Education Noir

While commenting on the incident in Jena, Louisiana, a friend inquired about the writings of Carter G. Woodson. Like other black intellectuals, Woodson has had a tremendous effect on my life as an educator and aspiring scholar. But who is Carter G. Woodson? Lauryn Hill is a name that virtually everyone has heard of. While Hill’s creativity is…well…cosmic, the title of her most successful album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was modified from the classic book title, The Miseducation of the Negro, written in 1933.

The author of this book was Carter G. Woodson.

So you still might be wondering who is (or was) Carter G. Woodson. Woodson stands in a ubiquitous place in African American history but is consistently lost between the worlds of W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, and Booker T. Washington. He grew up poor in New Canton, Virginia and was the oldest of nine siblings. Displaying a knack for learning and language, he earned a bachelors and masters degree at the University of Chicago. In 1912, he became the second black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University.

Who might the first be? W.E.B. DuBois.

It is from here that Woodson immediately gets lost in the shuffle. Standing amidst intellectual giants like DuBois and his pen, Garvey, and his Harlem, and Washington and his school, Woodson is often lost in this era of the “New Negro.” His writings include: The Negro in Our History, A Century of Negro Migration, The Negro Professional, and African Myths.

But still, what is it about Woodson that makes such an impression? To begin, I admire Woodson for maintaining an authentic voice at a time when it would have been easy to echo DuBouis’ and Washington’s prophecies on ‘Negroness.’ Woodson not only authenticated his own writing style, he often was at odds with DuBois and Washington—pointing out flaws in both of their solutions for the race.

The Miseducation of the Negro is the first sociological (ethnographical) book on education ever written. By focusing specifically on the education and training of Negro men and women, Woodson was able to extract the core issues pertaining to African Americans while America starved its way through the Great Depression.

Still not convinced? To fully appreciate the man and his aspirations, check out the table of contents for Miseducation:

1 – The Seat of the Trouble
2 – How We Missed the Mark
3 – How we Drifted Away from the Truth
4 – Education under Outside Control
5 – The Failure to Learn to make a Living
6 – The Educated Negro leaves the Masses
7 – Dissension and Weakness
8 – Professional Educated Discouraged
9 – Political Education Neglected
10 – The Loss of Vision
11 – The Need for Service Rather Than Leadership
12 – Hirelings in the Places of Public Servants
13 – Understand the Negro
14 – The New Program
15 – Vocational Guidance
16 – The Type of Professional Man Required
17 – Higher Strivings in the Service of the Country
18 – The Study of the Negro

What’s amazing is that Cornell West, Michael Eric Dyson, or Jesse Jackson could write a similar book using the framework provided by Woodson. This is what makes Woodson unique. Unlike DuBois’ warring soul, Woodson specifically targets institutional racism and how it systematically destroys Black communities. Woodson ultimately concluded that our education (training as he often referred to it) is counterproductive to the immediate and long-term needs of the community.

Some might think this conclusion is a bit more radical than Woodson may have intended it to be. But allow me to provide some quotes to my supporting generalization:

QOUTE #1 “The Education of the Negroes, then, the most important thing in the uplift of the Negroes, is almost entirely in the hands of those who have enslaved them and now segregate them.” P. 22

QOUTE #2 “If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you may a man feel he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door.” P.84

QOUTE #3 “History shows, then, that as a result of these unusual forces in education of the Negro he easily learns to follow the line of least resistance rather than battle against odds for what real history has shown to be the right course.” P.96

Woodson may not be the first name on everyone’s “Gotta read that dude’s book,” list. But he should be. As an educator of students victimized by institutional racism (among other aspects of our society), it is chilling to read Woodson’s words and acknowledge that the fight for self-actualization is far from realized in this country.

I leave you with one final quote. It belongs to Woodson but has been mirrored by revolutionaries, intellectuals, and educators, worldwide:

“You cannot serve people by giving them orders as to what to do. The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.” P.130

That’s what I’d like to think I am doing in Houston…

Mr. Wheatley