Black history is American history. The Black experience is the American experience. It’s an experience that rejects being bound down, rejects subjugation — whether from a British crown or an overseer’s whip — and embraces the freedom of self-reliance.
The heroes of the slavery abolition movement, the Black men and women who helped end slavery and free countless slaves from captivity, refused to let their circumstances stop them from moving forward. They made their own way, boldly and well, into a future of greater freedom and justice.
This spirit of nobility and self-reliance is consistent with those we see in the American Founding and in all the greatest moments of our nation’s story. It’s a spirit that remains alive today.
Grace and Laurence Jones, the founders of Piney Woods School, both had great-grandparents who established and ran Underground Railroad stops. They went on to pioneer a transformative educational project that rested upon that same jubilant, resilient character.
Today, Piney Woods sits on 2,000 acres of land and is home to about 100 students, grades 8 through 12. They help us grow our own food. They work hard and attain real academic and personal excellence — we have a 100% graduation rate and a 100% acceptance rate into military service, trade school, or college.
Yet these children, as excellent as they are, come from difficult circumstances.
On average, our students’ household income is less than $45,000. I’ve stood on dirt floors while visiting my students’ makeshift homes, and wiped their tears when they lost a parent to incarceration or learned they were now homeless.
But these students persist in college at nearly twice the rate of demographically similar peers. They excel because they have done hard things and learned to do them well — and patiently.
And our young people desperately need to learn how to struggle well, without losing hope or composure. Young people — and especially young Black men and women — are struggling morally, educationally, and emotionally right now. Mental illness is on the rise. So too is political division and unrest.
Educational outcomes are getting worse, particularly in urban areas. Increasing numbers of college freshmen fail to even meet middle-school math proficiency standards. Twelfth-graders’ math and reading scores recently reached record lows.
Time is running out for these young men and women. But they don’t need help from strangers. They need help from their own communities. They need to both see and participate in the shared Black and American spirit, our shared tradition of self-determination and triumph over injustice.
Perhaps the best historical example of community-led change is the Rosenwald Schools, a grassroots effort that closed the literacy gap between Black and white students in the South in the early 1900s.
These schools, nearly 5,000 in total, were partly funded by Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. But he never contributed more than 50% to each school.
The poor Black communities raised at least half the funds themselves, rallying to create staff and maintain schools invested in real moral and academic excellence amid harsh discrimination and poverty.
The schools were an outgrowth of the communities themselves, not the product of outside intervention. They were a tremendous source of pride for the people who worked at and attended them. These schools changed the South — and the United States — forever.
U.S. history — and the American present — reveals communities all over the nation that have succeeded in the face of oppression and disadvantage, and which can guide students as they create their futures in our democracy.
American history contains stories of oppression, without a doubt. But much more importantly, it contains stories of virtue, triumph, resilience, and perseverance.
TRUMP NEEDS CONGRESS IF HE WANTS TO KEEP HIS TARIFF REGIME
Will Crossley is the fifth president of The Piney Woods School. In July 2014, he returned to Piney Woods as the first alumnus to serve in this capacity in the school’s 107-year history. He also serves as executive vice president of the Woodson Center.
