“The Intellectual Emancipation of the Negro”: Madeline Morgan and the Mandatory Black History Curriculum in Chicago during World War II

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the first mandatory Black history curriculum in a US public school system, implemented in Chicago Public Schools between 1942 and 1945. Researched and designed by Madeline Morgan, the curriculum supplemented existing social studies lesson plans with Black people's contributions to US society. How did she win approval for the curriculum in this highly segregated and inequitable city? The commitment of Morgan and her network of Black women educators to “intellectual emancipation” during the 1940s aligned with white schoolteachers and administrators’ interest in promoting interracial tolerance in the US during World War II.