ABSTRACT
In the history of Black girls’ and women’s lives, education has always been a cornerstone of liberation, community, survival, and identity formation (Hull et al., 1982). Although the tendency of mainstream media is often to hold up the success stories of Black girls and women who were pioneers, such as Ruby Bridges and Melba Patillo Beales, or who have overcome great odds to be accepted into multiple Ivy League institutions (Criss, 2017), there is also another narrative that frequently appears. Videos and stories of Black girls being handcuffed for pushing a teacher, being expelled for wearing their hair in a natural hairstyle, and being physically assaulted by school resource officers also dominate news headlines on a regular basis (see M. Morris, 2016, 2019).
