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 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Failure to Learn to Make a Living”
In Chapter 5, Woodson directly addresses issues of education as they relate to the economic circumstances of Black people. He contends that the lack of uplift in the Black community is due to the failure of schools to lead Black students into true professional careers; worse, Woodson argues, even the “so-called education of Negro college graduates leads them to throw away opportunities which they have and to go in quest of those which they do not find” (34).
The propaganda present in schools leads educated Black people to abandon their communities while those who do not attend school are stuck in vocational pathways with little room for upward mobility. As a result, Woodson describes a tense economic situation where there are very few Black people with resources who can help their communities. This is due, in part, to the “false conception of life” (37) Black students receive in their studies. Woodson also critiques the “individualistic” (38) nature of business between Black people, which leads to the proliferation and then failure of various enterprises.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Educated Negro Leaves the Masses”
In Chapter 6, Woodson focuses specifically on the role of the Black church and its complex role to education. The Black church is primarily a place for people who have received less education; “the more education the Negroes undergo the less comfort they seem to find in these evangelical groups” (40). As a result, Black citizens with the most education, Woodson contends, want nothing to do with the church, meaning that there is a widening gap between “the masses and the ‘talented tenth’” (40).
Woodson suggests that the reason for educated people turning away from the church has to do with “a sort of slave psychology which causes [a] preference for the leadership of the oppressor” (41). Though Woodson believes that all people who are more educated might be likely to move away from the needs of the masses, this works more “disastrously” (41) for educated Black people because the masses have fewer resources and suffer more from this estrangement.
One of Woodson’s central points in Chapter 6 is that the Black church is central to Black society because it “is the only institution the race controls” (43). Woodson describes the irony that the theology of the church was created and promoted by the English and other Europeans. In general, Woodson describes the church as positive because of its unification of the masses but negative because it still serves “as the avenue of the oppressor’s propaganda” (43).
Chapter 7 Summary: “Dissension and Weakness”
Continuing with the topic of the Black church, Woodson explores how the church can result in fractures among Black communities, even in small, rural communities. Many of the preachers in these churches operate independently from other churches and are largely uneducated, meaning that the theology received by congregants is weak and unhelpful in improving the community. Woodson argues that “what the Negro church is […] has been determined largely by what the white man has taught the race by precept and example” (47), both in structure and ideals. Because “Negroes got their conception of religion from slaveholders, libertines, and murderers, there may be something wrong with it” (48).
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
Rather than focusing on public schools in these chapters, Woodson turns his attention to how the Black community is fractured and limited in achieving success. Woodson contends that as a result of the failure of the educational system, Black people are not educated enough to manage businesses in positive ways that contribute to larger economic uplift for their peers and families. In addition, Woodson describes the problematic aspects of many Black churches, which are led by uneducated preachers who serve their own interests and follow a theology that is largely determined by White culture and values (just like the schools). As Chapter 7’s title suggests, there is a large amount of “dissension and weakness” in the Black community as a result of these fractured institutions and the divide between “educated” Black people and the communities from which they came.
In later chapters, Woodson more thoroughly explores the complexities of how curriculum in the US has been impacted by White supremacy; this idea is introduced subtly throughout the introductory chapters of the text, especially in Chapters 6 and 7. The “slave psychology” (41) caused by schools is matched by the “conception of religion from slaveholders” (48) that is taught in the Black church. The influence of White culture, and, therefore, White supremacist culture, is all around the Black community and is fully interwoven in the curriculum present in schools and theology. This is a central aspect of Woodson’s larger argument because he is a firm believer in both undoing that curriculum and teaching something that is more accurate, based in comprehensive understanding of history and science, and is therefore closer to the truth.
