By Quintessa Williams
In the mid-1960s, when the Supreme Court ordered the integration of public schools, states in the Deep South were incensed. Not only did they refuse to comply, but they also banned Black schools from teaching American history between 1860 and 1875—the years between the start of the Civil War and the end of Reconstruction.
In 2022, when Southern red states followed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s restrictions on teaching Black history in classrooms, Black communities in the Sunshine State and beyond found a solution by bringing back Freedom Schools.
Resurrected in response to DeSantis’ Stop WOKE Act and similar measures from conservative state legislatures, Freedom Schools have reemerged as a critical means of ensuring that a new generation of Black children learn their history in a way the state can’t erase.
“We cannot let anyone keep us from teaching Black history,” says Hazel Gillis, president of the Jacksonville, Florida, branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. “That’s why we’re so adamant that we’ve got to start now.”
Freedom School Roots Run Deep
Freedom Schools have a deep-rooted history dating back to the Civil Rights Movement. Initially established during the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi, these schools were created by civil rights organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in response to the state’s segregated and poorly funded public school system.
Their goal was to educate Black students about their history and Constitutional rights, empowering them to challenge systemic racism in America. The schools offered a curriculum beyond traditional subjects, including civic engagement, Black history, and critical thinking.
Today, the necessity of these schools has resurfaced with urgency.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), founded in 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, whose mission is to promote, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about African American life, history, and culture, has responded by establishing six new Freedom School branches in Florida alone. Additionally, Freedom Schools have expanded beyond the state, with new branches emerging in cities including Dallas, Indianapolis, and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
David Wilkins, president of ASALH’s Manasota Branch in Florida, says the decision to relaunch Freedom Schools was a direct answer to the Stop WOKE Act and similar legislation in states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
“We knew it would definitely impact the teaching of our history,” he says. “Our history has never been taught fully and accurately…which is a direct affront. We didn’t do this to create a separate school…but because it was needed.”
Filling Educational Gaps for Black Students
One of the primary purposes of Freedom Schools, from past to present, is to fill the gaps left when public schools are restricted in what they can teach Black students.
In Florida, for example, only 11 of more than 60 school districts have Black history teaching plans included in their curriculum guides. Moreover, the state’s new social studies standards introduced the idea that enslaved people learned skills that could benefit them personally — a narrative widely criticized for downplaying the brutality of slavery and distorting its historical significance.
The Children’s Defense Fund, which launched its summer Freedom School program in 1995, released a report in 2023 that found that 84% of Black students in the program felt more academically engaged and confident in themselves based on the Black history curriculum. The CDF also found that nearly 85% of participants either improved or maintained their reading levels — highlighting these programs’ importance in bridging educational gaps.
Sara King, a 16-year-old ASALH Freedom School student in Minnesota, said some of her favorite topics so far include details on the reality of the transatlantic slave trade.
“There’s so much that just isn’t included in textbooks,” King told The Guardian. “When teachers discuss the transatlantic slave trade in class, they sometimes don’t use the word ‘slavery. They won’t blatantly say ‘the brutal history of slavery.’ They’ll go over ‘our country participated in this,’ and then they’ll skip over to the next part.”
Dr. R. LeRoy Gundy, ASALH’s James Weldon Johnson Black History Freedom School director, says Freedom Schools are essential to filling the void restrictive laws create in inclusive education.
“Our freedom schools are both educational and liberation,” he says. “It is important that we remind young people of their culture…to help them find a path moving forward.”
The Long-Term National Impact
The resurgence of Freedom Schools could have significant long-term impacts on Black K-12 students nationwide. A Southern Poverty Law Center report reveals that less than 10% of high school seniors can correctly answer questions about the Civil War’s causes, and only 8% of high school students can identify slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War.
Jacqueline Hubbard, president of St Petersburg ASALH branch, told The Guardian: “Now is the time for us to step forward and open up schools that will teach our kids the information that they need to be successful in America.”
The Road Ahead: A National Movement for Black History
The resurgence of Freedom Schools is a powerful countermeasure to the growing trend of Black history censorship in public education. These schools are not just filling gaps—they are actively pushing back against the erasure of Black narratives in American history.
As Gillis, the Jacksonville ASALH chapter president, says, “We will teach Black history regardless…we will teach it even if it’s outside the public school system.”
This article was originally published in Word In Black
