Abstract

This article explores Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis‐Education of the Negro in terms of its political philosophical content. It examines how Woodson’s account of the miseducation of Black people and the accordant miseducation of whites is involved in the production and reproduction of an unjust basic structure, with reference to John Rawls and Frantz Fanon. It then turns to Woodson’s critique of leadership and its relationship to miseducation, drawing on E. Franklin Frazier’s study of the Black bourgeoisie and the political philosophy of Enrique Dussel. Finally, it examines miseducation as a site for the reproduction of racist knowledge production in light of the work of Anténor Firmin and examines how, for Woodson, rigor in the human sciences was essential for counteracting miseducation and serving the greater cause of liberation.