“Ain't No Rest for the Weary:” Continuing the Historical Legacy of Educational Praxis and Advocacy for Black Youth

Footnotes

1. Richard D. Benson II is an assistant professor in the Education Department at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Specializing in history of education and the Black Freedom Movement, Benson authored the award winning book, Fighting for Our Place in the Sun: Malcolm X and the Radicalization of the Black Student Movement 1960-1973 (Peter Lang Publishing, 2015). The book examined the linkages and inter-generational continuity of the Black Freedom Movement that grew out of intersects of the social pedagogy and political influences of Malcolm X.

2. Anderson 1988. Anderson's groundbreaking work highlights the socio-political advancement of the newly freed slaves during the era where Jim Crow politics and de facto Southern mores effected the development of post antebellum life for African Americans. Significant and seminal, Education of Blacks in the South also informs students and scholars alike of the proactive measures taken to address illiteracy in the South.

3. Ibid: 12.

4. Franklin 1992: 163.

5. Ibid: 169. Also groundbreaking and complimentary [do you mean “complementary” (to complete the historical period) or “complimentary”(to praise or thank the historic period)] to this historic period is the work of Vanessa Siddle-Walker, The Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South.

6. Span 2002: 196.; Also see the seminal work of Christopher M. Span., From the Cotton Field to the School House: African American Education in Mississippi 1862-1875.

7. Franklin 1992: 175.

8. Spring 2001: 220. Additional and significant scholarship by Spring that echoes and supports the historical position of Black self-determination for literacy and education is, Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: A Brief History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States.

9. Carruthers 1977: 291-304, 301. For scholarship that examines the intersections of ideology, philanthropy, and racial stratification post antebellum to the historic Brown v Board decision, see the work of the late William H. Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education, Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954. For scholarship that addresses the migration waves of Black folks migrating to Northern locals in search of new opportunities, see the work of Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Also see the oral histories compiled by writer, Timuel D. Black, Jr., Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Black Migration.

10. Woodson 1990: xiii.

11. Du Bois 1935: 328-335, 333.

12. Wilkerson 2010: 436. Scholars of educational history have noted in previous works the challenges of school desegregation. Wilkerson in her seminal text also provides a stark reminder regarding the historic 1954 and 1955 Brown v Board decision that dismantled segregation, according the court ruling, “with all deliberate speed” on a national level. However, the stubbornness and power of states rights prevented the application of the federal decision in a number of states into the 1990s. According to Wilkerson, “much of the South translated that phrase loosely to mean whenever they got around to it, which meant a time frame closer to a decade than a semester. A county in Virginia—Prince Edward County—closed its entire school system for five years, from 1959 to 1964, rather than integrate.” See also the work of Gloria Ladson-Billings, “Landing on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for Brown.” Educational Researcher 33 (7) (October 2004). Also see the work of Raymond Wolters, The Burden of Brown: Thirty Years of School Desegregation.

13. Joseph 2003: 182-203, 182.

14. Baldwin 1963.

15. Carson 1995: 121. College of Charleston scholar, Jon Hale, has produced a groundbreaking work on the subject of Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Schools. Hale's work, The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, provides a wealth of information on the role and importance of the SNCC Freedom Schools in the context of the greater Black Freedom Movement. Also see the classic work of the late Howard Zinn, SNCC: The Abolitionists and the work of important SNCC activist, Robert Moses, Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project.

16. The past decade saw the emergence of the “Black Power Studies” subfield of history from which significant contributions had been made in unpacking a complex era of American history. From this scholarly awakening, a number of insightful manuscripts have been produced that highlight the nexus of the Black Freedom Movement and the alternative education institutions that emerged from the outgrowth of the era. Contributing to this canon of works are: Peniel E. Joseph, Dashikis and Democracy: Black Studies, Student Activism, and the Black Power Movement, and Waiting till the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power; Richard D. Benson II, Fighting for Our Place in the Sun: Malcolm X and the Radicalization of the Black Student Movement, 1960-1973; Russell Rickford, We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination; and Kwasi Konadu, Truth Crushed to the Earth Will Rise Again: The East Organization and the Principles and Practice of Black Nationalist Development. Recent works that examine the relationships between the Black campus movement and the emergence of both Black Studies departments and alternative community educational institutions and formations are: Cecil Brown, Dude, Where's My Black Studies Department?: The Disappearance of Black Americans from Our Universities; Ibram X. Kendi, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstruction of Higher Education, 1965-1972; Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus; and Fabio Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline.

17. Lipman 2011: 6.

18. Ibid: 12.

19. Stovall 2017.

20. Ladson-Billings 1994: 73.

21. Hilliard III 1991: 31-36, 35.

22. Stovall 2005.

23. Dr. David O. Stovall, Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), first developed the community analysis/school analysis assignment for an Educational Policy course on Race and US Schooling at UIC in 2007. The community analysis was developed as a result of Dr. Stovall's discussions and work with educators, Laurence Tan and Salina Gray. My adoption of the community analysis framework began in the fall of 2010 during my second year of teaching a course entitled, Advocacy in Urban Schools in the Education Department of Spelman College. After developing a partnership with Raising Expectations Inc., a community/youth development organization to assist Black youth in the Southwest Atlanta area, the community analysis assignment was altered specifically to address the contours of the EDU 407/Raising Expectations partnership. After two academic years of utilizing the community/school analysis assignment, I later developed an Advocacy Plan framework for students to construct as an addendum to the community/school analysis for which teacher education students would engage in praxis and actualize one of the critical pillars of the Spelman College Education Department's Conceptual Framework.

24. King and Swartz 2014: 163. The seminal contributions and works of John Henrik Clarke to the fields of history, pan-Africanism, and African studies were pioneering to say the least. Clarke provided critical history analysis and insightful historical prose for what many students and scholars of Black studies may refer to as the ‘missing pages of history.‘ Principally self trained, the legacy of John Henrik Clark can be found in his many writings and general influence in African and Black studies. See New York Times. John Henrik Clarke, Black Studies Advocate Dies at 83. 20 July 1998.