Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality
1 2020-03-10T20:53:36+00:00 Ella Murray aa4992cda402c9694497d0fc2b7db3de8a1dc8e9 21 1 plain 2020-03-10T20:53:36+00:00 Ella Murray aa4992cda402c9694497d0fc2b7db3de8a1dc8e9This page is referenced by:
-
1
2020-03-10T20:26:14+00:00
Brief Overview of The History of African-Centered Education
43
Historical context of African Centered Education
visual_path
1709
2020-04-23T21:12:21+00:00
History of African Centered Education
Controversy surrounding the education of African Americans has existed since enslaved peoples were brought from Africa to the United States. Histories about the education of African Americans generally begin with the infamous integration case of 1954, Brown vs Board of Education, and then move through the 20th century. This history is far longer and far more complex than the traditional narrative teaches. The story of Shule Ya Kujitambua is an example of the complexities in this history, though we must begin with a historiography.1700-1954
Before the Civil War, African Americans were denied education by law in the South. During this time, enslaved peoples educated themselves and each other, sharing information mainly through oral tradition. Schools were established as early as the 1700s; enslaved peoples worked to educate their children in the way they saw fit. An early example of this are Free Schools. One of the most famous of these schools was the African Free School founded in New York in 1789 by the Manumission Society to free African Americans of “vices.” By 1832, African Americans had taken control of this institution, effectively removing whites. African Americans created a form of education that directly met their needs. During the Reconstruction Era, “African Americans in the Southern states combined their resources to establish schools for themselves.” These schools abounded after the Civil War when thousands of formerly enslaved peoples were freed.
Under the Massachusetts Education Act of 1789 all children, regardless of race, were given access to formal education. Despite this governance, only a small percentage of Black children were actually enrolled in school. By 1800 a group of African Americans created their own private school in Boston. Segregated education remained the norm in the United States until 1954, with the Brown vs Board ruling. After this, schools were de jure desegregated. The transition from segregation to integration is illustrated as increasing social access, despite race. But, this shift is not always an ethical one because the needs of African American children in integratde schooling systems are omitted.
Since 1960, there has been a push to recreate African Centered Education, leading to the formation of the Council of Independent Black Institutions. The movement was necessary because African controlled institutions remained abundant until Brown vs Board. In 1954, African Americans effectively lost control of their institutions as the integration of Black students into white schools greatly diminished the community control of African americans.
The benefits of segregation were extensively debated. Four of the main arguments in this debate are showcased in the next page.
Sources Cited:- Spring, Joel. Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality. Sociocultural, Political and Historical Studies in Education. 8 ed. ed. London: Routledge Ltd - M.U.A, 2016, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317312857. 53; 57
- Jones-Wilson, Faustine C. Encyclopedia of African-American Education. 1. publ. ed. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press, 1996. 109.
- Mwalimu J. Shujaa 1992, "Afrocentric Transformation and Parental Choice in African American Independent Schools", The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 149.
- Lance Mccready 1992, "Community Control of Schools, African Americans and", Jones-Wilson, Faustine C. Encyclopedia of African-American Education. 1. publ. ed. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press, 1996. 110.
- Kofi Lomotey. "Independent Black Institutions: African-Centered Education Models." The Journal of Negro Education 61, no. 4 (Oct 1, 1992): 455-462. doi:10.2307/2295363. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2295363. 457.
-
1
media/15413a_standard.jpg
2020-03-10T21:09:57+00:00
Debates in the Education of African Americans
27
gallery
2020-04-17T21:29:28+00:00
There were four major voices in the debate of the education of African Americans. They were W.E.B Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and Anna Julia Cooper. It is important to note that these scholars were only a few of the many people involved in the struggle for equitable educational opportunities.
Booker T Washington (1856-1915), founder of the Tuskegee institute, is well-known for his debates on education. Washington had a robust public speaking circuit focusing on the education of African Americans. He believed that African Americans should not integrate into schools, rather they should focus on labor in order to become closer to the land and stewards of their own space. His opinions differed greatly from those of W.E.B. Du Bois.
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) rejected the idea that Blacks should exclusively labor arguing instead for the education of African Americans. He believed that African Americans should reject bigotry, go to college, and stand up against disciminiation. He “envisioned a different type of education for blacks, one that would provide leaders to protect the social and political rights of the black community and make the black population aware of the necessity for constant struggle.” His ideology would become the basis for the education of African American children through an Afrocentric lens.
Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) was an educator and theorist who focused on the education of Black women. She was a huge proponent of intersectionality, focusing on the importance of the education of Black women. Her work brought many Black women out of the woodwork, both into speaking positions about the education of Black women as well as the increasing number of Black women earning degrees.
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was another advocate for the education of African Americans. He was an African nationalist and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a large nationalist group that emphasized the importance of educating blacks and creating a separate economy, distinct from white capitalism. His movement later led to the Pan-Africanist movement, an underlying support for the Shule system.