories and…

As colleges and universities--particularly predominantly White institutions (PWIs)--look to offer healing and reconciliation for racialized transgressions, it is important that these institutions also honor the sacrifices of those brave students who not only broke barriers but also held open the door of opportunity through which others may walk.…

Young Children of Color in the United States experience the effects of racism on a daily basis. There have been calls for anti-bias and anti-racist education across the field of education, yet most recommendations are based on older students or studies in laboratory settings. Additionally, state and local governments have enacted legislation…

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…

In July 2022, the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Geographic Alliance hosted a three-week summer institute funded by the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) as part of its "A More Perfect Union" initiative to promote a deeper understanding of United States history and culture. Eighteen K-12 educators from across the country…

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…

The fight for racial justice has been an ongoing battle for African Americans for centuries, a battle that is currently championed by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the latest civil rights movement in a long fight for Black equality and social justice. To understand the historical contexts and backdrop for the fight for Black lives, this…

This article examines the relationship between Black social movements in Brazil and the United States through over a century of formations of struggle. Drawing from a review of Black periodicals in three time periods ranging from twentieth-century print press to contemporary digital social media, this article affirms the significance of the…

The complexities of the civil rights movement are rarely presented in elementary social studies. Year after year, students repeat the same decontextualized "I Have a Dream" crafts and assignments, tasks that do little to help students understand the country's history of racism or the racial dynamics of today. Instead of perpetuating the…

With a personal and narrative style, preeminent educational historian Marybeth Gasman presents her research pertaining to HBCUs conducted over her 25-year career. In addition to conducting historical and large-scale qualitative studies related to HBCUs, Gasman has also served as a board of trustee member at three HBCUs--Paul Quinn College, St.…