JUBILEE: The Black Counterpublic and Counterspace of the HBCU​ (September 10, 2025)

Welcome . . .

I. Name Game: Alexis, Chris, and Deja
​(Thank you, Amanda, Katie, Kellan, Natali, Omar, Rachel, Renee, Sarah for already playing!)
More about the Course
II. Any remaining Q&A
  • RRs should be the equivalent of 500 words
  • You have a 2-week grace period (3 weeks for RR1) w/o penalty and then D2L turns the work to "0"
  • No late RRs can be emailed because I can't manage the layers of paperwork (i.e., "grading" happens on the D2L platform where everything is stored an organized)
  • Hype Panels start next week​! Thank you, Renee and Kellan! Remember to email your links to google slide or canva (with editor privileges) by noon on Tuesday before presentation
Image Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/racial-unrest-historically-black-colleges-universities-seeing-spike-enrollment

III. (Finishing up from last week) Post-Reconstruction, Freedmen's Bureaus & Fugitive Literacies

I) 1867 North Carolina Freedmen's Bureau Annual Report (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 14-16, 23-26, 27-28: Your sections are called Apprentices, Results of Free Labor, Deceased Soldiers, Education & Schools [Alexis & Katie: Schooling as Indoctrination]

II) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 10-17: Your sections are called Superintendent's Report, Schools Statistics, Statistical Summary, Irregular Schools, Expenditures [*Carmen]

​III) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 17-26: Your sections is called Educational Work in Full (stop when the reports starts on Virginia) [Amanda & Kellan: Schooling as Mode of Black Resistance/Community Making]

Reading the Archive for Filth

  1. What does the archival material show & prove? What is here ("factually speaking"?)
  2. What cultural practices & future norms of learning are the Freedmen inventing?
  3. What ideas about a free education are the Freedmen designing?
  4. How are Black teachers and Black communities (and HBCUs) inventing the idea of free education?
  5. What do we see/learn here about Black education in the context of the Freedmen (and slavery) as a fugitive practice? What are implications for today?
​IV) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 59-63: Your section is called TEXAS (stop at Arkansas) [*Natali & Rachel]

​V) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 82-88: Your section is called Miscellaneous Subjects: Normal and High Schools (HBCUs) [Renee & Sara: Schooling as Control]

​VI) 1869 8th Semi-Annual Freedmen's Bureau Report: SCHOOLS FOR FREEDMEN (from the Library of Congress)
  • Read PDF pages 89-93*: Your section is called Manhood Education, Evening Schools, Music, Temperance (*these sections are more offensive than the others) [Chris & Omar: Schooling as Battle for Knowledge, Humanity & Respectability Politics]

HISTORICAL
​CONTEXTS
Important Terms
Freedmen: formerly enslaved and newly emancipated Black peoples
Emancipation Proclamation: speech delivered in 1863/Civil War ends in 1865
Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty: 1848 (Texas is a state in 1845)

Important Dates
1852: Compulsory education begins in Massachusetts (children are "only" allowed to work 10 hours per day)
1863-1877: Reconstruction
1918: All states have compulsory education
1930: Elementary education is a national mandate but not enforced
1938: Federal laws are designed against child labor (upheld by supreme court in 1941)
1965: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) means federal government must sustain public K-12 school systems 
Image Source: https://stateofhbcus.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/heart-and-soul-of-the-movement-influence-of-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-on-the-civil-rights-movement/

IV. HBCUs as CounterSpace and CounterPublic

Starting w/ a Class HBCU Activity c/o The Fancy Counselor

Group 1

(two people max)
Black Teachers/ HBCU Graduates: Rewriting Reconstruction (with an emphasis on South Carolina)
  1. Read the linked data sheet in brown above (handouts also available) 
  2. Summarize any main/important findings for your colleagues
  3. Share any critical historical contexts
  4. Address: How did these teachers understand themselves? How did these teachers understand the purpose of their HBCU education?  Why? 
  5. Connect this group topic to what you chose to read for class

Group 2

(three people max)
JUBILEE!! Fisk University and the Early Archival Practices of HBCU Students
  1. Watch the three videos below
  2. Summarize any main/important findings for your colleagues
  3. Share any critical historical contexts
  4. Address: How did these early HBCU students and their teachers (most of whom were newly emancipated) understand themselves as students? As future teachers? As historians/archivists?  Why? 
  5. Connect this group topic to what you chose to read for class

Group 3

(three people max)
Dr. Elwood Robinson, 13th Chancellor of Winston-Salem State University: The History and Importance of the HBCU Experience
  1. Watch the video at the right (also linked above)
  2. Summarize any main/important findings for your colleagues
  3. Share any critical historical contexts
  4. Address: How do HBCU university presidents/administrators understand their role?  Why?  
  5. Connect this group topic to what you chose to read for class

Group 4

(three people max)
"Five Contributions HBCUs Have Made to Social Movements in America" Dr. Jelani M. Favors (link)
  1. Read the linked essay in brown above (handouts also available)
  2. Summarize any main/important findings for your colleagues
  3. Share any critical historical contexts
  4. Address: How and why have HBCU students made education, justice, and activism synonymous ... and moreso than any other college students?
  5. Connect this group topic to what you chose to read for class

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