Liberation School — for the people, by the people

IntegrateNYC and the NYC Coalition for Education Justice are creating Liberation Schools modeled after the SNCC Freedom School of the 60’s.

After Brown v. Board, many schools were still segregated and student movements in Northern cities organized boycotts to protest segregated schooling. 

Black activists created Freedom Schools as an alternative space for students during the school boycotts. Inspired by these Northern models, SNCC created one of the prime examples of Freedom Schools in Mississippi in the summer of 1964.

SNCC Freedom Schools provided Black students basic academics, but also allowed them to find alternatives to the segregated white supremacist society. They were encouraged to challenge the racist myths of society, be creative, be empowered by their history, and organize actions in the name of Freedom.

The history of Freedom Schools allows us to envision alternatives to schooling today. We know it’s possible for schooling to nourish intellectual curiosity, develop critical consciousness, empower us, and understand the conditions of our oppression. Freedom Schools gave students the tools to intervene in their oppression. 

Today, the DOE’s schools are still segregated and achieve the opposite of what Freedom Schools accomplish.

In collaboration with CEJ, we have created a space of intergenerational unlearning that will provide: ethnic studies, history lessons, and guided self-discovery — a true education.