“A Brief Moment in the Sun”

Mapping White Backlash in the History of K-12 Black Education in the United States

Abstract

White backlash is the immediate, violent response of some white people to the actual and perceived racial and educational progress of oppressed groups. In this paper, we take a historical detour to map this phenomenon, specifically in the history of K-12 Black education. We demonstrate that the current state of education is not an exceptional moment, but part of a long genealogy of anti-Black educational violence and white backlash. Yet, we suggest that operating from an understanding of the inevitability and imminence of white backlash offers necessary tools in the continued fight for liberatory Black educational futures.