The Willie Lynch Letter and Other Controversial Texts and Ideas That Have Influenced Black Thought

The Mis-Education of The Ne-gro

“Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: ‘that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.” -Carter G. Woodson

What book should be required reading for those educators who refuse to address culturally relevant education? Carter G. Woodson’s “The Mis-Education of The Ne-gro.” Published in 1933, Woodson explored how detrimental it was for Black pupils to be exposed to not only curricula that ignored them but essentially framed them as inferior. Although Woodson did address the books that specifically regarded Blacks as inferior and savage, he did outline how important it was that education be a tool for empowerment and the delicate role it played in a racially oppressive world.  Woodson saw how education can be used as a form of brainwashing of the “Ne-gro race.” Today, don’t we still wonder what it would be like to be exposed to an education system that embraces a Black point of view?