In Dangerous Learning: The South’s Long War on Black Literacy, Derek W. Black examines the deliberate suppression of Black literacy in the American South. Following slave revolts like Denmark Vesey’s in 1822 and Nat Turner’s in 1831, Southern states intensified anti-literacy laws, fearing that educated enslaved individuals could forge passes, organize rebellions, or escape bondage.
These laws imposed severe penalties on those who taught enslaved people to read or write. For instance, South Carolina's 1740 slave code prohibited teaching slaves to write, with violators facing fines and imprisonment. In North Carolina, the punishment included 39 lashes or imprisonment for people of color, and a $200 fine for white individuals.
Despite these prohibitions, enforcement varied. Some enslaved individuals, like Lily Ann Granderson, clandestinely educated others, operating secret night schools that taught hundreds without detection. Similarly, the Williamsburg Bray School in Virginia, established in 1760, educated hundreds of mostly enslaved children. While its curriculum aimed to justify slavery, literacy empowered students to seek freedom.
The legacy of these anti-literacy laws persists today. Black communities continue to face educational disparities rooted in this history of suppression. Modern debates over book bans and educational curricula echo past efforts to control access to knowledge. Understanding this history is crucial to addressing ongoing inequities in education.
Guest:
Derek Black is a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law and directs the Constitutional Law Center. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts in education law and policy. He offers expert witness testimony in school funding, voucher, and federal policy litigation, including in voucher litigation here in South Carolina. His research is routinely cited in the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also a regular commentator and op-ed contributor in major media outlets on issues like the future of the Department of Education.
His 2020 book, “Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy,” warned that new education trends represented a retreat from our nation’s foundational commitments to democracy and public education. His new book, “Dangerous Learning: The South’s Long War on Black Literacy,” explores the connection between the criminalization of black literacy and freedom of thought in the nineteenth century to today’s attacks on racial equity, racial history, and public education itself.
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This discussion will be recorded on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
