Antiracism Resources

The Fugitive Life of Black Teaching | Jarvis R. Givens || Radcliffe Institute

Description As a Radcliffe fellow, Jarvis R. Givens completed his first book, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching (Harvard University Press, 2021). This work explores the subversive history of Black education, focusing particularly on the concealed pedagogical practices of African American teachers, using the life of Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950)—the groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow—to frame this story. Interested in more than Woodson himself, however, the book recuperates the networked world of teachers to which he belonged, a world in which educators crafted a pedagogical model to challenge the hostile educational curricula, policies, and political economic forces that undermined their work. Black educators intentionally kept critical aspects of their work away from the public eye. In doing so, they developed what Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. For information about the Radcliffe Institute and its many public programs, visit https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/​.