Black institutions function as free spaces for civic education and self-respect.

Evidence

Without these organizations and the forms of black politics they facilitate by providing what social scientists call “free spaces”—spaces where folks learn self-respect, public skills, and the value of civic engagement—we lose one of the crucial ways to close the value gap. These institutions enable a political vision of American democracy without white supremacy. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 347

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘free spaces’ as the social-science concept Glaude leans on for what black institutions provide.
• XREF: connects to: Atlanta University’s insulated campus sheltered a self-sufficient black intellectual community from Jim Crow — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 77