Historical Memory Embedded in a New Vision
Have you ever thought about having school on a Saturday? The SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School, led by Dr. Jessica Stovall, provides that and so much more!
You may be wondering, “what is a Freedom School?” Freedom Schools are not a new idea. They were born out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, when organizers recognized that access to an honest, culturally grounded education was itself an act of liberation. During the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer, activists established Freedom Schools across the state to provide Black students with the kind of education the public school system refused to offer them, one that affirmed their history, their dignity, and their right to think critically about the world around them. The tradition has carried forward in communities ever since, adapted by educators who believe that when schools fail to see and affirm Black students, the community has a responsibility to build the spaces that will. Dr. Stovall’s SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School stands in that lineage, a direct inheritance of the belief that education, when it is truly free, doesn’t just teach students what to know. It teaches them who they are.
The SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School isn’t just an everyday school where students learn their normal classroom curriculum. It is a Black cultural school-like environment that will take place on Saturdays during the 2026-2027 school year for Black high school students. It plans to prioritize education about Black history, literature, and the foundations of Black culture along with making students feel like they’re in a space where they can culturally express all forms of Black expression, enjoy free food, and access free mental and physical health care. Through her Freedom School, Dr. Jessica Stovall strives to help students grow academically, culturally, and socially.
Growing up, Dr. Stovall loved teaching which led her to teach high school English for 11 years in the Chicagoland area. Her classroom teaching helped her understand many of the challenges teachers and students faced in traditional school environments. This lens directly contributed to her research focus around Black educators and racial equity challenges while earning her PhD at Stanford University in Race, Inequality and Language in Education and through her continued work as an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Stovall’s research spans several interconnected questions; all rooted in a central concern: why don’t some students feel like going to school? She explores the relationships Black teachers build, with students and with one another, and studies how racial equity shapes student engagement and classroom culture. She has also examined what students actually need to feel seen and motivated in their learning environments, and how schools can become more genuinely inclusive. That research is now taking shape as a book focused on the experiences of Black educators, covering the antiblackness they navigate, the fortitude and survival strategies they develop, and the systemic forces that push them out of the profession. The book offers both an honest account of what Black teachers face and a blueprint for how schools, institutions, and communities can better support and retain them. Over time, Dr. Stovall’s relationship with educators and her years of research became the foundation for what she calls “liberated learning,” and ultimately for the SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School itself. Her work has earned her funding from Day of the Badger, institutional fellowships, and deep support from UW-Madison and The SoulFolk Collective, and she is widely respected among her peers, colleagues, and the communities she serves.
Dr. Stovall’s story inspires us to have a bold vision to build and create things that don’t yet exist or that need resurrecting. Her love of learning created a pathway for her to turn her vision of a school where students feel welcome and want to come to school into reality with the creation of The SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School. Through her work she will continue to teach students that knowledge is power. Let freedom ring and power prevail at the SoulFolk Saturday Freedom School!
