School Counseling to Advance Student Success and coauthor of Ready, Willing, and Able: A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success.
Joshua Schuschke, PhD, is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Schuschke is a scholar of Black academic identity development across multiple media contexts. He earned his PhD in 2019 from the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education’s Urban Education Policy program. His concentration was in educational psychology with a special focus on intersectional educational experiences. Before his doctoral studies, Professor Schuschke earned his BS and MA degrees in Pan-African Studies from his hometown school, the University of Louisville. In his master’s thesis he developed a theoretical framework of online Black academic identity development for Black students through the use of social media platform affordances. Professor Schuschke’s dissertation, #RepresentationMatters: Constructing Black Academic Identities Through Popular & Social Media, received the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education PhD Dissertation of the Year Award.
M. Ann Shillingford, PhD, is an associate professor of counselor education at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Professor Shillingford has written several articles and book chapters on multicultural issues focused in particular on disparities among people of color. Professor Shillingford has a keen interest in exploring measures to deconstruct educational, social, and health disparities among marginalized communities. Professor Shillingford’s coedited book The Journey Unraveled: College and Career Readiness of African American Students was published in the fall of 2015. Her coedited book Demystifying the DSM for School Counselors was published in September 2020.
Sam Steen, PhD, is an associate professor in the College of Education at George Mason University. He is also co–academic coordinator of the school counseling program. He specializes in group work and cultivating Black students’ academic identity development. Professor Steen was a school counselor for 10 years, and his practitioner experiences shape his research agenda, approach to teaching, and service. He is a fellow of the Association for Specialists in Group Work, a division of the American Counseling Association. Recently, Professor Steen received the Professional Advancement Award from the Association for Specialists in Group Work recognizing his outstanding efforts in advancing the field of group work though research and the development of a new and innovative strategies for schools, families, and marginalized communities.
Jaelyn O. Vines is an undergraduate student at North Carolina A&T State University. She graduated from the Oldfields School in Maryland.
Ahmad R. Washington, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at the University of Louisville. He teaches in the School Counseling program, where he works with preservice school counseling students as they prepare to transition into the profession. Professor Washington received his BS in psychology from Francis Marion University, his MA in clinical counseling from Webster University, and his PhD in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa in 2013.
Joseph M. Williams, PhD, is an associate professor of counselor education at the University of Virginia. He is a faculty affiliate with Youth-Nex: The Center to Promote Effective Youth Development and with the Center for Race and Public Education in the South. His primary research focuses on resilience-based interventions and policies at the micro and macro levels that neutralize or offset the detrimental effect of racism and poverty on the academic, personal/ social, and career development of K–12 students. Besides publishing scholarly articles and book chapters in these areas, he also consults with school districts, communities, associations, and corporations to improve diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts and engage people in productive dialogue and action. Professor Williams earned his PhD in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa and his MS in clinical mental health counseling from Minnesota State University. He has more than 10 years of practical experience counseling children and adolescents in both school and mental health settings.
Valaida (Val) L. Wise, EdD, is the principal consultant at her firm Dr. Valaida Wise Consulting, LLC. The firm supports schools and other organizations in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion, governance, and leadership. She is also a faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she teaches diversity, equity, inclusion, and issues of social justice. An educator for more than 25 years, Professor Wise has served as the head of several independent schools in the Washington, DC, region. Professor Wise is the chair of the board at Creative Minds International Public Charter School; is chair of the board at McLean School in Potomac, Maryland; and also serves on the boards of several other professional organizations and independent schools.
CHAPTER 1
The Pathway to Antiracism: Defining Moments in Counseling History
Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy
Racism and white supremacy have a long-standing and tumultuous history in the United States. Ever since 1619, when 20 to 30 enslaved Africans landed in the English colony of Virginia, racism has shaped Americans’ lives and brutally shaped the lives of Black Americans. According to historian Carol Anderson (2016), James Madison called chattel slavery America’s “original sin.” This inhumane sin was documented in Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution, which declared each enslaved African to be three fifths of a person. It was again documented in Article IV, Section 2, the Fugitive Slave Clause. This clause stated that the owner of a slave had the right to seize and repossess that slave in another state, further underscoring the fact that Black Africans were property, not humans with rights. All in all, these facts are evidence that U.S. history is grounded in significant systems of oppression, fueled by the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races. Slavery as well as the colonization of Indigenous American societies upheld this belief, and the results live within us today.
After the Civil War, there was an attempt to redeem the country’s original sin with three Reconstruction-era amendments to the Constitution (i.e., the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments) and the Freedmen’s Bureau. The amendments were designed to ensure equality for emancipated enslaved persons.
The 13th Amendment bans slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime.
The 14th Amendment defines a citizen as any person born or naturalized in the United States, overturning the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court ruling, which stated that Black people were not eligible for citizenship.
The 15th Amendment prohibits governments from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or past servitude.
In addition, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide land, medical facilities, and education to newly freed Black persons transitioning from slavery to freedom. Despite these efforts, the civil rights of Black persons were not sustained, and the courts failed to ensure that Black persons received due process based on the amendments. More important, a refusal to redistribute land to Blacks led to long-standing economic constraints and future racialized practices such as redlining, housing discrimination, and segregation in schools. The Freedmen’s Bureau, which was responsible for founding many historically Black colleges, was terminated in 1872, which led to the mistreatment of Black Americans through state and local statutes that legalized segregation by race and other discriminatory laws and practices. These practices, popularly known as Jim Crow laws, existed for about 100 years, until 1968. Jim Crow laws resulted in Black Americans being
