Chapter 9: Lessons From the “Pen Alongside the Sword”: School Reform Through the Lens of Radical Black Press

The relationships between media, education and democracy have long been central to conversations about public and political life. In an 1825 letter, Thomas Jefferson warned against the tyranny of a “single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and moneyed incorporations riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry” (p. 2). He argued that a free press and literate society could help stave off such undemocratic conditions: “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe” (p. 1). Furthermore, if citizens are to hold elected officials accountable, and resist capitalism’s excesses, there must be a free press, outside of governmental and corporate control, to act as a watchdog for the people. Pursuant Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson argued that democratic governance was dependent upon an informed citizenry with free press as a mechanism by which to transmit information for public good.