University of Wisconsin Madison

W. E. B. Du Bois: Schools to Promote Social Equality

Rylee Knips
History 412: History of American Education
Adam Nelson
Erin Hardacker
10/31/14

Education will not remove a pigment of skin, but the notions behind what that
pigment constitutes. W. E. B. Du Bois understood that education could free society from
the ideals based in white Anglo-Saxon privilege, but only if schools in the United States
proactively created a curriculum that emphasized education for social equality and
mobility. He called for a system of schools that would eradicate racist ideals that
reinforced segregation through the emergence of common schools, normal schools, and
industrial schools, to eventually reach the end goal of a higher education in a college or
university.
The creation of this education system would not come without hardship and hard
work, despite the period of temporary relief from the close of the civil war in 1865 until
the Election of 1876. During this period of reconstruction, schools for blacks began to
sprout in the south through army schools, mission schools, and schools of the Freedmens
Bureau (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 9). While it is important to note that these schools were
critical in the establishment of educational services for blacks, it must be understood that
these schools were often put in place to preserve racial segregation and white supremacy
in the south. Deemed separate but equal they acted as a separate sphere in society for
blacks to exist. The abolishment of slavery did not free the blacks from racial prejudices,
as southerners saw them as somewhere between men and cattle straightly
foreordained to walk within the veil (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 2). Blacks were forced into a
transition period in which they did not fall under the category of slaves or citizens.
After the Election of 1876, in which Hayes agreed to remove the union army from the
south in exchange for presidency, blacks would be faced with limiting Jim Crow Laws,
white violence, and lynchings (Nelson, 10/20/14). Meanwhile, the south was caught up in

a debate of whether they should focus on rebuilding the economy or establishing

education systems such as the common school (Nelson, 10/20/14).
Although the northern reformers had made substantial progress in the
establishment of the common school, the south lagged far behind (Kaestle, 1983, p. 192).
Many southerners were resistant to state involvement in education and opposed to the
idea that all should be taxed (Kaestle, 1983, p. 191). Why should normal citizens have to
pay for the education of wealthy whites or even worse, free blacks? But Du Bois
understood that the common school would act as a step towards the achievement of a
higher education; one he then believed would lead to social equality. He argued for the
moral aspect of a common school, explaining how teaching blacks morals would make
them better contributors to white society. He described, I insist that the question of the
future is how to best keep these millions from brooding over the wrongs of the past and
the difficulties of the present, so that all their energies may be bent toward a cheerful
striving and co-operation with their white neighbors toward a larger, juster, and fuller
future (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 27). A common school would help teach the blacks the
basic obligations of man in order to make him a better worker. However, the south lacked
a good number of northern white teachers, and lacked white southern teachers altogether.
This brought up the problem of where teachers for blacks will come from. Du Bois
believed blacks must first have the common school to teach them to read, write, and
cipher; and they must have higher schools to teach teachers for the common schools (Du
Bois, 1903b, para. 13).
Knowing that they were still in the veil, blacks knew that if they were to obtain an
education, they must teach themselves, and the most effective way of doing so would be

to establish schools that would train negro teachers (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 14). This
training manifested itself in both normal and industrial schools.
The normal schools expanded on the common school curriculum, yet critics
claimed they did little more for the students than the common schools, did not teach but
one third of those they should be teaching, and often times did not train them to an
acceptable extent (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 9). Yet Du Bois argued that they deepened
broader development in Of the Training of Black Men when he stated, It was not
enough that the teachers of teachers should be trained in technical normal methods; they
must also, so far as possible, be broadminded, cultured men and women, to scatter
civilization among a people whose ignorance was not simply of letters, but of life itself.
He stresses here the importance of understanding life as a whole in order to educate
blacks to live in a society dominated by white rule. Du Bois understood that in order for
blacks to eventually reach the status of whites, they must first remove ignorance about
the situation at hand and second, educate to promote the ability to work similarly to and
even with the whites. Industrial schools also worked on training blacks to be able to enter
white society.
Industrial schools emerged in the south in the 1830s and took off after 1876 when
the south was focused on the rehabilitation of the southern economy (Du Bois, 1903a,
para. 1). It was during this increase of commercial development that blacks were able to
learn how to become teachers, presidents of institutions, heads of normal schools,
clergymen, physicians, merchants, and so on (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 22). Yet, many
wondered if once blacks graduated from industrial institutions and were able to perform
in the white economy, if whites would even allow it. Would blacks have a place in the

world after they graduate? The fact that this question existed is the reason Du Bois was so
passionate about creating the schools. The fact that even though slavery had been
abolished, they still were not welcomed as citizens is the reason Du Bois wanted an
education system in the first place.
All of the common schools, normal schools, and industrial schools served a main
purpose: to prepare blacks for a higher education in a college or university. Arguments
about whether blacks were ready or many enough for colleges fueled Du Bois interest in
the building of the educational school system in the south (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 17).
Higher education, such as learning Latin and Greek, came with the reputation of being a
superior human often to promote racial segregation and white supremacy (Washington,
1901, para. 2). Du Bois did not care so much about learning a classical curriculum as he
did about creating an educational system that could be used to create social equality. He
stated, The function of the Negro college is clear: it must maintain the standards of
popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in
the solution of problems of race contact and cooperation (Du Bois, 1903b, para. 28).
Du Bois wanted schools to develop men. Not just freed slaves, but citizens of the
United States of America. In order to achieve racial equality, Du Bois understood that the
blacks could not sit idly by, waiting for change to find them. He knew that they could
survive in separate spheres, but he knew that if the spheres remained, the blacks would
never thrive. He viewed the education system as a panacea for the inequalities and
injustices toward blacks. He knew that in order to establish educational systems, blacks
must push forward to establish their own schools so that separate but equal would
eventually result in merely equal.