The mis-education of the Negro

"The most influential work by "the father of Black history," reflecting the long-standing tradition of anti-racist teaching pioneered by African-American educators. The Mis-education of the Negro (1933) is Woodson’s most popular classic work of Black social criticism. 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." 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"--