“We say, hold on to the real facts of history as they are, but complete such knowledge by
studying also the history of races and nations which have been purposely ignored.”
― Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro, 1933
In 1926, Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH)
launched the first Negro History Week. These celebrations were collaborations with community
groups, schools, colleges, and churches that highlighted the achievements of Black Americans
while naming and mobilizing people to confront the racism in their everyday lives and
institutions. This would lay the foundation for what we today know as Black History Month in
February.
Some people think of this month as a marginalization of the history we should be learning all
year, but Woodson and his colleagues used the week to spotlight liberatory practices that were
taking place year-round and to drive change. For example, as Jarvis R. Givens wrote in his article
Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, “Some educators used the
momentum surrounding Negro History Week as leverage to nudge school officials to adopt new
textbooks and educational resources.”
Woodson’s idea of fugitive pedagogy, organized collectives of Black educators teaching
curriculum that combatted anti-Blackness and was illegal in many states, feels just as relevant
and needed today. There are lessons we can learn from our past where educators risked their
lives to make sure people young and old understood and celebrated Black accomplishments
while teaching the truth about institutional racism in their history and present lives.
Woodson worked with networks to share information across the country. Sometimes educators
would pretend to go along with the legally sanctioned curriculum, while quietly teaching Black
history behind closed doors.
As practitioners of work for social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, we are
committed to supporting organizations to stand boldly for what they believe in and to
strategize secretly when necessary to not be targeted. In celebration of Black History Month
this year, we invite you to consider what fugitive pedagogy, practices necessary in our
continued struggle for liberation, looks like in your communities.