RBG Blakademics May, 2010Mis-Education of the Negro / Dr. Carter G. WoodsonPage 2
Introduction
Considerable time has passed since the first printing of this volume, but it is significantthat it has meaning and direct implications for today's consideration. While it does notrelate exclusively to Black History it does emphasize its instruction, research andwriting. In substance Carter Woodson has produced a definitive and constructivecritique of the educational system, with special reference to its blighting effects on theNegro; and the term he used,
Mis-education
, was the most apt and descriptive wordavailable. It is still, in 1969, equally as relevant and expressive. Now, however, it isloudly articulated by many voices of Whites as well as Blacks, who likewise challengethe system.The most imperative and crucial element in Woodson's concept of
mis-education
hingedon the education system's failure to present authentic Negro History in schools and thebitter knowledge that there was a scarcity of literature available for such a purpose,because most history books gave little or no space to the black man's presence inAmerica. Some of them contained casual references to Negroes but these generallydepicted them in menial, subordinate roles, more or less sub-human. Such booksstressed their good fortune at having been exposed, through slavery, to the higher(white man's) civilization. There were included derogatory statements relating to theprimitive, heathenish quality of the African background, but nothing denoting skills,abilities, contributions or potential in the image of the Blacks, in Africa or America.Woodson considered this state of affairs deplorable, an American tragedy, dooming theNegro to a brain-washed acceptance of the inferior role assigned to him by thedominant race, and absorbed by him through his schooling.Moreover, the neglect of Afro-American History and distortion of the facts concerningNegroes in most history books, deprived the black child and his whole race of aheritage, and relegated him to nothingness and nobodyness. This was Woodson'sconviction as he stated it in this book and as he lived by it. In his Annual Report of theAssociation for the Study of Negro Life and History for the year ending June 30, 1933,the publication period of
Mis-Education
, he stated:
RBG Blakademics May, 2010Mis-Education of the Negro / Dr. Carter G. WoodsonPage 3
Regarding the Negro race as a factor in world culture rather than as an element in asequestered sphere, the Director (Woodson) has recently made two trips to Europe toextend the study of the notice taken of Negroes by European authors and artists, and toengage a larger number of Europeans and Africans in the study of the past of theNegro. 1Thus it is evident that the stress which Dr. Woodson places on historical research,writing, and teaching in this volume was not theoretical jargon. It represented rather, afirm belief; also a judgement of the available type of education that was so stronglyoriented as to warrant his complete and selfless dedication to its betterment. Thisdevotion became a crusade which, in the above instance, carried him to Europe in aneffort to open new avenues for recreating and writing of the black man's past. This wasin line with his basic charges against the omission by most historians of such animportant part of history.
Mis-Education
criticizes the system, and explains the vicious circle that results from
mis- educated
individuals graduating, then proceeding to teach and
mis-educate
others. Butthe book is by no means a study in negation. The author goes to great lengths in tracingthe historical foundations of the problem, its development, and its influence oninterpersonal relations and historical scholarship. Numerous other scholars now followits example.The youths of the race were Woodson's particular concern because he recognized thatit was with, the boys and girls that
Mis-education
began, later crystallizing into deep-seated insecurities, intra-racial cleavages, and interracial antagonisms. All of thesefactors have been discussed over and over in the immediate past, by historians,sociologists, psychiatrists, and laymen, but Dr. Woodson, and a pitifully small number ofothers, had pointed the way a full generation earlier.More so than most of his contemporaries did Woodson contribute because he gave upa prestigious educational career, including a school principalship in Washington, D.C.,the position of Dean at both Howard University and West Virginia State College. Hedecided instead to devote his finances and energies to an association which would helpto overcome the inadequacies of the system which promoted
mis-education
. This wasnot by any means his first book but the views expressed herein form a sort of core orcenter, to and from which his texts and other writings protrude and revert.All of this scholar's researches and writings were designed to provide educationalsustenance, to fill the void which existed by reason of neglect of Black Studies. As hasbeen already observed, however, he was no mere theorist, he was an activist and apragmatist. He knew that writing alone would be inadequate for the enormity of theneed. Consequently he, with four others, founded The Association for the Study of
RBG -Mis-Education of the Negro-Dr Carter G Woodson- PDF Book
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Sections
« prev | next »- Introduction
- Foreword
- Chapter I: The Seat of the Trouble
- Chapter II: How We Missed the Mark
- Chapter III: How We Drifted Away from the Truth
- Chapter IV: Education Under Outside Control
- Chapter V: The Failure to Learn to Make a Living
- Chapter VI: The Educated Negro Leaves the Masses
- Chapter VII: Dissension and Weakness
- Chapter VIII: Professional Education Discouraged
- Chapter IX: Political Education Neglected
- Chapter X: The Loss of Vision
- Chapter XI: The Need for Service Rather than Leadership
- Chapter XII: Hirelings in the Places of Public Servants
- Chapter XIII: Understand the Negro
- Chapter XIV: The New Program
- Chapter XV: Vocational Guidance
- Chapter XVI: The New Type of Professional Man Required
- Chapter XVII: Higher Strivings in the Service of the Country
- Chapter XVIII: The Study of the Negro
- Appendix: Much Ado about a Name
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