The tradition of classroom deliberation and the evasion of racial justice as a social issue, 1916–1966

ABSTRACT

In this historical study, the author traces the contents of classroom materials and methods textbooks published between 1916 and 1966 that endorsed the discussion and deliberation of social issues to demonstrate how these materials consistently evaded racial justice as a social issue. As a result, the materials designed to inspire classroom discussion and deliberation of social issues ended up reinforcing the racial status quo through an approach that valued balance and open-ended discussion of racial issues over a commitment to racial justice and the affirmation of Black perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Deliberative democracy
• educational history
• race
• social issues

Notes

1. White supremacy is a provocative, and perhaps over-applied, term in regards to a describing the racist context of American society in the twenty-first century United States. However, the term was entirely appropriate to describe the situation of Blacks in the American South prior to the 1960s. In fact, in Racism: A Short History, Frederickson (2002) identified “the American South,” along with “South Africa and [Nazi] Germany” as the only “overtly racist regimes” in history (pp. 103–105).