The Mis-Education of the Negro

by

Carter G. Woodson

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The Mis-Education of the Negro Themes

Themes and Colors
Racism and Education Theme Icon
Mis-Education as Social Control Theme Icon
Failures of Black Leadership Theme Icon
Business and Economic Development Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mis-Education of the Negro, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Racism and Education

In his influential 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro, Black American historian and educator Carter G. Woodson argues that American schools and universities failed to meaningfully educate Black students during the decades following the Civil War. Like many scholars and activists today, Woodson sees racial inequities in educational access and achievement as a reflection of the U.S. education system’s bias in favor of white people and against Black people. In Woodson’s time, teachers…

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Mis-Education as Social Control

In The Mis-Education of the Negro, which focuses on the period from the end of the American Civil War to the early 1930s, Carter G. Woodson argues that the U.S. school system doesn’t just fail to educate its Black students—it also actively oppresses them in order to preserve white people’s disproportionate power, wealth, and privilege. Namely, Woodson argues that the education system is a tool of social control based on convincing Black people of…

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Failures of Black Leadership

Although Carter G. Woodson focuses on the education system’s failures in The Mis-Education of the Negro, he points out that other institutions also contribute to Black people’s subordinate status in the early 20th-century U.S. In particular, Woodson blames Black political and church leaders for deceiving Black communities and profiting at their expense, rather than truly representing and serving their political interests. By showing how these influential but selfish leaders have corrupted their positions of…

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Business and Economic Development

In The Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson’s primary concern is how Black Americans can overcome the barriers to their success—including the country’s ineffective education system—and advance as a community. Woodson defines this advancement as a movement toward economic self-sufficiency, political equality, and artistic achievement. However, he sees economic development as by far the most important of these goals. In addition to helping Black people build more vibrant communities for themselves, he…

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