“The Crisis in Black Education” will be addressed by some of the nation’s leading Black scholars and activists later this month at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
The organization’s 102nd Annual Meeting and Conference, to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, will focus on the crucial role of education for African Americans throughout history and the “centuries-old efforts of resistance to this crisis,” according to an executive summary for the event.
“I hope that people come away from this conference knowing how important education is today and that we have to do everything we can to ensure that we educate the masses of our people,” Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, the association’s national president, told Diverse in a recent interview.
The prominent historian said that the crisis in Black education began when African Americans arrived in the country as slaves at a time when it was unlawful for slaves to learn to read and write. She said the results lasted into the current era and have been “a crisis for a long time.”
ASALH’s response is to present and share the wealth of knowledge and extensive history that focuses on the perseverance of African Americans in confronting today’s education barriers.
According to the executive summary, the historical resistance has occurred through the “slaves’ surreptitious endeavors to learn; the rise of Black colleges and universities after the Civil War; unrelenting battles in the courts; the Black history movement; the freedom schools of the 1960s; and local community-based academic and mentorship programs that inspire a love of learning and thirst for achievement.”
Higginbotham said that the role of ASALH is to bring this message to both academicians and those outside of the academy who have an appreciation for Black history.
