Six Bridges Book Festival

Dr. Karida Brown & Dr. Eve L. Ewing

PRESENTERS: Dr. Karida Brown & Dr. Eve L. Ewing
BOOKS: The Battle for the Black Mind & Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
MODERATOR:Sericia Nelson

About the authors:

Dr. Karida Brown is a sociologist, professor, oral historian, and public intellectual whose research centers on the fullness of Black life. A graduate of Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University, she teaches sociology at Emory University. She has authored six books, including The Sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois and the award-winning The New Brownies' Book: A Love Letter to Black Families.

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of Electric Arches, 1919, Ghosts in the Schoolyard, and Maya and the Robot. She co-authored the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks with Nate Marshall and has written several projects for Marvel Comics. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago.

About the books:

The Battle for the Black Mind takes readers on a powerful journey through the history of Black education, revealing the centuries-long struggle to control Black intellectual life in America and across the globe. Through a blend of historical narrative, archival research, and personal reflection, author Karida Brown connects the past to the present, showing how education has always been a battleground in the fight for Black liberation.

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism explores how our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students, and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. By demonstrating how American schools serve as an effective mechanism for maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom.