The Mis-Education of the Negro

by Carter G. Woodson

Overview

African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, one of the first scholars to study African-American history and has been referred to as the "father of black history." His announcement of the celebration of "Negro History Week" in February 1926 has been cited as the precursor to Black History Month. First published serially in 1903, "The Mis-Education of the Negro" is Dr. Carter G. Woodson's thesis regarding the education, or lack thereof, of African Americans in the early part of the 20th century. His principal assertion was that African Americans were not really being taught in American schools but rather that they were being culturally indoctrinated. Dr. Woodson was highly critical of this trend for as he writes "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." Dr. Woodson's book is a compelling argument regarding the need for better education in the African American community which is surprisingly still relevant today. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420952407
Publisher:	Neeland Media
Publication date:	01/29/2016
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Carter G. Woodson was the founder of Black History Week. He wrote The Negro in Our History, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, A Century of Negro Migration, and The African Background Outlined. He died in 1950. Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu is the author of Lessons from History and Restoring the Village. He lives in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
I. The Seat of the Trouble
II. How We Missed the Mark
III. How We Drifted Away from the Truth
IV. Education Under Outside Control
V. The Failure to Learn to Make a Living
VI. The Educated Negro Leaves the Masses
VII. Dissension and Weakness
VIII. Professional Educated Discouraged
IX. Political Education Neglected
X. The Loss of Vision
XI. The Need for Service Rather Than Leadership
XII. Hirelings in the Places of Public Servants
XIII. Understand the Negro
XIV. The New Program
XV. Vocational Guidance
XVI. The New Type of Professional Man Required
XVII. Higher Strivings in the Service of the Country
XVIII. The Study of the Negro
Appendix
Index

Editorial Reviews

Carter G. Woodson has been called the Father of Modern Black History. He was a central, commanding figure in the study, writing, and teaching of African American history and the first historian to successfully use sound scholarship to refute the prevailing myths and racist views about black Americans and their history. Among his contributions to American life is Black History Month (originally dubbed Negro History Week), which Woodson established to promote the study of African American history.

Woodson's 205-page monograph, The Mis-education of tbe Negro, reflects his profound concern for setting the record straight. His thesis, as outlined in his Preface, could well apply today: "The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker people." He was concerned with the way African American identity had been warped by racist approaches to history and education; he foresaw the ways that such a warped history would be internalized by black students who would never know of the achievements of their forebears, only of their humiliations and sufferings.

In the book's eighteen chapters, Woodson presents a systematic critique of the education system and offers a plan for change that would create a system that informs black students about their own history and addresses their unique challenges. The

current proliferation of African American studies programs, Afrocentric schools, and multicultural curricula all bear Woodson's stamp. Still, Mis-education remains a biting indictment of a public school system whose promise of education of the masses has still been left sadly unfulfilled.

Sacred Fire