Africana Studies as Missed Education: From Carter Woodson to Afro Futures

In 1933, Carter Woodson’s “The Miseducation of the Negro” offered a US apartheid-era critique of how educational systems hindered Black community development. A generation later, post-US apartheid era Black communities forced the establishment of Black Studies programs in K-12 through higher education. These formations have since struggled to reconcile foundational objectives of Black-centered intellectual work with White-facing concerns, exemplified most recently by a proliferation of “anti-racist” discourses. This discussion will need for placing Africana intellectual genealogies at the center of Black/Africana Studies practice in order to realize the promise of Woodson’s earlier vision.

This event is a part of the African American Studies Program’s annual Dr. Ronald Foreman Lecture Series, which invites scholars to discuss their research and views on African American Studies.