In the decades before the second world war, the African American history taught in US public schools was remarkably backwards and racist. Black inferiority was assumed, with Africa seen as a primitive land lacking any great civilizations, slavery a necessary and benevolent institution, and Black people incapable of self-determination. The dismantling of these lies written to serve white people in power was the work of decades – in the first half of the 20th century, an entire generation of activists fought to transform the way Americans educated themselves about Black history, crafting what has been termed the “alternative Black curriculum”.
Among the most remarkable of these individuals was an educator named Madeline Morgan, who created an entire series of lessons for Chicago schools that corrected the record. Morgan’s work educated students on the civilizations that the ancestors of Black Americans originated in, the true horrors of slavery, and the many contributions of Black people to America past and present. Although she is not well-remembered today, at the height of her success Morgan’s educational interventions would become known worldwide, being feted in Time magazine and talked about among powerful politicians and civic leaders.
Morgan’s life and accomplishments are lovingly and assiduously chronicled in historian and educator Michael Hines’s new book A Worthy Piece of Work. This potent and passionate work of scholarship not only sheds light on an important but forgotten historical episode, it also teaches essential lessons for activists today. “Madeline’s demand that the curriculum reflect Black humanity, Black agency, Black accomplishment, Black skill and intelligence are demands that continue to be revolutionary,” Hines said. “We can see it in the work that organizations like Black Lives Matter do in schools today, or the demands of organizations like Facing History and Ourselves.”
A Worthy Piece of Work emerges, in part, from Hines’s own experiences as a K-12 educator. A Black teacher in a long line of Black teachers, Hines had grown frustrated with the omissions and errors in the educational materials around the history of his community. That made him take notice when he discovered Morgan by way of elders, historians of Black Chicago, and work on his dissertation at Loyola University Chicago. “Learning about her work reaffirmed things that I have always felt as a student in history and social studies courses, and things that I had felt as a teacher,” said Hines. “Seeing that these conversations were much older than I had thought was heartening, and it gave me a certain amount of affirmation and strength.”
Hines was initially skeptical that someone working before so many other advances in the struggle for civil rights could do the work that Morgan had done. “As first I thought that the 40s sounded too early,” he said, “being a decade before Brown v Board of Education, before the Afrocentric curriculum.”
As A Worthy Piece of Work shows, there are very good reasons why Morgan was able to succeed at such an early historical moment. Hines makes the fascinating point that, in part, Morgan’s work became so widespread because the white authorities of the time saw it as a way to ease racial tensions during the second world war, helping to strengthen the war effort. In the summer of 1943, America saw riots from coast to coast, initiated by whites threatened by the economic and social gains made by Black communities. Morgan – characterized as a mere schoolteacher offering commonsense revisions to Black history – was elevated as a non-threatening example of Black progress and achievement. Likewise, her curriculum was seen as a safe means of fostering greater racial harmony, thus freeing up labor to support the battles overseas.
However condescendingly the powers of the day approached Morgan’s work, Hines makes clear that she had truly revolutionary intentions. Through her curriculum, Morgan hoped to give Black students reason to take pride in their heritage, help Black people to claim their rightful place in America, and help inoculate white audiences against racist beliefs. “When you have an environment where everything from the highest scientific literature all the way down to nursery rhymes are all making a negative portrayal of Black people,” said Hines, “what Madeleine is offering is a counter-story that challenged all that.”
Morgan’s story shows why it is essential that a community be able to write its own history. Morgan and her colleagues writing the alternative Black curriculum were attempting to overthrow false narratives written by outsiders to their community – narratives that were used to justify beliefs that Black people were naturally inferior to white people and suffered no historical wrongdoing. This could only be done by Black people taking control of their own story and telling it truthfully. “It’s about self-definition, the power to define yourself, your experience, to share your story, and to not let others dictate and define who you are,” said Hines.
Although Morgan’s work became amazingly successful, in the years after the second world war ended, the progress she made began to be eroded. Her educational units were never seen as anything more than mere supplements to the mainstream curriculum, and she failed in her attempts to get Black history codified as a required part of American history. As American politics drifted toward the paranoia and conservatism of the cold war years, Morgan’s curriculum – once seen as a safe way to ease racial tensions – would be feared as too revolutionary for a nation in danger of losing its soul to communism.
In spite of the back and forth, Hines sees Morgan’s story as inspirational and important. It underscores that the gains made by activists much be consolidated and protected, for they can be undone. It also shows that, though the battle for progress may be long and uncertain, change for the better does happen. “My main takeaway from learning about Madeline is that progress is this fragile process,” said Hines. “It’s not guaranteed, but it is possible. It’s important, as historians, that we remind people that history doesn’t move in a single direction toward justice. These battles have to be fought and won again and again.”
Worthy Piece of Work is out now