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Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching
A fresh portrayal of one of the architects of the African American intellectual tradition, whose faith in the subversive power of education will inspire teachers and learners today.
Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the persistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this educational heritage.
There is perhaps no better exemplar of this heritage than Carter G. Woodson—groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged: Woodson’s first teachers were his formerly enslaved uncles; he himself taught for nearly thirty years; and he spent his life partnering with educators to transform the lives of Black students. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles Woodson’s efforts to fight against the “mis-education of the Negro” by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson’s materials and methods as they fought for power in schools and continued the work of fugitive pedagogy. Forged in slavery, embodied by Woodson, this tradition of escape remains essential for teachers and students today.
Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the persistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this educational heritage.
There is perhaps no better exemplar of this heritage than Carter G. Woodson—groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged: Woodson’s first teachers were his formerly enslaved uncles; he himself taught for nearly thirty years; and he spent his life partnering with educators to transform the lives of Black students. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles Woodson’s efforts to fight against the “mis-education of the Negro” by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson’s materials and methods as they fought for power in schools and continued the work of fugitive pedagogy. Forged in slavery, embodied by Woodson, this tradition of escape remains essential for teachers and students today.
307 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2021
113 people are currently reading
1351 people want to read
About the author
Jarvis R. Givens
9 books28 followersJarvis R. Givens is Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Suzanne Young Murray Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 9, 2023
A genius masterpiece! Highly recommend for any educator or anyone interested in Black history or the history of public education.
March 29, 2021
Fascinating, energizing and inspiring- a history of Black learning, Black teaching, and the creation of content, point of view, theory and application as a consequence of this dynamic relationship. Gives Woodson a context and community for the evolution of his vision.
September 15, 2024
I listened to this book and I may need to actually read it a second time. I was excited about it when my husband brought a copy home, but it felt dense and was a bit confusing as the personal story of Carter G. Woodson was told along with the journey of the African American trying to gain and then provide an education. Nonetheless, it is informative and paints the unfortunate picture of how so many educators before me fought to tell our story. Update: after reflecting, I added a star because of the book title. Just think about the concepts of fugitive and pedagogy. Thoughts exude a more depressing truth, at least for me. We’ve come far as a nation, but there is still so far to travel.
October 12, 2021
Was African American education in early 20th century forged in slavery?
A young black kid growing up in Michigan once told his eighth-grade teacher about his intention of becoming a lawyer. But his teacher killed his enthusiasm instantly stating that his ambitions were unrealistic for a “nig*er” and suggested to become a carpenter. This kid would come to be known as Malcolm X, described as how this encounter became a turning point in his childhood, and later, trouble with the law in his adolescent years. His fascinating perspective of racism in America is narrated in in his autobiography. Despite this, black education continued against a background of increased violence against African Americans in the South. After Democrats regained power in state governments, they instituted legal racial segregation and a variety of racist laws. They also disfranchised Black people by constitutional amendments and electoral rules from 1890 until 1964. But the enslaved people learned to read despite widespread challenges. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, and creative responses to the persistence of White opposition, from slavery through the Jim Crow era.
Forged in slavery, embodied by Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Dubois is a tradition of escape mentality of slaves and later for black teachers says the author of this book. One major flaw is that the author is using the same material he wrote for his PhD dissertation. This book leaves out a large part of many African American educators. I understand the PhD dissertation focuses on a specific narrative of educator Carter G. Woodson. But the author missed out numerous achievements early in the African American history. Some of the highlights that could have been incorporated in this book includes the creation of Clark Atlanta University founded in 1865. Lucy Craft Laney founded Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia. Hired as principal of the new normal school (for the training of teachers) in Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker T. Washington opened his school in 1881. Based on his experience at the Hampton Institute, Washington intended to train students in skills, morals, and religious life, in addition to academic subjects. Washington urged the teachers he trained to return to the plantation districts and show the people how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. Later he became the President of the Tuskegee University, Alabama. Mary Bethune Cookman, well known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, later became Bethune-Cookman University. George Washington Carver, a well-known plant biologist worked at Tuskegee when Booker Washington was the president of the university. In 1897, W.E.B DuBois became a professor in history and economics at the historically black Atlanta University in Georgia
A young black kid growing up in Michigan once told his eighth-grade teacher about his intention of becoming a lawyer. But his teacher killed his enthusiasm instantly stating that his ambitions were unrealistic for a “nig*er” and suggested to become a carpenter. This kid would come to be known as Malcolm X, described as how this encounter became a turning point in his childhood, and later, trouble with the law in his adolescent years. His fascinating perspective of racism in America is narrated in in his autobiography. Despite this, black education continued against a background of increased violence against African Americans in the South. After Democrats regained power in state governments, they instituted legal racial segregation and a variety of racist laws. They also disfranchised Black people by constitutional amendments and electoral rules from 1890 until 1964. But the enslaved people learned to read despite widespread challenges. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, and creative responses to the persistence of White opposition, from slavery through the Jim Crow era.
Forged in slavery, embodied by Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Dubois is a tradition of escape mentality of slaves and later for black teachers says the author of this book. One major flaw is that the author is using the same material he wrote for his PhD dissertation. This book leaves out a large part of many African American educators. I understand the PhD dissertation focuses on a specific narrative of educator Carter G. Woodson. But the author missed out numerous achievements early in the African American history. Some of the highlights that could have been incorporated in this book includes the creation of Clark Atlanta University founded in 1865. Lucy Craft Laney founded Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia. Hired as principal of the new normal school (for the training of teachers) in Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker T. Washington opened his school in 1881. Based on his experience at the Hampton Institute, Washington intended to train students in skills, morals, and religious life, in addition to academic subjects. Washington urged the teachers he trained to return to the plantation districts and show the people how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. Later he became the President of the Tuskegee University, Alabama. Mary Bethune Cookman, well known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, later became Bethune-Cookman University. George Washington Carver, a well-known plant biologist worked at Tuskegee when Booker Washington was the president of the university. In 1897, W.E.B DuBois became a professor in history and economics at the historically black Atlanta University in Georgia
June 11, 2022
I highly recommend this book, especially when trying to convince some younger folks that reading is worthwhile and there's no self-emancipation without it.
August 8, 2021
During the 1700 and 1800's, because there had been so many slave insurrections, many Southern states created laws against literacy among slaves because they saw that there was often, though not always, a connection. Let that marinate. White people made it illegal for Black people to read and learn, because the thought was the 2 together led to dissatisfaction to the point of rebelling , flights and insurrections against slavery.
What this meant, is that my ancestors found secret ways to learn, sometimes digging holes in the ground, that they went into and covered up as the reader within the group taught the others. They found other ways to sneak and learn, hiding in all sorts of places as they conducted informal schools. Sometimes, they would give food to poor white literate children, to get reading lessons.
My ancestors often did whatever it took, on the down-low, to become readers and to become educated, during slavery. Those that sought education were looked at as rebels against the law, fugitives if you will. Within this concept, Black people developed their educational efforts around the folk hero of The Fugitive Slave, seeing their efforts at education as them being the Nat Turners, Frederick Douglasses and Harriet Tubmans of the race and education.
It wasn't just the ends of pursuing education, it was the means, the fact that they were "stealing and snatching time" to learn and study. They saw the power and heroism within the very act of becoming educated. Later, "The Fugitive" would be that teacher who would go against the grain of The White-established curriculum, along with the students as accomplices, as the true History of Black people was being taught through Black History. There is a new book that captures the teachers within this concept by calling them "Fugitive Teachers", or "Fugitive Pedagogues," as a pedagogue is just another word for a teacher.
As a child in school, I knew about those laws forbidding slaves to read, but could never explain to you what I am about to. I have always looked at reading as a form of freedom, freedom from ignorance and complacency. As flight from the racism that I have faced, but what I now know is that all the time that I have been pursuing reading, I have been firmly entrenched within the tradition of my ancestors as a Fugitive Learner.
No, it is no longer illegal for us to read, but yet so few of us do so. I know that I have long-been committed to reading, in part, because I wanted to snatch away something from White folks that is beneficial to me and that they used to enforce as illegal. I wanted to claim that power and freedom as my birthright.
I wallow in myself as a Fugitive Student. I thank this book for making this clear, for his main concept is one that I have felt intuitively for a very long time. Reading the concept explained in this book gives me an adrenaline rush, mainly because it illuminates something that I have felt strongly for a very long time and once again, gives me so many reasons to both respect and admire my ancestors.
What this meant, is that my ancestors found secret ways to learn, sometimes digging holes in the ground, that they went into and covered up as the reader within the group taught the others. They found other ways to sneak and learn, hiding in all sorts of places as they conducted informal schools. Sometimes, they would give food to poor white literate children, to get reading lessons.
My ancestors often did whatever it took, on the down-low, to become readers and to become educated, during slavery. Those that sought education were looked at as rebels against the law, fugitives if you will. Within this concept, Black people developed their educational efforts around the folk hero of The Fugitive Slave, seeing their efforts at education as them being the Nat Turners, Frederick Douglasses and Harriet Tubmans of the race and education.
It wasn't just the ends of pursuing education, it was the means, the fact that they were "stealing and snatching time" to learn and study. They saw the power and heroism within the very act of becoming educated. Later, "The Fugitive" would be that teacher who would go against the grain of The White-established curriculum, along with the students as accomplices, as the true History of Black people was being taught through Black History. There is a new book that captures the teachers within this concept by calling them "Fugitive Teachers", or "Fugitive Pedagogues," as a pedagogue is just another word for a teacher.
As a child in school, I knew about those laws forbidding slaves to read, but could never explain to you what I am about to. I have always looked at reading as a form of freedom, freedom from ignorance and complacency. As flight from the racism that I have faced, but what I now know is that all the time that I have been pursuing reading, I have been firmly entrenched within the tradition of my ancestors as a Fugitive Learner.
No, it is no longer illegal for us to read, but yet so few of us do so. I know that I have long-been committed to reading, in part, because I wanted to snatch away something from White folks that is beneficial to me and that they used to enforce as illegal. I wanted to claim that power and freedom as my birthright.
I wallow in myself as a Fugitive Student. I thank this book for making this clear, for his main concept is one that I have felt intuitively for a very long time. Reading the concept explained in this book gives me an adrenaline rush, mainly because it illuminates something that I have felt strongly for a very long time and once again, gives me so many reasons to both respect and admire my ancestors.
January 25, 2022
I loved this book! It was so inspiring. I read it for my research but it really gave me motivation to keep going as an educator. I saw myself and others who I know in this book and I enjoyed learning more about Woodson and the educators he worked with.
May 26, 2023
In Fugitive Pedagogy, Jarvis Givens provides insights into how black teachers navigate the colonial educational apparatus early in their teaching of black children in public schools. He illustrated how black teachers gave a liberatory education while also keeping up with white colonial education. There is perhaps no better example of this than Carter G. Woodson and the methods and materials he created for this subversion. As a Raza educator, and given the times, we can learn from this as a way to organize and institutionalize effort towards our liberation. Carter G. Woodson and the methods and resources that he developed for this purpose are among the best examples of this. As a Raza educator, and given the current conditions, we may draw from this as a method to organize and institutionalize our liberation efforts. This is a must-read for everyone seeking to break the hegemonic empire's chain.
May 9, 2023
Forgive my confusing status update. Listening to book and trying to follow along with book which is not so clear.
Either way, as a black educator, I wish this would have been part of my undergrad and masters program! Must read for ALL educators, especially Black educators of all levels, counselors, paraeducators, health professionals, administrators, custodians, etc...
Either way, as a black educator, I wish this would have been part of my undergrad and masters program! Must read for ALL educators, especially Black educators of all levels, counselors, paraeducators, health professionals, administrators, custodians, etc...
October 28, 2022
A necessary read for folks who are unfamiliar with fugitive pedagogy.
May 24, 2025
A really important contribution to the history of anti-black education- and a foundation of understanding how education and teachers combatted racism In their classrooms!
May 9, 2023
Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis E. Givens is an amazing book. I knew that Southern segregate schools were cites of resistance, much like the Black churches. However, Givens provides the details that I did not know that centered around Carter G. Woodson, the author of the Mis-education of the Negro, published in 1933. Woodson was the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Live and History. We can thank him for Negro History Week, that eventually became a month. Educated at Berea College and later at the U of Chicago and Harvard, he had mastered the curriculum of the American School, that did little to enlighten the Negro, since it did not value black culture or history.
Woodson taught in segregated schools, where White people controlled the curriculum. We know that these do become sites of resistance, but it is Woodson who is behind much of the development. Recognizing his own mis-education, he worked to learn about the Negro and inspired others to do so. He was part of the elite, living in Washington D.C. and outside the mainstream as he supports himself and his publications with dues and fees from mostly Negro teachers and other members of the community. His messages were contrary to the goals of many White philanthropists, who had more conventional views of the Negro.
In the segregated South there were states that had Negro teacher associations, which means there is much sharing and also avenues for Woodson to reach other teachers. This book identifies how the criminalization of literacy means that people will do what they can to learn to read. Literacy is linked to freedom, since if even in bondage you are able to read and think. There is much evidence of how Negro teachers taught students to subvert the system. Even singing “Life Every Voice and Sing” each morning but practicing and singing the “other” national anthem when White supervisors were around.
There was exposure to Negro heroes, discussions about slavery, but also attention to the works that Negroes contributed to the culture. These curriculum materials were lacking in most Northern schools, like mine. Enlighted teachers in my high school were finding material from the theatre and arts that were produced in the 1960s, because their own educations did not expose them to Negro writers and scholars.
A well-researched book that opened my eyes to not only the work that was done in the South in the days of Jim Crow, but more fully explores how these schools produced freedom fighters. My own journey had more to do with my parents, who were influenced by Black newspapers, that were also carrying these lessons and my own involvement as a high school student with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Close to the world of jazz, I knew accomplished people, so it was clear that Negroes had talent. Givens book should be read by many people to understand pioneering and activist teachers in this era of Jim Crow.
Woodson taught in segregated schools, where White people controlled the curriculum. We know that these do become sites of resistance, but it is Woodson who is behind much of the development. Recognizing his own mis-education, he worked to learn about the Negro and inspired others to do so. He was part of the elite, living in Washington D.C. and outside the mainstream as he supports himself and his publications with dues and fees from mostly Negro teachers and other members of the community. His messages were contrary to the goals of many White philanthropists, who had more conventional views of the Negro.
In the segregated South there were states that had Negro teacher associations, which means there is much sharing and also avenues for Woodson to reach other teachers. This book identifies how the criminalization of literacy means that people will do what they can to learn to read. Literacy is linked to freedom, since if even in bondage you are able to read and think. There is much evidence of how Negro teachers taught students to subvert the system. Even singing “Life Every Voice and Sing” each morning but practicing and singing the “other” national anthem when White supervisors were around.
There was exposure to Negro heroes, discussions about slavery, but also attention to the works that Negroes contributed to the culture. These curriculum materials were lacking in most Northern schools, like mine. Enlighted teachers in my high school were finding material from the theatre and arts that were produced in the 1960s, because their own educations did not expose them to Negro writers and scholars.
A well-researched book that opened my eyes to not only the work that was done in the South in the days of Jim Crow, but more fully explores how these schools produced freedom fighters. My own journey had more to do with my parents, who were influenced by Black newspapers, that were also carrying these lessons and my own involvement as a high school student with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Close to the world of jazz, I knew accomplished people, so it was clear that Negroes had talent. Givens book should be read by many people to understand pioneering and activist teachers in this era of Jim Crow.
February 18, 2024
A phenomenal examination of the history of learning in the margins and in opposition to dominant ideologies, learning despite circumstances, how this informs that learning and how it became a part of de facto resistance to the ubiquitous anti-blackness of America post-Reconstruction.
This books informs so much about how and why organizing for civil rights was so broad an powerful, it had started generations before in the classrooms, in Negro History Weeks, and teacher organizing curriculum and sneaking it into expected anti-black standards of practice. This book answered so many questions I had had about antecedents to the civil rights organizing, it was compelling to see the ways in which infrapolitical acts at the classroom and community level, aggregated over time and space can snowball into large meaningful changes.
The legacy traditions in academic investigation that begat modern Black Studies research is also a result of Carter G. Woodson's intention in interrogating the dominant system while teaching from within it. The present regressive assault on all aspects of education, but especially focus "woke" topics, by which they mean history of transgressions of the State against people of color, are again a dressed up anti-black re-assertion of the same false ideologies Woodson was creating curricula against since the 19th century, the root racism America is founded upon and navigates into the future.
So this book remains relevant and descriptive in ways marginalized groups can continue to organize curricula and efforts to push back against the white supremacist orthodoxy of education in America.
This books informs so much about how and why organizing for civil rights was so broad an powerful, it had started generations before in the classrooms, in Negro History Weeks, and teacher organizing curriculum and sneaking it into expected anti-black standards of practice. This book answered so many questions I had had about antecedents to the civil rights organizing, it was compelling to see the ways in which infrapolitical acts at the classroom and community level, aggregated over time and space can snowball into large meaningful changes.
The legacy traditions in academic investigation that begat modern Black Studies research is also a result of Carter G. Woodson's intention in interrogating the dominant system while teaching from within it. The present regressive assault on all aspects of education, but especially focus "woke" topics, by which they mean history of transgressions of the State against people of color, are again a dressed up anti-black re-assertion of the same false ideologies Woodson was creating curricula against since the 19th century, the root racism America is founded upon and navigates into the future.
So this book remains relevant and descriptive in ways marginalized groups can continue to organize curricula and efforts to push back against the white supremacist orthodoxy of education in America.
October 20, 2023
Jarvis Givens' training as a historian shows throughout the unfolding of this text and provides profound insights into the lives and praxis of Black educators. I often reread sections and chapters to appreciate Givens' poetic descriptions of Black life. He posits that this work is essential for teachers and students today, and I couldn't agree more. Reading about Carter G. Woodson's Uncles serving as his educators with the physical reminder of enslavement imprinted on their backs was stirring. This piece of work revisits the key elements in Woodson's famous book, The Mis-Education of the Negro, and recommits us to the continued fight to protect Black people's experiences and a call to keep our sacred history close. I will return to this often because I have a newfound sense of pride and commitment to understanding and practicing the art of teaching if I intend to share it regularly with other educators and lifelong advocates for Black epistemologies.
March 22, 2023
Phenomenal work on early 20th century Black teaching and education in the U.S. Telling the story through Carter G. Woodson gives the book narrative focus and provides an interesting and valuable partial biography, although at times it leaves unanswered questions about scope and impact. The author says that he doesn't want to characterize Woodson's approach as merely a place on the spectrum between logo image ideals of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois' views of Black education in post-reconstruction America, and builds a compelling alternate approach while integrating relevant historical context smoothly into the very human scale history. Recommend for historians, teachers, and anyone generally interested in the topic matter
March 18, 2025
an incredibly impressive book that has redefined how i think about education— i think to study Black education is to study the most fundamental purposes and flights of education, and i think Givens did a great job at explaining why. this book is especially important today as we think how to respond to educational policies that restrict what teachers can and can’t talk about. also, woodson was a coal miner in the same town in wv my family were miners in so that was cool!
i took a star off though because this was an incrediblyyyy difficult book to get through for me. i understand that this is unavoidable—for being a deeply academic book, it did a well enough job at being digestible to a degree—but i really struggled to get through it. i’m not sure if this should be changed, though
i took a star off though because this was an incrediblyyyy difficult book to get through for me. i understand that this is unavoidable—for being a deeply academic book, it did a well enough job at being digestible to a degree—but i really struggled to get through it. i’m not sure if this should be changed, though
June 28, 2024
this is a thorough volume on the history of black education in the usa, focusing specifically on the impact of carter g woodson on the field. i liked that they had interviews with students and primary source articles about his impact directly and indirectly on the educational experience of black people who grew up in the early to mid-1900s, before civil rights. at times, this felt repetitive, but repetitive on important things about his life and work. very powerful to see the legacy of incredible black scholars who were influenced by the techniques of fugitive pedagogy that educated generations about the truths of this nation's history and treatment of black people.
March 20, 2024
This is a well researched, scholarly and thoughtful book. While it mainly centers around the life and contributions of Carter G. Woodson, it also has a lot of information about other black leaders involved in the teaching of black children. Throughout history, black children have been taught a lot of white history, to the point where black children could get the impression that there is no black history. The struggle to properly teach black history continues. This is a welcome addition to the history of black education.
June 11, 2024
Interesting, incredibly well researched including first degree sources. I found it a bit repetitive but perhaps it was because I am new to the subject matter. Unlike some other nonfiction, it does not really follow a narrative arc unless you could a vague adherence to the timeline of Woodson’s life as an arc. It read like a very long research paper. However it feels to me that the information contained is critical, so I am not sure I’m the best audience to provide a critique.
June 12, 2022
I know that systemic oppression exists, but this book is incredibly clear in showing how education plays a part in that oppression, how it has played out over time, and how it has informed our current educational system. It also highlights the ingenuity of black people to educate themselves when the world wouldn't do it or actively tried to keep them from it. Highly recommend.
June 29, 2022
A must-read for educators who find themselves in classrooms where disengagement and resistance signify something much more powerful than sheer laziness. Givens tells the story of a legacy that rejects the traditions imperialism injected into American schools while seeking to form a community of strength and lasting identity.
March 13, 2023
A phenomenal exploration of Carter G. Woodson's impact on education in America that thoughtfully explores the liberatory role education plays for Black Americans and the heightened stakes Black educators have undertaken across the entire expanse of American history to resist white supremacist influences.
January 10, 2025
A fascinating history of an educator and an educational movement and the role of education in liberation. It is dense and academic, but a very worthwhile read for anyone engaged in teaching of any kind.
September 19, 2021
Simply one of the best books one education since Freire.
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July 20, 2022
An exceptional read. This book truly brings insight to the perspective of learning as freedom and is a valuable resource to anyone considering anti racist pedagogy.
September 22, 2022
This is the history book for all black educators. I will be recommending this piece of fantastic literature to new teachers.
July 15, 2023
Modern classic
November 24, 2023
I am going to be referencing this one for awhile. So relevant to my work.
June 23, 2024
Genuinely fascinating historical and pedagogical read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews