Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy

by Derek W. Black

The enduring legacy of the nineteenth-century struggle for Black literacy in the American South
 
Few have ever valued literacy as much as the enslaved Black people of the American South. For them, it was more than a means to a better life; it was a gateway to freedom and, in some instances, a tool for inspiring revolt. And few governments tried harder to suppress literacy than did those in the South. Everyone understood that knowledge was power to keep a person enslaved in mind and body, power to resist oppression. In the decades before the Civil War, Southern governments drove Black literacy underground, but it was too precious to be entirely stamped out.
 
This book describes the violent lengths to which southern leaders went to repress Black literacy and the extraordinary courage it took Black people to resist. Derek W. Black shows how, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of Reconstruction, literacy evolved from a subversive gateway to freedom to a public program to extend citizenship and build democratic institutions—and how, once Reconstruction was abandoned, opposition to educating Black children depressed education throughout the South for Black and white students alike. He also reveals the deep imprint those events had on education and how this legacy is resurfacing today.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

Published January 14, 2025

Reviews

[Amanda Renslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the ALC program from Libro.fm, I learned a lot from this book. I'd recommend this to anyone in education or just wanting to know more about both the suppression of and fight for Black literacy.

[Joseph Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tremendously poignant read given the times in which we find ourselves. I appreciated the author's tendency to not only highlight what the many important historical figures who shaped Black freedom and education were saying during the pre- and post-Civil War eras, but why they believed in their mission and how relentlessly they fought for it. Additionally, the manner in which the author highlighted the words, beliefs, and actions of the slavocracy and the ends to which they went to keep the status quo of slavery active in the South allowed the reader to connect the dots to certain rhetoric and public policy that prevail today without explicitly making the connection. Overall, the contents of this book are a stark reminder that a successful democracy is predicated on an educated citizenry, and when "alternative" facts, propaganda, and prejudice prevail---as they have in the past---we are doomed to fail.

I found one particular line in the last chapter uplifting and worth remembering: "There is no Civil War, no Reconstruction, no literacy or education movement, and no Civil Rights Movement without a moral movement just as tenacious as the forces of oppression."

[Leanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough and enlightening book. This book discusses in detail the long history of the suppression of Black literacy in the south and often focused particularly on Charleston/South Carolina. DW Black chooses poignant moments in history to narrate and relate, making the expanisve time span (late 18th century to now, with particular focus on antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras) and confusing chains of cause and effect easy to understand. Black's most powerful and moving moments often show historical precursors of our current situation when it comes to reading, literacy, and the battles over rights to speech, learning, literacy, and education. Read this!

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a perfect history lesson, especially in this day of hysterical revisionism.

I was able to use this as a mini-lesson to my high school pupils as we connected the Stono Rebellion (occurred but a few miles from where I reside) to the Denmark Vessy travails, the David Walker book that may have incited Nat Turner's Rebellion.

Read this to understand just why the dominant race attempts to revise history simply because they know that education and literacy are dangerous concepts to totalitarian intentions.

[Magdalen Karrs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several takeaways--public schools are the backbone of a functioning democracy and private school vouchers may be the scourge of the US, and Reconstruction was a failure because it was ended too soon and probably the Union wasn't harsh enough to slave owners.

[Marti]

Satisfies 52 Book Challenge 2025 Prompt: #52. Published in 2025