Work

An African School for African Americans: Black Demands for Education in Antebellum Boston

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines Black parents’ efforts to establish and secure quality education for their children in antebellum Boston, Massachusetts. It situates the African School, a Black-owned cultural institution, within Black nationalist politics and reveals how the schoolhouse became a site of political tension between Black Bostonians and the Boston School Committee. Analyzing petitions, school records, and newspapers, this essay finds that the African School cultivated Black citizenship ideologies that prioritized political activism. This study invites new understandings of the political intersections of education and citizenship, and it illuminates the utility of Black nationalism in antebellum Boston.

Source: History of Education Quarterly

DOI: 10.1017/heq.2021.38

Author: ShaVonte’ Mills

Institution: Pennsylvania State University

Language: English

Topic: Race, History, and American Society

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,255