The John R. Lewis Good Trouble Series | by Tori Amason, James Bridgeforth, Andrea Layton, Megan Lynch, Rachel Williams

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” -John R. Lewis, 2018

Good intentions and well-meaning ideas are often the starting point for programs of racial equity and justice. However, for many organizations, the work stops there. We aim to change that trajectory at the AJE Forum. We believe it is past time to live up to the ideals of racial justice, equity, and unequivocally affirming that Black lives matter. The John R. Lewis Good Trouble Series is a writing project composed of essays, commentaries, and critical thoughts of Black scholars published by the AJE Forum. Through this series, we believe that we can continue the work of the late John Lewis through intentionally curating a body of work dedicated to Black lives, racial justice, and ultimately, liberation.

On June 12, 2020, the American Journal of Education Forum Editorial Board published a statement outlining the Forum’s commitment to racial justice and reform, specifically within educational spaces (See post). Countless organizations, corporations, and individuals released similar statements during that time, outlining their commitments and stating that Black lives do in fact matter.

In the months since publishing this statement, the AJE Forum has worked to develop tangible ways to operationalize the sentiments expressed in our June 12th statement. We specifically did not want to join the ranks of those perpetuating performative efforts of anti-racism. Therefore, we organized a subcommittee that was charged with developing a plan to realize the commitments we made:

1. Centering Black scholars in our work

2. Taking steps to ensure that Black scholars are invited and welcomed to the AJE Forum

3. Curating pieces that reflect current issues related to racial justice, social justice, and economic equality.

Some of the ways we have began working on these commitment are by: assessing the skills and areas of growth of our board members; developing continuing education opportunities of these areas such as writing for social and racial justice, while eliminating bias and reviewing with a critical lens with racial justice and dismantling oppressive structures and whiteness; and launching this Black History Month series, The John R. Lewis Good Trouble Series, to kick off our commitment to publishing Black scholars. In the coming weeks, we will feature short essays on many topics related to celebrating and centering Blackness in education, Black joy, and the work of Black scholars.

Centering Black education serves not only as a place for rich analyses and an understanding of the distinctive experiences of Black students, educators, and leaders, but from it flows the potential for alternative starting places, grammars, and ways of knowing that can be brought to bear on the study and practice of education as whole. Many Black thinkers, particularly in Black studies, work from a tradition of scholars who “uncompromisingly fought for the perceived interests of Black people, but in a language that addressed the totality of society’s concerns (Manning, 2000, p.33)”.  Black thinkers within the Black feminist intellectual tradition have demonstrated how particular forms of intersecting oppressions — race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation — can produce subjugated knowledge with the power to reshape how we define and understand the fundamental questions and concepts we bring to bear on any given phenomenon (Collins, 2002). This “distinctive angle of vision” when coupled with broader social justice projects can produce more inclusive and/or liberatory politics and more expansive visions of the future rooted in redistribution and eradication of systems of oppression, rather than solely a politics of representation (Combahee River Collective, 1977; Collins, 2002). As a student-run online forum, we wanted to carve out the space to meditate on the history, present, and future of Blackness, Black lives, and Black experiences in education to see what could emerge from contemporary thinkers of all forms — students, scholars, practitioners, community activists and leaders.

We hope that this series and continued call is a catalyst for drawing linkages between the history of Black joy and struggle to meditations and imaginings for Black futures in education and the broader structural, cultural, and institutional conditions for bringing it into being.

We invite you to join us here every Friday in February to hear the voices and experiences of Black thinkers and share them with those in your circles that need to hear them. We are also seeking out additional contributions for The John R. Lewis Good Trouble Series, so please submit your essays, commentaries, and critical thoughts here.

References

Combahee River Collective. (1977). “The Combahee River Collective Statement”.

Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of   empowerment. Routledge.

Marable, M. (2000). Black studies and the racial mountain. Souls: Critical Journal of Black Politics & Culture, 2(3), 17-36.