Literary criticism
Free Within Ourselves
Rudine Sims Bishop
A study of Black children’s literature follows its publishing history, creators, and evolving traditions.
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9 books
Picture book
Mae Among the Stars
Roda Ahmed
A young Mae Jemison imagines herself in space with encouragement from her family.
History
Schooling the Freed People
Ronald E. Butchart
A history of the teachers and institutions that helped build schools in the first decades after emancipation.
History
Self-Taught
Heather Andrea Williams
The book follows Black people’s pursuit of reading and schooling before, during, and after the Civil War.
Essays
Teaching to Transgress
bell hooks
hooks brings classroom experience to questions about freedom, authority, and participation in education.
History
The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935
James D. Anderson
A study of who built, financed, and contested Black education across the post-emancipation South.
Essays
The Mis-Education of the Negro
Carter G. Woodson
Woodson asks what schooling teaches Black students to believe about themselves and their history.
Essays
The Souls of Black Folk
W. E. B. Du Bois
Du Bois explores emancipation’s aftermath, segregated education, and the experience he calls double consciousness.
Memoir
Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington
Washington recounts his path from enslavement to leadership at Tuskegee and sets out his educational philosophy.