Liberation and Education: Perspectives on Black Educational Thought
Liberation and Education: Perspectives on Black Educational Thought
edited by Ronald E. Chennault and Derrick P. Alridge contributions by Alexis Johnson, Kristal Moore Clemons, Lauren Lefty, Worth Hayes, Adrienne Dixson, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Talia Esnard, Maria Migueliz Valcarlos, Wintre Foxworth Johnson, Samiha Rahman, Johari Harris, Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Sheron Fraser-Burgess, Corey Walker, Jerome Morris, Luimil Negron-Perez, James Stewart, Ronald E. Chennault, Derrick P. Alridge, Stephen Nathan Haymes, Traki Taylor, Lasana Kazembe, Karen Johnson and Linda Perkins
Rutgers University Press, 2026 Cloth: 978-1-9788-2999-2 | Paper: 978-1-9788-2998-5 | eISBN: 978-1-9788-3000-4 (ePub) | eISBN: 978-1-9788-3001-1 (PDF) Library of Congress Classification LC2717.L53 2026
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Liberation and Education brings together a collection of essays about Black educators’ and organizations’ quests to cultivate and employ educational strategies for the liberation of Black people. The contributions examine the enduring nature of Black people’s thinking about education prior to and through enslavement to the present. It documents a variety of critical accounts of how Black people have developed ways to free themselves mentally from the legacies of slavery, the view of Black inferiority, and historical and systemic racism.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
RONALD E. CHENNAULT is an associate professor in the College of Education at DePaul University. He is a coeditor of White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America (1998) and is the author of Hollywood Films About Schools: Where Race, Politics, and Education Intersect (2006) and of Anti-Public: How Elite Discourse Harms Public Education (Rutgers University Press, 2026).
DERRICK P. ALRIDGE is the Philip J. Gibson Professor of Education in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Educational Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History (2008) and a coeditor of The Black Intellectual Tradition: African American Thought in the Twentieth Century (2021) and Message in the Music: Hip-Hop History and Pedagogy (2010). He has also served as president of the History of Education Society.
REVIEWS
"Liberation and Education embodies the Sankofa spirit, illuminating the past, present, and future of Black intellectual thought. From African ancestors to contemporary voices across the diaspora, this volume affirms that Black communities have always engaged—and will continue to engage—in transformative educational strategies that nurture our collective well-being.”
— Gloria Swindler Boutte, coeditor of We Be Lovin’ Black Children: Learning to Be Literate About the African Diaspora
“Chennault and Alridge have taken it upon themselves to gather a group of truth tellers to shed light in troubling times. I hope readers understand the immediacy of their message. If we don't, then we must accept that we are complicit with the goals of white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism, and fascism.”
— David Stovall, professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago
"Amen to the editors and authors for this book! In a moment when the erasure of contributions and memory of people of African descent living in the U.S. seems more real and tragic, books like this one inspire future generations to realize and accept the possibilities for liberation and freedom. Building on foundational ideas from W. E. B. DuBois and Marcus and Amy Garvey to Asa Hilliard, from Anna Julia Cooper and Carter G. Woodson to Mwalimu Shujaa and William Watkins, the book is most promising for its intent to do more than just record the fight to maintain educational institutions that sustain Black educational thought, but ultimately to determine their own educational histories and futures. We too sing America!"
— Rodney Hopson, author of Power, Voice, and the Public Good: Schooling and Education in Global Societies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Liberation and Education: Toward a History of Black Educational Thought
Ronald E. Chennault and Derrick P. Alridge
Chapter 1: African American Living Memory, Pedagogy, and the Slave Past: A Phenomenological Exploration of Remembrance
Stephen Haymes
Chapter 2: “At the Table”: Nannie Helen Burroughs and the Early Rise of Womanism
Traki Taylor
Chapter 3: The Sacred Mission: Mapping the Intellectual Genealogy of Carter Godwin Woodson
Lasana D. Kazembe
Chapter 4: Anna Julia Cooper and Septima Poinsette Clark: Adult Education for Freedom, Racial Advancement, and Political Activism
Karen A. Johnson
Chapter 5: Black Women and White Philanthropy: The Impact of White Funding in the Development of the First Generation of Black Women Scholars and Artists
Linda Perkins
Chapter 6: Black Higher Educational Thought, 1932-1944
Alexis Johnson
Chapter 7: “Mind Stayed on Freedom”: The History and Legacy of the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools Program
Kristal Moore Clemons and Lauren Lefty
Chapter 8: Education for Self-Determination: New Concept Development Center and Black Power Education in Chicago
Worth Kamili Hayes
Chapter 9: Critical Race Theory and Black Educational Thought: A Conversation
Adrienne Dixson and Gloria Ladson-Billings
Chapter 10: Slow Moving Tides: Black Women Leaders and the Politics of Representation
Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Talia R. Esnard, and Maria Migueliz Valcarlos
Chapter 11: Theories about Blackness in Education: Amplifying the Black Radical Tradition as a Path Toward Black Educational Futures
Wintre Foxworth Johnson and Samiha Rahman
Chapter 12: “I Got a Lot to Be Mad About”: The Anti-Blackness of Social Emotional Learning and Paths to Liberation
Johari Harris and Leoandra Onnie Rogers
Chapter 13: Fulfilling Education’s Promise of Freedom: Advancing Black Identity and Subjectivity for Commensurate Citizenship
Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Chapter 14: Beyond Ressentiment: Notes Toward a Critical Moral Theory of African American Education
Corey D. B. Walker
Chapter 15: Reclaiming Communally Bonded Educators (CBE): A New, but Old Vision for the Field and Function of Black Educators
Jerome E. Morris and Luimil M. Negrón-Pérez
Chapter 16: Education for Liberation in Black/Africana Studies and African-centered Education
James B. Stewart
Notes
Notes on Contributors
Index
