We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

Kalief Browder (1993-2015) was a Black youth from The Bronx, NY, who died by suicide in his parents’ house after spending three years at the Rikers Island jail complex for allegedly stealing a backpack at the age of 16. In his time at Rikers, Kalief experienced carceral violence at the hands of guards and inmates, including violent gang members. He spent two years in solitary confinement locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, where he was physically and verbally assaulted by guards.

Love uses Kalief’s case to call attention to inequities in the criminal justice system, which disproportionately punishes poor people of color. Kalief’s family could not afford an attorney, nor could they post his $3000 bail. He turned down all plea deals, including one that would have seen his immediate release and instead professed his innocence. Citing a lack of evidence, the Bronx District Attorney’s office dropped the charges and released Kalief in 2013. However, the teenager was unable to recover from the years of trauma he experienced in jail. Kalief’s family described his PTSD, saying he was “living in fear of being attacked like he was in jail, and checking all the windows in the house to make sure they were locked before going to sleep. He was even hospitalized in a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center” (63). The case of Kalief is extreme, but it is far from unique. Studies show that Black people between the ages of 18 and 29 receive higher bail amounts than all other social groups (63). These individuals often plead guilty to crimes they may not have committed simply because they cannot afford bail. Activists across the country have been calling to reform or abolish the prison system. Love supports its abolishment.

Ellen (1826-1891) and William (1824-1900) Craft were two formerly enslaved people who fled their plantation in Macon, Georgia and became abolitionist leaders at home and abroad. The Crafts escaped in 1848. They traveled north by train and steamboat; Ellen, a woman with light skin and a diverse racial background, pretended to be William’s owner. They reached the Boston neighborhood of Beacon Hill where they spent two years speaking about their escape and promoting abolition. Slavecatchers came looking for the Crafts in 1850, after Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act compelling law enforcement and residents of free states to cooperate with the capturing of escaped enslaved people. The Crafts fled to West London, England and become key figures in Britain’s abolitionist movement. They returned to the US in 1868 after the American Civil War and opened a school for the newly emancipated near Savannah, Georgia.

Love draws on the Crafts’ story to convey the importance of community. Beacon Hill was home to a free Black community that rallied around abolitionism and women’s rights. Notable activists associated with Beacon Hill include William Lloyd Garrison, who published an antislavery newspaper, and Lucretia Mott, co-founder of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Beacon Hill had several stops on the Underground Railroad, including the house of Lewis and Harriet Hayden, who took in the Crafts after they escaped from Georgie. Beacon Hill was also the site of the African Meeting House and the Portia School of Law, the only law school in the country exclusively for women. The residents of Beacon Hill refused to normalize racism. Their bold vision for the future emphasized solidarity and collectivism, traits central to Love’s model of abolitionist teaching. 

Emma (b. 1999) and David (b. 2000) are youth activists and survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a gunman killed 17 people. The shooting prompted Emma to become a vocal opponent of the NRA and the politicians who accept the organization’s money. Alongside David and 18 of their classmates, she co-founded Never Again MSD, a student-led gun control advocacy group that began as a social media support group for survivors of the Parkland shooting. Currently, the group’s main goal is to encourage social and political action by encouraging young people to vote.

Like Emma, David rose to prominence after the Parkland shooting by speaking out against gun violence and helping to organize gun-control marches and protests. His activism made him the target of rightwing politicians and pundits, as well as conspiracy theorists, who accused him of being a crisis actor. Laura Ingraham, the host of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, ridiculed David after he was rejected from four colleges. David spearheaded an ongoing boycott of all the companies that advertise on the show, which led to a precipitous drop in the show’s advertising revenues.

Activism is a central component of Love’s abolitionist education model. She discusses the Parkland shooting to underscore the importance of student activists like Emma and David. Collective action, rebellion, and visionary thinking are key to creating social change, be it reforming gun laws or bringing an end to the educational survival complex.