Voices Speaking Truths from Our Past and Our Present

This introductory chapter situates homeschooling in an African American educational history context and in the context of today’s Black education. The chapter demonstrates the connections between African American legacy of self-agency and self-determination as well as resistance in the pursuit of education. Additionally, the chapter reviews the literature on Black homeschooling and demonstrates the corroboration between existing homeschool literature and issues in Black education including low expectations, discipline disproportionality, limited access to gifted education, marginalization of Black parents, and excessive referrals to special education. In addition, the chapter critiques the existing Black homeschool literature for excluding the voices of single Black mothers and perpetuating the myth of Black families as a monolith.