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Erschienen in: Journal of African American Studies 4/2021

18.11.2021 | ARTICLES

Vanguards in the Classroom: History and Lessons from the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School

verfasst von: Akin Abioye

Erschienen in: Journal of African American Studies | Ausgabe 4/2021

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Abstract

This study examines the Black Panther Party Oakland Community School’s attempt to offer a liberatory education for its students. Drawing from Black intellectuals and contemporary education scholars, this study is placed within the context of critical race theory in education, Black revolutionary change, and Afrocentricity as a method to show how Black Radical ideologies may help to create more equitable outcomes for Black students. This study sits in contrast to much of the Anglo guided scholarship and examines pedagogy from a survivalist perspective, which as a theoretical philosophy maintains Blacks have prevailed in sustaining their African roots, culture, and identity. Using an intrinsic case study method, this study reviewed archival data highlight many of the radical practices deployed by the Black Panther Party that have yet to make it into mainstream schooling.

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Fußnoten
1
Harris (1993) suggested Whiteness was the “amalgamation of various European strains into an American identity [and] facilitated by an oppositional definition of Black as “other” (p. 1742). Conversely, Blumenbach created the term Caucasian to describe people in the Caucasus region who he proclaimed were “the most beautiful race of men” and White must be the “primitive color of mankind” (Blumenbach et al., 1865, p. 269). In turn, White has become the term to encompass all people of European descent. In protest of the denial of American identity to Blacks, this article returns Whiteness to its Anglo origins.
 
2
Hegemony is “the process by which we learn to embrace enthusiastically a system of beliefs and practices that end up harming us and working to support the interests of others who have power over us” (Brookfield, 2005, p. 93).
 
3
Excerpt from an unpublished speech titled Message to the grass roots delivered by Malcom X on December 10, 1963.
 
4
This reference come from Erika Huggins’ unpublished work The Liberations Schools, the Children’s House, the Intercommunal Youth Institute and the Oakland Community School.
 
5
Oakland Community School operated as a program of the Educational Opportunities Corporation incorporated in 1972 with the mission of “providing general and vocational educational opportunities to individuals, both adults and minors at the primary and secondary grade levels” (Black Panther Party 1972, p. 1).
 
6
This reference come from page 3 Erika Huggins’ unpublished work The Liberations Schools, the Children’s House, the Intercommunal Youth Institute and the Oakland Community School.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Vanguards in the Classroom: History and Lessons from the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School
verfasst von
Akin Abioye
Publikationsdatum
18.11.2021
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Journal of African American Studies / Ausgabe 4/2021
Print ISSN: 1559-1646
Elektronische ISSN: 1936-4741
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-021-09557-z

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