The Mis-education of the NegroThe most influential work by “the father of Black history”, reflecting the long-standing tradition of antiracist teaching pioneered by Black educators A Penguin Classic The Mis-education of the Negro (1933) is Woodson’s most popular classic work of Black social criticism, drawing on history, theory, and memoir. As both student and teacher, Woodson witnessed distortions of Black life in the history and literature taught in schools and universities. He identified a relationship between these distortions in curriculum and the violence circumscribing Black life in the material world, declaring, “There would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.” Woodson’s primary focus was the impact dominant modes of schooling had on Black youth. This systematic process of mis-education undermined Black people’s struggles for freedom and justice, and it was an experience that scholars before and after Woodson recognized and worked to challenge. Woodson argued that students, teachers, and leaders needed to be educated in a manner that was accountable to Black experiences and lived realities, both past and present. This edition includes an appendix of selected letters and articles by Woodson, and Suggestions for Further Reading. |
Contents
Foreword I | 1 |
Introduction | 3 |
The Seat of the Trouble | 7 |
How We Missed the Mark | 12 |
How We Drifted Away from the Truth | 17 |
Education Under Outside Control | 23 |
The Failure to Learn to Make a Living | 31 |
The Educated Negro Leaves the Masses | 40 |
Hirelings in the Places of Public Servants | 85 |
Understand the Negro | 93 |
The New Program ΙΟΙ | 101 |
Vocational Guidance | 109 |
The New Type of Professional Man Required | 119 |
Higher Strivings in the Service of the Country | 124 |
The Study of the Negro | 130 |
Much Ado About a Name | 135 |
Dissension and Weakness | 47 |
Professional Education Discouraged | 55 |
Political Education Neglected | 61 |
The Loss of Vision | 69 |
The Need for Service Rather Than Leadership | 79 |
Selected Letters and Articles by Carter G Woodson | 141 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 181 |
Notes | 183 |
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Common terms and phrases
African American ASNLH become better black education Black History Buckingham County Carter G CHAPTER Civil classic color course culture Douglass economic educated Negro effort enslaved established experience exploit Frederick Douglass freedom friends ghetto give graduates groes highly educated Howard University idea imitation inferior institutions large majority large number leaders leadership literature living matter ministers Mis-education Negro business Negro church Negro college Negro History Negro lawyer Negro race Negro schools Negro student never numbers of Negroes Oliver Jones opportunity oppressor persons Phelps Stokes Fund political preachers problem race racial recently religion segregation serve slave slavery social sphere struggle Study of Negro sufficient Sylvia Wynter talented tenth taught teach the Negro texts things thought tion traducers trained trying uplift W. E. B. Du Bois Washington West Virginia white supremacy Woodson workers youth