Oppression, Literacy, and Social Impact

During the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, groups such as the Black Panthers and the earlier Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee made one principle a particularly notable tenet of their movement. In marginalized neighborhoods where education was little-supported, liberatory movements took it into their own hands to provide truly effective resources to students, with curriculums that emphasized critical thinking, autonomy, and in the case of the Panthers’ initial “Liberation Schools,” an emphasis on literacy as a means of furthering the movement. The latter believed that there was a “liberatory power of education” as they established a new, progressive system of learning in Oakland - a statement that undoubtedly did lead to results, as seen by the US government itself recognizing the efforts of such activism in its free breakfast policy, inspired by the Panthers and the work of grassroots feminist organizations at the time. Especially now, when education itself has arguably come under threat, a distinct lesson can be learned from how the Panthers and other rights-based organizations approached literacy - as an important tool to be had in the face of oppression.

Segregatory policies, above all, caused division. With communities forcefully isolated by race, African-Americans and other marginalized groups were subjected to immense powerlessness, gated by racial, social, and economic barriers such as police violence and a crisis in unaffordability. For many early organizers, the capacity for action itself seemed limited, without the central drive needed to produce effective community solidarity. The effects of oppression were seen perhaps most tellingly in schools, with students unable to access proper resources and supportive means of learning, which only led to a worsening crisis as children felt unable to derive benefits from education. 

Civil rights activists recognized literacy as a cornerstone of their movements’ futures. In similar fashion to the “secret schools” organized by escaped slaves to teach reading and writing to others seeking freedom, the earliest models of these liberatory schools emphasized using literacy as a means to give marginalized students power. Socioeconomic impact was integrated directly into education, as students distributed newsletters and advocated against unjust imprisonment. Unlike the monodominance of the public school system, such community-led educational systems emphasized the creation of a space where “ideas and opinions [were] respected,” and students above all felt as if they had the capacity to bring about change. As the concepts of such schools progressed, adding focus towards core subjects like the traditionally central mathematics and language, they still retained the principle of impact-based learning, where “conclusions [were] reached by the students themselves.” The Panthers’ model of education would not last forever, and eventually the vision of the Oakland project would fade with the end of the organization itself, but the extent of its impact remained nonetheless in its central principles. 

In circumstances of oppression, literacy becomes a tool for interacting with the world in ways otherwise inaccessible. Being able to access information is a dignifying and empowering process, that all, especially marginalized individuals, should by all standards have the central right towards. Civil rights organizations saw above all the freeing values that learning, especially in the humanities, provided, and today, with powerlessness and fear rampant, literacy is critical like never before. As organizations like WritetoRight do our part, so should you take a hand in encouraging learning - for the sake of so much more than yourself.