33 pages • 1 hour read
Carter WoodsonThe Mis-Education of the Negro
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1933A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 2-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “How We Missed the Mark”
Woodson opens Chapter 2 by articulating how critical it is to locate the failures of the present system “in their historic setting” (22). One of the central issues, in Woodson’s opinion, is that the education system created for Black Americans after Emancipation was “largely a prompting of philanthropy” (22), meaning that it was not prepared to truly educate anyone. Teaching was largely the work of well-intentioned missionaries and the purpose of schools was primarily vocational.
Yet no matter which kind of institution Black students attended, “those who did make some effort to obtain an education, did not actually receive either the industrial or the classical education” (23). Woodson suggests that unfortunately, very few Black people have actually benefited from the education system, regardless of whether the format of schooling was vocational or philosophical.
Chapter 3 Summary: “How We Drifted Away from the Truth”
In Chapter 3, Woodson delineates how this problem of schooling came to exist. Woodson describes the intentionality of a “program of the usual propaganda to engender in whites a race hate of the Negro, and in the Negroes contempt for themselves” (25). Black people became disproportionately underrepresented or entirely eliminated from curricula. Further, Woodson argues that in professional schooling, Black people were put down and given only limited opportunities.
Through schooling, Woodson believes, “the status of the Negro […] was justly fixed as that of an inferior” (27). Because all Black people in schools are learning this same message, it makes it difficult to change the system. Instead, Woodson argues that this system will continue to lead to the “white man’s exploitation of the Negro” (27), as well as to Black people continuing to not “find the way out of their present difficulties” (28).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Education Under Outside Control”
One of the central issues with schools in the United States, Woodson argues in Chapter 4, are the teachers themselves. Neither the White missionaries nor White teachers trained in the best private universities are prepared appropriately. Further, the administrators of these schools often operate the institutions while still acting hatefully towards Black people in their personal lives.
Woodson also addresses a key potential counterargument regarding whether teachers need to be Black to teach Black people successfully. He believes that it is possible if White teachers “have the same attitude as Negro teachers” (29) but that unfortunately racism and segregation make this “impossible” (30). Similarly, though Woodson doesn’t solely advocate for segregated or integrated schools, he points out “the need for common sense schools and teachers who understand and continue in sympathy with those they instruct” (30).
If, Woodson argues, the people in charge of institutions of education persist in racist attitudes and actions, then it doesn’t matter how much money these places pour into teaching Black people. In addition, if the curriculum is not altered appropriately, it will persist in teaching racist ideas. In particular, Woodson argues that a new kind of education is required: one that takes into account the kind of education that Black people living in the rural South need, rather than an education directed at “external marks of learning” (33).
Chapters 2-4 Analysis
The key thrust of Woodson’s argument in these chapters is to describe how schools became places where Black people would not be educated. He blames both the philanthropic attitudes of White missionaries as well as racist, misrepresentative curricula for the failures of the schools. One of the most interesting points that Woodson makes in this regard is that it is the specific attitudes of teachers that matters in the classroom; to Woodson, it does not matter one’s race if one can transcend race hatred and truly teach students. Unfortunately, as he articulates, this is “impossible” (30) due to the context that schools in the United States are in.
Though they are to some extent, topical, Woodson’s chapter titles also serve as a road map through his arguments. In his Preface to the text, Woodson clarifies that this book is not intended to be read as a series of polished essays. Indeed, many of the chapters contain ideas that are later repeated in a paraphrased or verbatim format. The title of each chapter becomes a key signpost as to what Woodson’s main point is as well as how he sees it fitting into the overarching structure of the text. For example, Chapter 3’s title, “How We Drifted Away From the Truth,” serves several purposes in establishing both argument and location. By using the first-person plural of “we,” Woodson directly engages readers in his argument. By describing what “we” have moved away from as “the Truth,” Woodson also emphasizes a key aspect of his thesis: that curriculum in US schools is inherently biased against Black people and does not portray an accurate picture of history or society. Readers can use the titles of chapters to help parse out the different threads of Woodson’s argument as the book continues.
