The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature, by Angel Adams Parham and Anika Prather, Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press, 2022, vi + 258 pp, 29.95 (hardcover).
At a time when the value society places on classical education appears to be in decline, Dr. Angel Adams Parham and Dr. Anika Prather’s book, The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature, arrives as a critical intervention, demonstrating the inseparability of the (Christian) classical tradition and the historical Black freedom movement. Specifically, The Black Intellectual Tradition offers a passionate defense of the classical tradition as an essential component of the formation of Black luminaries who challenged the hegemony of white supremacy in the West.
However, I should be clear, The Black Intellectual Tradition is not a book that is focused only on demonstrating the indebtedness of Black writers to the classical tradition. It also calls for the work of Black writers to be read for the contributions they offer to contemporary understandings of the classical tradition. In this sense, the book attempts to create a transversal relationship of intersecting lines between Black intellectuals and the classical tradition, considering how each informs the other. The authors contend that “any education that is committed to truth, goodness, and beauty will achieve only a pale vision of this commitment if it fails to engage the writings of Black intellectuals in a serious and substantial way” (2). This claim serves as the primary argument of the book. The authors go on to argue, “Who better than exceptional Black writers such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Toni Morrison to address the question of what it means to be human?” (2)
The book is organized into two primary sections that attempt to 1) position Black writers as key interlocutors in the cultivation of virtues that lie at the core of classical education and 2) demonstrate the enduring relationship between classical education and the aspirations of the Black freedom movement. Black writers and orators Anna Julia Cooper, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Toni Morrison receive primary attention in this analysis, but the primary argument extends beyond any single individual. One of the most valuable aspects of this important book is the personal notes that the authors offer throughout the book as they advance their core argument about the inseparability of Black intellectuals and classical education, which enrichens and demonstrates the practical value of the claims they advance.
The strengths of this text are threefold. First, the authors create points of contact between classical education and the Black writers that serve as the focus of their analysis. For example, in the section on Dr. King, the authors demonstrate the ways in which King drew on classical works as inventional sources in the development of his ground-breaking thoughts, ideas, and speeches on freedom and racial justice in the middle of the twentieth century. In fact, the authors contend that without an appreciation for the classical tradition, it is difficult to fully appreciate the development and formation of King, arguably the most influential reform in U.S. history. King, they contend, offers an example of “the way study forms us as students and as citizens seeking to be and do good in the world” (91). Second, the text offers a powerful examination of the ways in which Black writers are not only indebted to the classical tradition, but the ways in which they maintain a dialogue with it. This contribution becomes especially clear in the discussion they offer on Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. They convincingly argue that Morrison’s Song of Solomon demonstrates “that literature is an ideal receptacle for transmitting truth and goodness through beauty” (134).
The legendary author, educator, and activist Anna Julia Cooper receives the most sustained attention of any Black intellectual with the authors devoting three chapters to examining her classical education, her approach to goodness as an essential virtue within the Black freedom struggle, and her conception of beauty that rejected racial superiority. Offering an in-depth examination of Cooper’s life, Parham and Prather situated Cooper as the very embodiment of the classical tradition. Specifically, they examine “the way she transformed an idealistic vision of education into practical work that would help to cultivate the kind of good society she desired to see” (75).
Still, there are a few points of critique that I will offer in response to The Black Intellectual Tradition. First, while the sections analyzing Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, and Anna Julia Cooper are well-written and thorough, the premise of the book centers on the belief that the failure of classical educators to take the work of Black writers seriously limits the relevance and effectiveness of classical education. This is an important argument, but I think that attention to a greater number of Black writers is necessary to fully substantiate this argument. To be fair, the authors do refer in passing to many other Black intellectuals, including Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. However, I think the broad argument that they are making in this text requires greater attention to the pantheon of Black intellectuals beyond Cooper, King, and Morrison. Second, I would have liked to have seen a greater focus toward the end of the book on the relevance of classical education among contemporary Black writers. Certainly, I understand that the focus of the book lies with Black intellectuals in history, but this emphasis leads to questions concerning the status of classical education among contemporary Black intellectuals like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Imani Perry, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. The Black Intellectual Tradition explores an unexamined relationship between Black intellectuals and classical education. As I read, I wondered if this relationship continues to the present or if it has been displaced in the formative influence it wielded historically on Black leaders. While this question does not lie at the heart of this book, it complements the focus of the text in a manner that demonstrates the ongoing significance of classical education in a contemporary sense.
Despite these critiques, The Black Intellectual Tradition arrives as a welcome addition to contemporary conversations on (Christian) classical education. Scholars, educators, and general readers interested in deepening their knowledge of classical education, Black history and activism, and race in America will benefit greatly from the ideas and arguments advanced in the book.
Theon Hill is Co-Director of the Wheaton Center for Faith & Innovation and Associate Professor of Communication at Wheaton College. His research explores the relationship between rhetoric and social change related to race, culture and American politics. Specifically, he examines the role of radical rhetoric as a crucial form of civic engagement and public advocacy. His previous work on rhetoric and social change in political, social movement, and religious contexts has appeared in edited collections and scholarly journals.