Civic education in informal settings: Black voluntary associations as schools for democracy, 1898-1959

Abstract

ABSTRACT Historians of social studies and race have focused overwhelmingly on formal educational settings, textbooks, and curriculum, thereby overlooking the informal educational spaces valued by African Americans. This study examines civic education in informal settings by considering the educational programs of Black voluntary organizations. Hundreds of civic voluntary associations were formed after the Civil War, and they gave African Americans a counterpublic space to undertake racial uplift, promote education, and learn how to be a citizen. In this article, I focus on the activities of one organization, the Improved, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, or Black Elks, to reveal how African American communities valued education for democratic participation and taught civics to youth and adults through their educational programming. I argue that the civic education supported and taught by voluntary associations was perceived by African American communities as just as important as the lessons taught in school. This study holds implications for contemporary social studies researchers by revealing the fluidity of learning sites among home, school, and communities for African Americans.