Constructing a Black Curriculum: Race, Representation, and the Politics of Knowledge

Constructing a Black Curriculum reframes how we understand Black Americans' intellectual and political engagement with education during the first half of the twentieth century. It traces the powerful, diffuse movement created by Black Americans to build what Nocera calls a "Black Curriculum:" a communal effort to represent Black identity, guide racial consciousness, and rebut claims of inferiority. This curriculum first developed as a public educational project in Black learned societies and during the Harlem Renaissance before making its way into schools. The struggle for a Black curriculum was not only a fight against white supremacy, but also an internal debate among Black advocates over the very nature of how race should be represented and taught. This book illuminates this struggle through the work of Black intellectuals (Alexander Crummell, Carter G. Woodson, Hubert Harrison, and Alain Locke) and the intellectual contributions of African American educators (Nannie Burroughs, Jane Dabney Shackelford, and Julia Davis). This essential history provides vital context for contemporary debates over curriculum reform, racial knowledge, and the enduring quest for educational equity.