Critical Race Historical Examination of Summer Programs: Impact on African American Youth

African American youth have historically been excluded from formal and informal education settings. Although policies and efforts have been initiated to remedy early exclusion, the impact of these practices has resulted in disproportionate and unequal developmental resources for low-income African American youth. This is problematic because the United States continues to racially diversify with increasing numbers of African Americans. In addition, early family, community, educational, and resource access are linked to later outcomes. If the conditions for diverse youth are not changed, the future circumstances and the development of today’s youth are unpredictable. Therefore, it is imperative to dig deeper into root causes of current issues by examining the history of policies, practices, and social factors that influence current conditions. Although research exists examining the history of out-of-school time programs, there is limited literature available that centralizes race when discussing the history of out-of-school time programs and, specifically, summer programs. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining available literature to provide a racially-centered historical analysis of summer programs using critical race theory.