Knowledge Is Power, But Viewed As a Threat: Showing the Parallels Between the "Threat" Found in Abolitionist Literature and Today's Attack on Critical Race Theory

• Pages: 95-112
• Date: 01 January 2024
• Published date: 01 January 2024
• Author: Mecca Aikens
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

Knowledge Is Power, But Viewed As a Threat:

Showing the Parallels Between the “Threat” Found in

Abolitionist Literature and Today’s Attack on Critical

Race Theory

MECCA AIKENS*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

I. THE HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF ABOLITIONIST LITERATURE . . . . . . . 98

A. The Suppression of Abolitionist Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

B. The Trial of Reuben Crandall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

II. ANTI-CRT LEGISLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

A. The Beginnings of the Anti-CRT Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

B. The Current State of Anti-CRT Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

III. THE HARMS OF ANTI-CRT LAWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

A. Negative Impacts on Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

B. Hindering Educators in Expressing Their Academic Freedom . . . . 106

IV. SIMILARITIES IN RHETORIC AND ASSAULTS ON ABOLITION AND CRT . . . . 107

V. RESISTANCE TO THE ANTI-CRT REGIME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

A. Resistance in the Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

B. Resistance in the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

* © 2025, Mecca Aikens.

95

INTRODUCTION

Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) is a theoretical framework for examining American

society with a belief that “the social and experiential context of racial oppression is

crucial for understanding racial dynamics, particularly the way that current inequal-

ities are connected to earlier, more overt, practices of racial exclusion.”

1

Critical race

theorists root their ideologies in the distinctive experience of Black people and other

people of color to challenge the “normative standard” that is the white experience.

2

Founders of the CRT movement include legal scholars such as Derrick Bell, Charles

Lawrence, Lani Guinier, Richard Delgado, Mari Matsuda, Patricia Williams, and

Kimberlé Crenshaw.

3

CRT scholarship includes discussions on “aff‌irmative action,

race-conscious districting, campus speech codes, and disproportionate sentencing of

racial minorities in [this country’s] criminal justice system.”

4

With its growing popu-

larity since the 1970s, CRT has expanded to other areas, such as “education, sociol-

ogy, and women’s studies.”

5

Contrary to the narrative that CRT opponents attempt to advance, CRT does not

teach students that all white people are racist or that all racial minorities are

oppressed.

6

The Importance of Addressing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Schools: Dispelling Myths About Critical

Race Theory, NAT’L ASS’N OF SCH. PSYCH. (2021), https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/

resources-and-podcasts/diversity-and-social-justice/social-justice/the-importance-of-addressing-equity-diversity-

and-inclusion-in-schools-dispelling-myths-about-critical-race-theory#:�:text=CRT%20is%20a%20theoretical%

20framework,of%20individual%20prejudices%20or%20biases.

Instead, CRT’s inclusion in educational curricula serves to assist students

in developing the tools necessary not only to recognize but to criticize systematically

racist institutions in the United States, and shed light on inequalities that still persist

today.

7

Alexandria Smith, Why Critical Race Theory Is Essential To An Honest Education In America, HUMAN

RIGHTS PULSE (Sept. 2, 2021), https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/why-critical-race-

theory-is-essential-to-an-honest-education-in-america.

It is particularly harmful when Black students are not taught the history of

their ancestors or equipped with the historical context that informs their lived experi-

ences. Part of this critical history includes the abolitionist movement, which was an

organized effort to end the institution of slavery based on the view that it “was wrong

in principle.”

8

Slavery deprived enslaved people of their “natural right of liberty, the

opportunity for advancement,” and of the ability to use their skills for their own ben-

ef‌it.

9

Both Black and white abolitionists united to form antislavery societies which

employed various techniques to advance their efforts, including sending petitions

with thousands of signatures to Congress, holding abolition meetings and conferen-

ces, boycotting products made with slave labor, giving countless speeches for their

1. Edward Taylor, A Primer on Critical Race Theory: Who are the critical race theorists and what are they say-

ing?, 19 THE J. OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUC. 122 (1998).

2. Id.

3. Id.

4. Id.

5. Id.

6.

7.

8. Henry H. Simms, A Critical Analysis of Abolition Literature 1830-1840, 6 THE J. OF S. HIST. 368, 369

(1940).

9. Id.

96 GEO. J. L. & MOD. CRIT. RACE PERSP. [Vol. 16:95