Black Music is American Music: Learning Underrepresented Aspects of Black History in College through Critical Race Media Literacy

Abstract

The New York Times 1619 Project materials on American popular culture were presented to college students at a Historically Black University & College (HBCU) and Predominantly White Institution (PWI). Guided by Critical Race Media Literacy, we employed quantitative and qualitative analysis to explore the knowledge-based and emotional responses to Black historical media. The findings suggest that HBCU and PWI students had similar levels of prior knowledge. HBCU and PWI students experienced disparate emotional responses to the material. Overall, both HBCU and PWI students’ knowledge increased on this topic following the study as the content is underrepresented in education and popular culture.