The Mis-Education of the Negro

In the Preface, Woodson presents both his background as a person with lengthy experience working in schools in different countries as well as his intention to address a “new program of uplift” (14) intended to help Black people in the United States progress forward. Woodson is careful to condemn previous educational programs that claimed to do this same thing, suggesting that “the educational system as it has developed both in Europe and America [is] an antiquated process which does not hit the mark even in the case of the needs of the white man himself” (15). It is Woodson’s firm belief that neither the “educated” (15) nor the uneducated Black person can be successful because of the state of education.

One of Woodson’s central points is presented in the Preface; he believes that “when you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions” (15). The education system in the United States has only served to control Black people, meaning that no matter how much schooling a Black person receives, no true progress is possible. 

Woodson’s thesis is presented in Chapter 1: Schools in the United States only serve to oppress, rather than help, Black people. Woodson provides several overarching examples of this troubling situation, describing that schools fail to teach anything accurate about Black people, and that the theories and ways of thinking that are taught are “propaganda and cant that […] misdirect the Negroes thus trained” (19).

Further, upon graduation from an institution, Black people are positioned to try to obtain “the life of an Americanized or Europeanized white man” (20), leading to a “disillusionment” (20) because this is impossible in a segregated, racist society. As a result, Woodson also articulates the tension present for many educated Black people who become “too pessimistic to be a constructive force” (20) and sometimes turn on their peers rather than the system.

Finally, Woodson articulates the issue that when Black people suggest that there ought to be courses of study in Black art, music, or literature, they receive pushback arguing that this “invites racial discrimination by recognizing such differentness of the races” (20). It is Woodson’s opinion that it is important to recognize that difference to move forward in removing assumptions of superiority and inferiority and allowing each race to “justify its right to exist” (21).