On April 2 1960, W.E.B. Du Bois delivered a speech entitled “Whither Now and Why” at the Conference of the Association of Black Social Science Teachers on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University, predicting and warning black America of the impending ramifications of integration on black education.

Fifty years later, as we reflect on the educational problems in the African American community, Du Bois’ words are both accurate and sobering. However, many of the issues and concerns he raised are not even considered when examining contemporary problems of black education.

In this article I want to revisit some of Du Bois’ major themes in that 1960 speech, and next week I will address these same themes in a 21st century context.

When Du Bois delivered his speech, he was a striking 92 years old. He had spent the majority of his life working on behalf of dismantling racial barriers as an educator, propagandist, and even editor of the NAACP’s Crisis magazine.

His commitment toward black education was his intellectual signature. Having attended Fisk University, a black institution of higher education, and worked at Wilberforce University and Atlanta University, almost half of his professional life had been spent in the academe.

Perhaps his most memorable contribution was his intellectual disputes with the “Wizard,” Booker T. Washington, over what black colleges should teach -- industrial or liberal arts education.

Moreover, his critique of white philanthropists reign legendary as he took on the heads of the Phelps Stokes Fund, General Education Board, and Rockefeller Foundation over their meddling in the affairs of black colleges by only awarding those with an industrial slant, while funding such as Tuskegee and Hampton University. One of his final acts of defiance in the arena of education was leaving the NAACP in 1934 because of its move toward integrationist policies, which Du Bois believed would have damaging effects on black colleges.

After leaving the NAACP he returned to Atlanta University for 10 years and then subsequently returned to the NAACP to become director of special projects and research. During this time, Du Bois was charged by the U.S. government's Subversive Activities Committee Control Board with espousing communist ideals. Those charges eventually were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

It was from this historical context that Du Bois delivered his last major speech on black education before his demise three years later in 1963.

In his speech Du Bois began by stating, “The American Negro has now reached a point in his progress where he needs to take serious account of where he is and whither he is going.”

From this intro he concentrates on five fundamental topics regarding black education in the future: assimilation of black life; the need for voluntary black institutions of education; ramifications of desegregation; possible solutions to this problem; and the limits of education in a capitalist society.

Speaking within a timeframe when desegregation was first unfolding, Du Bois raised several critical questions as to what integration would mean for the African American community:

“Because what we must now ask ourselves is when we become equal American citizens what will be our aims and ideals and what will we have to do with selecting these aims and ideals? Are we to assume that we will simply adopt the ideals of Americans and become what they are or want to be and that we will have in this process no ideals of our own? That would mean that we would cease to be Negroes as such and become white in action if not completely in color. We would take on the culture of white Americans doing as they do and thinking as they think.”

Taking the position of rejecting assimilation, he argues that black folk do have something to offer to the world and should develop these things among themselves. He continues:

“Any statement of our desires to develop American Negro culture, to keep our ties with colored people, to remember our past is being regarded as racism. I, for instance, who have devoted my life to efforts of breaking down racial barriers, am being accused of desiring to emphasize differences of race. This has a certain truth about it. As I have said before and I repeat I am not fighting to settle the question of racial equality in America by the process of getting rid of the Negro race…No! What I have been fighting for and am still fighting for is the possibility of black folk and their cultural patterns existing in America without discrimination; and on terms of equality.”

From this point Du Bois transitions into describing how the impact of integration will have a profound effect on black education. He states:

“If and when they [black children] are admitted to these schools [white schools] certain things will inevitably follow. Negro teachers will become rarer and in many cases will disappear. Negro children will be instructed in the public schools and taught under unpleasant if not discouraging circumstances. Even more largely than today they will fall out of school, cease to enter high school, and fewer and fewer will go to college. Theoretically Negro universities will disappear… There are going to be schools which do not discriminate against colored people and the number is going to increase slowly in the present, but rapidly in the future until long before the year 2000, there will be no school segregation on the basis of race. The deficiency in knowledge of Negro history and culture, however, will remain, and this danger must be met or else American Negroes will disappear. Their history and culture will be lost. Their connection with the rising African world will be impossible. What then can we do or should we try to do?”

Next, Du Bois answers his own question by suggesting several temporary alternative solutions that can be used to fill the voids of black history, culture and education imparted to black children. He suggests that parent-teacher associations, civic, social, and religious organizations and even the family must step up and teach black children about black culture. Additionally he says:

“Negro Community, Negro Private Schools, Negro Colleges will and must be organized and supported. This racial organization will be voluntary and not compulsory. It will not be discriminatory. It will be carried on according to definite object and ideal, and will be open to all who share this ideal. And of course that ideal must always be in accord with greater ideals of mankind. But what American Negroes must remember is that voluntary organization for great ends is different from compulsory segregation for evil purpose”

The rest of the essay Du Bois devotes to arguing for a different type of educational system that is based on socialist principles that emphasize service over individual attainment. He begins by talking about his experience abroad and how educational systems in socialist countries are vastly different from those in America.

He contends:

“In this matter of life vocation we Negroes have got to inculcate in the minds of our children many objects to which white America today is not only opposed to but bitterly fights. Why should a man be a physician? Not simply to cure disease and treat accidents, but to prevent disease and protect health. Today most physicians have no time for this. This is the object of social medicine and is practiced in most of Europe, western and eastern, and in China. But in the United States, the American Medical Association fights with huge funds every effort to bring free government-supported social medicine to the service of the people.”

In the final analysis, Du Bois leaves the future of black education in the hands of black private colleges and teachers. His final declaration is simply stated:

“This is my sincere belief, arrived at after long study, travel, observation, and thought. Many disagree with me and that is their right. They have every opportunity to express their belief and you cannot escape listening to them and should not if you could. But they have no right to demand that you refuse to listen to the world-wide voice of socialism or to threaten you with punishment if you do listen. This is the first right of democracy.”
***
Joseph L. Jones, Ph.D., is assistant professor of political science at Johnson C. Smith University. Next week he will discuss Du Bois’ speech in relationship to the problems in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and national educational trends in the 21st century.
 

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