New Books in African American Studies

Derek W. Black, "Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy" (Yale UP, 2025)

Jan 30, 2025

Derek W. Black, a Professor and author of "Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy," delves into the historical battles for Black literacy in the South. He discusses how literacy became a powerful tool for freedom and resistance against oppression. The conversation highlights Denmark Vesey's rebellion and the tragic consequences imposed by white authorities. Black also connects past struggles to contemporary issues in education, emphasizing the ongoing fight for equality and the importance of open discourse in realizing true democratic principles.

41:58

Episode guests

R. Derek Black

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Quick takeaways

The struggle for Black literacy in the South illustrates how education was wielded as a tool for resistance against oppression and subjugation.

The legacy of suppressed Black literacy historically continues to influence contemporary education and racial inequalities in the United States today.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

A Journey Through Race and Education

3min

Uncovering the Legacy of Black Literacy

5min

Literacy and Liberation

4min

The Fight for Black Literacy in the South

22min

Exploring Democracy's Erosion Through Public Education

2min

Few have ever valued literacy as much as the enslaved Black people of the American South. For them, it was more than a means to a better life; it was a gateway to freedom and, in some instances, a tool for inspiring revolt. And few governments tried harder to suppress literacy than did those in the South. Everyone understood that knowledge was power: power to keep a person enslaved in mind and body, power to resist oppression. In the decades before the Civil War, Southern governments drove Black literacy underground, but it was too precious to be entirely stamped out.

Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy (Yale UP, 2025) describes the violent lengths to which southern leaders went to repress Black literacy and the extraordinary courage it took Black people to resist. Derek W. Black shows how, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of Reconstruction, literacy evolved from a subversive gateway to freedom to a public program to extend citizenship and build democratic institutions—and how, once Reconstruction was abandoned, opposition to educating Black children depressed education throughout the South for Black and white students alike. He also reveals the deep imprint those events had on education and how this legacy is resurfacing today.

Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD student in the History department at UC Davis.

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