Protest and Pedagogy Charlottesville's Black Freedom Struggle and the Making of the American High School

"Protest and Pedagogy" redefines the narrative of the Black freedom struggle by centering the active roles of Black high school teachers and students in Charlottesville, Virginia. This book argues that these educators and learners were not passive recipients or opponents of the movement, but rather strategic agents who employed diverse organizing and protest methods to foster justice and equity within their schools and wider communities.

Through meticulous archival research and oral histories, the book traces how high schools became pivotal sites of contention and transformation in the fight for civil rights. It reveals how Black teachers' pedagogical approaches in the classroom served as a foundation for activism, and how student and teacher organizing directly led to pedagogical reforms. This work offers a crucial examination of how education itself functioned as a powerful form of protest, providing a deeper understanding of the enduring legacy of the Black freedom struggle in American education and society.