Sinister Schooling: Modern-Day Implications of Hampton Model Industrial Schools and American Indian Boarding Schools

Abstract

Throughout American history, the government has taken various systemic measures to monitor, surveil and control its burgeoning minority populations. In the postbellum era, these aims were primarily focused on assimilation and cultural genocide modeled, beginning with the creation of schools like the Hampton Model Schools for Black students and American Indian boarding schools for Indigenous students. Though neither remain in operation, their spirit lives, particularly as we see Native and Black students being funneled into occupational tracks in high school, having disproportionately high rates of suspension and expulsion, and being subjected to a whitewashed curriculum that positions them as victims, criminals, or non-existent. This work seeks to explore the linkages between these historical institutions and the current status of Native and Black students in modern-day schools.