Literacy as Liberation

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass

When I was growing up, books were more than a pastime—they were my passport, my protest sign, my sanctuary. Long before I had the language for structural oppression, I had the stories that showed me how to see it. Literacy has never just been about decoding letters on a page. For Black communities, it’s been about decoding the systems that were built to silence us.

📜 A Legacy of Resistance

Black literacy in America has always been radical. Enslaved people risked their lives to learn how to read. Post-Emancipation, our ancestors built schools from nothing—some with dirt floors, some in churches, some in homes. Each one a site of resistance. During the Civil Rights Movement, books, pamphlets, and newspapers were tools of protest. And yet, today, we still see efforts to suppress Black knowledge—through underfunded schools, digital divides, and banned books.

This is not a coincidence. Literacy is power. And powerful systems don’t like to share.

📚 Reading Is a Political Act

When a Black child picks up a book and sees themselves not as a stereotype but as a superhero, a scientist, or a dreamer—that’s liberation. When a parent reads a bedtime story that wasn’t written to erase them—that’s justice. When we choose to read about our history, our joy, and our pain in our own voices, we are refusing to be rewritten.

That’s why book bans target works by authors like Toni Morrison, Jason Reynolds, and bell hooks. Because these books don’t just inform—they transform.

🔥 The Stakes Are Still High

The ability to read by third grade is one of the strongest indicators of future incarceration or graduation. That should tell us everything we need to know. In many ways, the systems haven’t changed—they’ve just become more subtle. Our response must still be bold.

We must demand access to books that reflect our lived experiences. We must create reading spaces where young people can question, imagine, and build. We must protect literacy like we protect our homes—because it is one.

🌱 What Can You Do?

Liberation begins in the home, at the kitchen table, on the bus ride to school. Here are a few ways to take action:

• Read Banned Books – Especially those by Black and Indigenous authors.

• Start a Family Book Night – Make reading a joyful, weekly ritual.

• Support Black-Owned Bookstores & Literacy Orgs – Put your dollars into the ecosystem.

• Talk About What You Read – Literacy is a community sport.

  
  

✨ Final Word

The name 2 Crates and a Fence comes from that powerful visual we often use to teach equity: three children standing behind a fence, each given different-sized crates to see the game. But what happens when the game is reading—and one child never got a crate? Or worse, never even saw the fence?

This blog exists to name the fences—and build the crates.

Let’s read. Let’s rise. Let’s reclaim.