Black Progressive Education and the Fusion of Academic and Practical Knowledge, 1915-1939

Although many historians have explored the theoretical relationship between progressive education and the teaching of Black students in segregated schools during the interwar years, far less is known about what pedagogical progressivism looked like in Black schools, why Black teachers chose to adopt and implement these new methods, and how their methods and goals evolved over time. In this article, the authors trace the origins and development of pedagogically progressive experiments by Black educational leaders and classroom teachers. We argue that Black educators introduced progressive methods that fused academic and practical content not only to better engage their students with a relevant curriculum, but, more importantly, to protect the academic content from White educators’ pressure to focus the curriculum exclusively on manual training. This approach later expanded to include the development of democratic dispositions toward the fight for racial advancement.