By Any Means Necessary: A Brief Educational History of Black Women and Girls in the United States

The intersection of race and gender can cause the intricacies of some stories to be obscured. This phenomenon is evident in the case of Black woman and their educational history in the United States. This essay seeks to outline a brief overview of educational history in the United States in comparison with the education of Black women at three time periods: The Colonial Era and Slavery, Jim Crow and Segregation, and the Modern Era. It will briefly highlight the differences in educational opportunities during these times. It additionally seeks to present a counternarrative to the whitewashed stories presented within the context of educational history, while highlighting the role of racial trauma in the history and education of Black women and girls. It will simultaneously celebrate the resilience of Black women and girls while acknowledging the unjust system that aided in creating the necessity for this resilience. Finally, this essay will suggest potential future directions for policy and research so that Black women may realize educational equity in the present and the future, despite the injustices of the past.