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Freedom Writers

Guiding Prompts:

Where do you see white savior tropes vs. authentic student voice?

How is literacy portrayed as liberation?

Which classroom practices would work (or not) today?

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The Great Debaters

Guiding Prompts:

How does debate function as resistance?

How are Black teachers positioned as intellectual leaders?

What contemporary parallels do you see to their struggles for recognition?

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The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Guiding Prompts:

How does the film portray Black people, education, and citizenship?

What stereotypes about Black learners, families, or communities are reinforced?

How did this film contribute to the justification of Jim Crow laws and school segregation?

In what ways is this an example of popular culture “teaching” false history to the public?

What dangers arise when media/film are treated as truth in shaping ideas about race and education?

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Du Bois – “Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?”

Guiding Prompts:

What is Du Bois’ central argument?

How does it complicate or resonate with what you saw in the films?

In today’s context, what echoes of this debate remain in discussions of charter schools, HBCUs, or resegregation?

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Reading: Does the Negro Need Separate Schools? (Dubois 1935)

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Reading: Does the Negro Need Separate Schools? (Dubois 1935)

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The Great Debaters

Guiding Prompts:

How does debate function as resistance?

How are Black teachers positioned as intellectual leaders?

What contemporary parallels do you see to their struggles for recognition?

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Cross-Connections

Discussion Prompts:

Compare how race, class, and education intersect across the films and Du Bois’ essay.

Which messages about Black schooling are repeated, and which are challenged?

How do art and popular culture teach us history — accurately or inaccurately?

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Debate in the movie The Great Debaters functions as resistance because it allowed Black people, who were living through the heat of segregation, to voice their concerns about the sociopolitical issues of the country in a somewhat protected intellectual space. Despite appealing to respectability politics at times, the Wily College Debate team in the movie provided a counternarrative about the culture, academic pursuits, and abilities of African Americans during the 1930s. Black students engaging in debates also worked to dispel the myth at the time that African American students were not able to perform on the level of white students. Black educators were positioned as intellectual leaders in The Great Debaters by serving as pillars and rallying points for advocacy on issues affecting the Black community, such as obtaining economic equality for poor Black farmers (Mr. Tolson) or ensuring Blacks were given due process of the law and adequate representation (Dr. James Farmer during Tolson’s arrest). The contemporary parallels that I see to their struggles for recognition are the conversations surrounding DEI and whether those who are granted access to prestigious institutions are worthy of those spots.

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G. Hollins The Birth of a Nation Response

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G. Hollins The Birth of a Nation Response

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The Birth of a Nation portrays African Americans as subservient, uncivilized humans; many of the “Black” people in the film are white actresses and actors in Black face performing exaggerated stereotypes of Black people. Particularly, the film portrays Black men as these oversexualized brutes who want to overthrow white men in power and sexually assault White women; moreover, the film portrays Black people who were in office during Reconstruction as not being mentally skilled enough to carry out their duties adequately. The film portrays education as a tool of privilege that only the most civilized and cultured – white people – could handle and should not be accessed so easily by “untamed” people. The stereotypes about African American communities that are reinforced in the movie are that once they were emancipated, they had a violent vendetta against their former enslavers. This is shown throughout the film with groups of Black men “raiding” towns and attacking former enslavers in their homes. This film contributed to the justification of Jim Crow laws and school segregation because it depicted African Americans as inherently unintelligent and violent, so it gave a reason for white people to want separate facilities to ‘protect’ their children. This is an example of popular culture “teaching” false history to the public because it villainizes the true victims of enslavement, which were Black people, and creates a narrative of “we were trying to do the Blacks a favor” tone of white victimhood. The dangers that arise when the media is treated as truth in shaping ideas about race and education are the automatic vilification of Black students’ behaviors within the classroom (which could lead to more punitive measures), and a setting of low standards for their academic achievement.

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G. Hollins' Does the Negro Need Separate Schools Response

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G. Hollins' Does the Negro Need Separate Schools Response

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DuBois’ central argument in ‘Does the Negro Need Separate Schools’ is that the Negro will need separate schools as long as predominantly white schools are a hostile, unwelcoming, and stifling place, then Negro children will need separate schools; DuBois’ goal in the article is to get African Americans at the time to recognize that forcing their children to integrate with hate-filled, racist White people was doing their education more harm than good. DuBois’ articles resonate with what I saw because you see that whenever Black and Brown students in the movies we have watched had teachers that understood – or, attempted to understand in Mrs. Gruwell’s case – and honored their cultural background and history, students of color were able to thrive, learn, and excel in the school setting. Particularly in the case of HBCUs, the question remains of whether these institutions are capable of providing an adequate academic experience and preparation in comparison to PWIs; DuBois actually tackles this head-on, stating that with the right funding and support Negro colleges and institutions can perform – and sometimes outperform – white institutions.

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I saw the White savior trope when Mrs. Gruwell’s father and she were having a conversation about her career choice in both dinners in the movie. The movie makes it seem as if Gruwell threw away this life of luxury and privilege to teach morals, social justice, and human dignity to these poor children of color. First, I saw students’ authentic voices as they were writing their poems; I think the poems were powerful in contextualizing the students’ anger, frustrations, and lens on society. I thought it was a powerful portrayal that students bring a lot with them to the classroom, so we as educators cannot assume that our curriculum should take top priority in and full consumption of their lives. Second, I saw the authentic student voices during their trip to the Holocaust museum and their dinner alongside the Holocaust survivors; it was nice seeing that students could take such a burning and empathetic interest in other people’s suffering during their own. Literacy is portrayed as liberation because it gives students an avenue to discuss and process their traumas, while also connecting to the larger global community (becoming pen pals with Anne Frank’s family secretary). I believe the classroom practice of using contemporary music to connect with students would work today; I personally used music suggestions over the summer to make students feel at home within our classroom environment.

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Race, class, and education intersect across the films and DuBois’ essay through stereotypical portrayals of Black students and their relationship – often shown as a lack thereof – to education. Across the films we have watched, the poorer a Black person is, the less educated and the angrier they are portrayed in film media. The message about Black schooling that is repeated across the films, and the reading is that Black students’ proximity to whiteness determines the quality of their education, academic rigor and success. For example, in the Great Debaters, the Wiley College debate team considered debating other HBCUs as steppingstones to debate the ‘ultimate’ team, which was the predominantly White Harvard debate team. DuBois addresses this way of thinking in the Black community by calling out the fact that some of them believe that closeness to whiteness will deem them worthy in the eyes of American society. Art and popular culture teaches us inaccurately because it portrays history from the lens and the gaze of the dominant culture (white, male, heterosexual, & protestant); this can lead to a re-writing of history – or in the worst case scenario, an erasure of history.