Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis R. Givens

Why This Book Matters

The story of Black education in America is often reduced to a narrow narrative of desegregation and the fight for inclusion in white-dominated schools. This limited frame overlooks a rich, subversive tradition of Black teaching that existed long before—and continues alongside—mainstream schooling. Fugitive Pedagogy recovers this hidden history, offering a powerful corrective to how we understand the purpose and practice of education in African American life.

Without this book, educators, historians, and activists lack a crucial piece of the puzzle: the intellectual and pedagogical legacy forged in the margins by Carter G. Woodson and his contemporaries. This book fills that gap with scholarly rigor and narrative depth.

Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis R. Givens at a Glance

Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching is a 2021 work by Jarvis R. Givens, published by Harvard University Press. The book introduces and develops the concept of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education carried out in secret, often under threat, as a form of resistance and liberation.

Givens returns to the classrooms of the Jim Crow era, where Black teachers operated within a system designed to deny their students full citizenship. He shows how these educators, guided by Woodson’s vision, developed strategies to teach Black history, cultivate critical consciousness, and prepare students for a world that actively opposed their success. The book is at once a biography of Woodson’s educational philosophy and a broader history of Black teaching as an act of defiance.

Who Will Benefit Most

This book is essential for a wide range of readers, from academics to frontline educators. It is particularly valuable for:

• K–12 and university educators seeking to understand the historical roots of culturally responsive teaching
• Students and scholars of African American studies, education history, and critical pedagogy
• School administrators and policymakers interested in the intellectual traditions that have shaped Black educational achievement
• Activists and community organizers working in educational equity and racial justice
• Anyone committed to decolonizing the curriculum and centering marginalized knowledge
• Librarians and curriculum developers building collections on Black history and education
• General readers who want a deeper, more accurate understanding of the struggle for Black education in America

If you teach, study, or care about the history and future of Black education, this book is not optional—it is foundational.

Inside: What You Will Master

Givens’s work is dense with insight. Here are the six most transformative takeaways you will gain from reading this book:

1. The origin and meaning of fugitive pedagogy—a conceptual framework for understanding how Black teachers taught against the grain of white supremacy
2. How Carter G. Woodson’s personal experience as a student and teacher shaped his lifelong mission to create a Black-centered educational infrastructure
3. The specific tactics Black teachers used to smuggle Black history and critical thinking into segregated classrooms, often at great personal risk
4. The role of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) and Woodson’s publication of the Negro History Bulletin in spreading fugitive pedagogy nationally
5. How this tradition of teaching survived and evolved through the Civil Rights Movement and into the present day
6. The implications of fugitive pedagogy for contemporary debates about critical race theory, antiracist education, and the teaching of Black history in schools

Why Choose This Edition

Several books address Black education history, but none offer the same synthesis of biography, theory, and classroom practice that Givens achieves. Where James D. Anderson’s The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935 provides a sweeping institutional history, Givens zooms in on the pedagogical art practiced by individual teachers. Where Vanessa Siddle Walker’s Their Highest Potential documents a single school community, Fugitive Pedagogy traces a national intellectual tradition rooted in Woodson’s thought.

Moreover, Givens’s concept of “fugitive pedagogy” has become a key term in contemporary educational discourse—cited in scholarship on abolitionist teaching, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and Black critical theory. This book is not just a history; it is an active intervention in current conversations about what education should be and for whom.

Behind the Book

Jarvis R. Givens is an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a faculty affiliate in the Department of African and African American Studies. His research sits at the intersection of African American history, educational history, and critical theory. He is also the co-editor of We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys. Givens’s academic pedigree and ongoing work at one of the world’s leading institutions give this book exceptional authority.

Harvard University Press is a premier academic publisher with a rigorous peer-review process. Publishing with Harvard signals that the work meets the highest standards of scholarly excellence. The book is part of a distinguished list on education and African American studies, further cementing its trustworthiness.

The Bottom Line

Unequivocally, yes. This book is a landmark contribution to the history of Black education. It offers a fresh, theoretically sophisticated framework that has already influenced a generation of scholars and educators. Givens writes with clarity and passion, making complex ideas accessible without sacrificing depth.

For educators, it provides a usable past—a tradition of resistance and creativity that can inspire contemporary practice. For scholars, it opens new avenues for research. For anyone committed to educational justice, it is a vital resource. The 2021 edition from Harvard University Press is the definitive version, containing the full text as Givens intended.

Get Your Copy Today

This is the book that redefines how we think about Black teaching. Whether you are a classroom teacher looking for historical grounding, a graduate student building your theoretical toolkit, or a lifelong learner seeking a more complete picture of American education, Fugitive Pedagogy delivers. Add this essential work to your library now and join the conversation that is reshaping educational history and practice.