Derek W. Black, a law professor with a focus on education law and race history, discusses the critical struggle for Black literacy in the South. He reveals how enslaved individuals viewed literacy as a path to freedom, while Southern governments violently suppressed it. Black shares the story of secret schools and how literacy became a symbol of resistance. He connects historical themes with contemporary struggles for educational equity, and he hints at his upcoming work exploring global perspectives on democracy and education.
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Discovering African American Studies
Derek Black's interest in African American studies started with a class he took in college.
Reading Derek Bell's "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" significantly impacted his academic direction.
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From Paragraph to Book
Black's research for "Schoolhouse Burning" led him to the topic of Black literacy in the South.
This initial interest, sparked by a single paragraph, expanded into the book "Dangerous Learning."
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Literacy as a Dividing Line
Literacy has been a dividing line between slavery and freedom, and later, citizenship.
Black people fought for literacy while many white people tried to suppress it.
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voices from the bottom of the well, or faces from the bottom of the well
voices from the bottom of the well, or faces from the bottom of the well
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Derek Bell
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Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy
The South's Long War on Black Literacy
R. Derek Black
R. Derek Black's "Dangerous Learning" chronicles the violent suppression of Black literacy in the American South and the courageous resistance it faced. The book traces the evolution of literacy from a subversive act to a tool for building democratic institutions, highlighting the lasting impact on education. Black reveals how the legacy of this struggle continues to resonate today, shaping educational disparities and societal challenges. The narrative underscores the importance of literacy as a fundamental human right and its crucial role in achieving freedom and equality. The book serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing fight for educational justice and the enduring significance of knowledge in the pursuit of a more equitable society.
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.
New Books in Education 
