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Does the Negro need Separate Schools?

W. E. Burghardt Du Bois

The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 4, No. 3, The Courts and the Negro Separate School. (Jul.,
1935), pp. 328-335.

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CHAPTER I V

Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?


W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS

There are in the United States gro not only needs the vast majority
some four million Negroes of school of these schools, but it is a grave ques-
age,of whom two million are in school, tion if, in the near future, he will not
and of these, four-fifths are taught by need more such schools, both to take
forty-eight thousand Negro teachers care of his natural increase, and to
in separate schools. Less than a half defend him against the growing ani-
million are in mixed schools in the mosity of the whites. It is of course
North, where they are taught almost fashionable and popular to deny this;
exclusively by white teachers. Beside to try to deceive ourselves into think-
this, there are seventy-nine Negro ing that race prejudice in the United
universities and colleges with one States across the Color Line is gradu-
thousand colored teachers, beside a ally softening and that slowly but
number of private secondary schools. surely we are coming to the time
The question which I am discussing when racial animosities and class
is: Are these separate schools and in- lines will be so obliterated that sepa-
stitutions needed? And the answer, rate schools will be anachronisms.
to my mind, is perfectly clear. They Certainly, I shall welcome such a
are needed just so far as they are time. Just as long as Negroes are
necessary for the proper education of taught in Negro schools and whites
the Negro race. The proper education in white schools; the poor in the
of any people includes sympathetic slums, and the rich in private schools;
touch between teacher and pupil; just as long as it is impracticable to
knowledge on the part of the teacher, welcome Negro students to Harvard,
not simply of the individual taught, Yale and Princeton; just as long as
but of his surroundings and back- colleges like Williams, Amherst and
ground, and the history of his class Wellesley tend to become the pro-
and group; such contact between pu- perty of certain wealthy families,
pils, and between teacher and pupil, where Jews are not solicited; just so
on the basis of perfect social equality, long we shall lack in America that
as will increase this sympathy and sort of public education which will
knowledge; facilities for education in create the intelligent basis of a real
equipment and housing, and the pro- democracy.
motion of such extra-curricular ac- Much as I would like this, and hard
tivities as will tend to induct the as I have striven and shall strive to
child into life. help realize it, I am no fool; and I
If this is true, and if we recognize know that race prejudice in the Uni-
the present attitude of white America ted States today is such that most
toward black America, then the Ne- Negroes cannot receive proper edu-
328
DOES THE NEGRO NEED SEPARATE SCHOOLS? 329

cation in white institutions. If the already established in Philadelphia,


public schools of Atlanta, Nashville, and pressure is being steadily brought
New Orleans and Jacksonville were to extend this separation at least to
thrown open to all races tomorrow, the junior high school; what must be
the education that colored children our attitude toward this?
would get in them would be worse Manifestly, no general and inflexi-
than pitiable. It would not be educa- ble rule can be laid down. If public
tion. And in the same way, there are opinion is such in Montclair that Ne-
many public school systems in the gro children can not receive decent
North where Negroes are admitted and sympathetic education in the
and tolerated, but they are not edu- white schools, and no Negro teachers
cated; they are crucified. There are can be employed, there is for us no
certain Northern universities where choice. We have got to accept Negro
Negro students, no matter what their schools. Any agitation and action
ability, desert, or accomplishment, aimed at compelling a rich and power-
cannot get fair recognition, either in ful majority of the citizens to do what
classroom or on the campus, in din- they will not do, is useless. On the
ing halls and student activities, or in other hand, we have a right and a
common human courtesy. It is well- duty to assure ourselves of the truth
known that in certain faculties of the concerning this attitude; by careful
University of Chicago, no Negro has conferences, by public meetings and
yet received the doctorate and seldom by petitions, we should convince our-
can achieve the mastership in arts; a t selves whether this demand for sepa-
Harvard, Yale and Columbia, Ne- rate schools is merely the agitation of
groes are admitted but not welcomed; a prejudiced minority, or the con-
while in other institutions, like Prince- sidered and final judgment of the
ton, they cannot even enroll. town.
Under such circumstances, there is There are undoubtedly cases where
no room for argument as to whether a minority of leaders force their
the Negro needs separate school$ or opinions upon a majority, and induce
not. The plain fact faces us, that a community to establish separate
either he will have separate schools schools, when as a matter of fact,
or he will not be educated. There there is no general demand for it;
may be, and there is, considerable there has been no friction in the
difference of opinion as to how far schools; and Negro children have been
this separation in schools is today decently treated. In that case, a firm
necessary. There can be argument as and intelligent appeal to public opin-
to what our attitude toward further ion would eventually settle the mat-
separation should be. Suppose, for ter. But the futile attempt to compel
instance, that in Montclair, New even by law a group to do what it is
Jersey, a city of wealth and culture, determined not to do, is a silly waste
the Board of Education is deter- of money, time, and temper.
mined to establish separate schools On the other hand, there are also
for Negroes; suppose that, despite cases where there has been no separa-
the law, separate Negro schools are tion in schools and no movement to-
330 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION

ward it. And yet the treatment of porary, much less as a relatively per-
Negro children in the schools, the manent institution, in the United
kind of teaching and the kind of ad- States, is a fatal surrender of prin-
vice they get, is such that they ought ciple, which in the end will rebound
to demand either a thorough-going and bring more evils on the Negro
revolution in the official attitude to- than he suffers today. (2) The other
ward Negro students, or absolute reason is at bottom an utter lack of
separation in 'educational facilities. faith on the part of Negroes that their
To endure bad schools and wrong race can do anything really well. If
education because the schools are Negroes could conceive that Negroes
"mixed" is a costly if not fatal mis- could establish schools quite as good
take. I have long been convinced, for as or even superior to white schools; if
instance, that the Negroes in the Negro colleges were of equal grade in
public schools of Harlem are not get- accomplishment and in scientific work
ting an education that is in any sense with white colleges; then separation
comparable in efficiency, discipline, would be a passing incident and not
and human development with that a permanent evil; but as long as
which Negroes are getting in the American Negroes believe that their
separate public schools of Washing- race is constitutionally and perma-
ton, D.C. And yet on its school situa- nently inferior to white people, they
tion, black Harlem is dumb and necessarily disbelieve in every possi-
complacent, if not actually laudatory. ble Negro Institution.
Recognizing the fact that for the The first argument is more or less
vast majority of colored students in metaphysical and cannot be decided
elementary, secondary, and collegiate ,,a priori for every case. There are
education, there must be today sepa- times when one must stand up for
rate educational institutions because principle at the cost of discomfort,
of an attitude on the part of the white harm, and death. But in the case of
people which is not going materially the education of the young, you must
to change in our time, our customary consider not simply yourself but the
attitude toward these separate schools children and the relation of children
must be absolutely and definitely to 1ife:It is difficult to think of any-
changed. As it is today, American thing more important for the develop-
Negroes almost universally disparage ment of a people than proper training
their own schools. They look down for their children; and yet I have re-
upon them; they often treat the Ne- peatedly seen wise and loving colored
gro teachers in them with contempt; parents take infinite pains to force
they refuse to work for their adequate their little children into schools where
support; and they refuse to join pub- the white children, white teachers,
lic movements to increase their effi- and white parents despised and re-
ciency. sented the dark child, made mock of
The reason for this is quite clear, it, neglected or bullied it, and literally
and may be divided into two parts: rendered its life a living hell. Such
(1)the fear that any movement which parents want their child to "fight"
implies segregation even as a tem- this thing out,-but, dear God, at
DOES THE NEGRO NEED SEPARATE SCHOOLS? 33 1

what a cost! Sometimes, to be sure, schools were properly housed and


the child triumphs and teaches the equipped; that his colleges be supplied
school community a lesson; but even with scholarship and research funds;
in such cases, the cost may, be high, and he would be far more interested
and the child's whole life turned into in the efficiency of these institutions
an effort to win cheap applause at the of learning, than in forcing himself
expense of healthy individuality. I n into other institutions where he is not
other cases, the result of the experi- wanted.
ment may be complete ruin of char- As long as the Negro student wishes
acter, gift, and ability and ingrained to graduate from Columbia, not be-
hatred of schools and men. For the cause Columbia is an institution of
kind of battle thus indicated, most learning, but because it is attended by
children are under no circumstances white students; as long as a Negro
suited. I t is the refinement of cruelty student is ashamed to attend Fisk or
to require it of them. Therefore, in Howard because these institutions are
evaluating the advantage and disad- largely run by black folk, just so long
vantage of accepting race hatred as a the main problem of Negro education
brutal but real fact, or of using a little will not be segregation but self-knowl-
child as a battering ram upon which edge and self-respect.
its nastiness can be thrust, we must There are not many teachers in
give greater value and greater em- Negro schools who would not esteem
phasis to the rights of the child's own it an unparalleled honor and boast of
soul. We shall get a finer, better bal- it to their dying day, if instead of
ance of spirit; an infinitely more ca- teaching black folk, they could get a
pable and rounded personality by put- chance to teach poor-whites, Irishmen,
ting children in schools where they Italians or Chinese in a "white" in-
are wanted, and where they are happy stitution. This is not unnatural. This
and inspired, than in thrusting therh is to them a sort of acid test of their
into hells where they are ridiculed and worth. It is but the logical result of
hated. the "white" propaganda which has
Beyond this, lies the deeper, broad- swept civilization for the last thou-
er fact. If the American Negro really sand years, and which is now bol-
believed in himself; if he believed that stered and defended by brave words,
Negro teachers can educate children high wages, and monopoly of oppor-
according to the best standards of tunities. But this state of mind is
modern training; if he believed that suicidal and must be fought, and
Negro colleges transmit and add to fought doggedly and bitterly: first, by
science, as well as or better than other giving Negro teachers decent wages,
colleges, then he would bend his ener- decent schoolhouses and equipment,
gies, not to escaping inescapable as- and reasonable chances for advance-
sociation with his own group, but to ment; and then by kicking out and
seeing that his group had every op- leaving to the mercy of the white
portunity for its best and highest de- world those who do not and cannot
velopment. He would insist that his believe in their own.
teachers be decently paid; that his Lack of faith in Negro enterprise
332 T H E JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION

leads to singular results: Negroes will edged, and will not need to be for two
fight frenziedly to prevent segregated centuries.
schools; but if segregation is forced Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta are
upon them by dominant white public naturally unable to do the type and
opinion, they will suddenly lose inter- grade of graduate work which is done
est and scarcely raise a finger to see at Columbia, Chicago, and Harvard;
that the resultant Negro schools get but why attribute this to a defect in
a fair share of the public funds so as the Negro race, and not to the fact
to have adequate equipment and that the large white colleges have
housing; to see that real teachers are from one hundred to one thousand
appointed, and that they are paid as times the funds for equipment and
much as white teachers doing the same research that Negro colleges can com-
work. Today, when the rJegro public mand? To this, it may logically be
school system gets from half to one- answered, all the more reason that
tenth of the amount of money spent Negroes should try to get into better-
on white schools, and is often conse- i,qquipped schools, and who pray denies
quently poorly run and poorly taught, this? But the opportunity for such
colored people tacitly if not openly entrance is becoming more and more
join with white people in assuming difficult, and the training offered less
that Negroes cannot run Negro en- and less suited to the American Negro
terprises, and cannot educate them- of today. Conceive a Negro teaching
selves, and that the very establish- in a Southern school the econhics
ment of a Negro school means starting which he learned at the Harvard Busi-
an inferior school. ness School! Conceive a Negro teacher
The N.A.A.C.P. and other Negro of history retailing to his black stu-
organizations have spent thousands dents the sort of history that is taught
of dollars to prevent the establish- at the University of Chicago! Imagine
ment of segregated Negro schools, the history of Reconstruction being
but scarcely a single cent to see that handed by a colored professor from
the division of funds between white the lips of Columbia professors to the
and Negro schools, North and South, ears of the black belt! The results of
is carried out with some faint approxi- this kind of thing are often fantastic,
mation of justice. There can be no and call for Negro history and soci-
doubt that if the Supreme Court were ology, and even physical science
overwhelmed with cases where the taught by men who understand their
blatant and impudent discrimination audience, and are not afraid of the
against Negro education is openly truth.
acknowledged, it would be compelled There was a time when the ability
to hand down decisions which would of Negro brains to do first-class work
make this discrimination impossibl& had to be proven by facts and figures,
We Negroes do not dare to press this and I was a part of the movement
point and force these decisions be- that sought to set the accomplish-
cause, forsooth, it would acknowledge ments of Negro ability before the
the fact of separate schools, a fact world. But the world before which I
that does not need to be acknowl- was setting this proof was a disbe-
DOES T H E NEGRO NEED SEPARATE SCHOOLS? 333

lieving white world. I did not need perpetuate their use as low-paid la-
the proof for myself. I did not dream borers by limiting their knowledge;
that my fellow Negroes needed it; or in the case of African natives,
but in the last few years, I have be- efforts to deprive them of modern
come curiously convinced that until languages and modern science in order
American Negroes believe in their own to seal their subordination to out-
power and ability, they are going to worn mores, reactionary native rulers,
be helpless before the white world, industrialization.
and the white world, realizing this in- What I have in mind is nothing like
ner paralysis and lack of self-confi- this. It is rather an honest develop-
dence, is going to persist in its insane ment of the premises from which this
determination to rule the universe for plea for special education starts. I t is
its own selfish advantage. illustrated by these facts: Negroes
Does the Negro need separate must know the history of the Negro
schools? God knows he does. But race in America, and this they will
what he needs more than separate seldom get in white institutions. Their
schools is a firm and unshakable belief children ought to study textbooks like
that twelve million American Negroes Brawley's "Short History," the first
have the inborn capacity to accom- edition of Woodson's '(Negro in Our
plish just as much as any nation of History," and Cromwell, Turner and
twelve million anywhere in the world Dykes' "Readings from Negro Au-
ever accomplished, and that this is thors." Negroes who celebrate the
not because they are Negroes but be- birthdays of Washington and Lincoln,
cause they are human. and the worthy, but colorless and
So far, I have noted chiefly negative relatively unimportant ((founders" of
arguments for separate Negro institu- various Negro colleges, ought not to
tions of learning based on the fact forget the 5th of March,-that first
that in the majority of cases Negroes national holiday of this country,which
are not welcomed in public schools commemorates the martyrdom of
and universities nor treated as fellow Crispus Attucks. They ought to cele-
human beings. But beyond this, there brate Negro Health Week and Negro
are certain positive reasons due to the History Week. They ought to study
fact that American Negroes have, be- intelligently and from their own point
cause of their history, group experi- of view, the slave trade, slavery,
ences and memories, a distinct entity, emancipation, Reconstruction, and
whose spirit and reactions demand a present economic development.
certain type of education for its de- Beyond this, Negro colleges ought
velopment. to be studying anthropology, psychol-
In the past, this fact has been noted ogy, and the social sciences, from the
and misused for selfish purposes. On point of view of the colored races. To-
the ground that Negroes needed a day, the anthropology that is being
type of education "suited" to them, taught, and the expeditions financed
we have an attempt to train them as for archeological and ethnographical
menials and dependents; or in the explorations, are for the most part
case of West Indians, an attempt to straining every nerve to erase the
834 TBE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION
history of black folk from the record. destined to become the redemption of
One has only to remember that the mankind.
majority of anthropologists have peo- Much has been said of the special
pled the continent of Africa itself with esthetic ability of the Negro race.
almost no Negroes, while men like Naturally, it has been exaggerated.
Sayce and Reisner have even declared Naturally, it is not a racial character-
that the Ethiopians have no Negro istic in the sense of hereditary, inborn,
blood! All this has been done by the and heritable difference; but there is
legerdemain and metaphysics of no- no doubt but what the tremendous
menclature, and in the face of the psychic history of the American and
great and important history of black West Indian groups has made it possi-
blood in the world. ble for the present generation to ac-
Recently, something h$s been done cumulate a wealth of material which,
by colored scholars to correct the ex- with encouragement and training,
traordinary propaganda of post-war could find expression in the drama, in
psychology which sent men like Brig- color and form, and in music. And
ham and McDougall rushing into no where could this training better
scientific proof of Negro congenital be pursued than in separate Negro
inferiority. But much more is neces- schools under competent and intelli-
sary and demanded of Negro scholar- gent teachers? What little has already
ship. In history and the social sciences been done in this line is scarcely a
the Negro school and college has an beginning of what is possible, pro-
unusual opportunity and rdle. I t does vided the object is not simpleenter-
not consist simply in trying to parallel tainment or bizarre efforts at money
the history of white folk with similar raising.
boasting about black and brown folk, In biology, the pioneering work of
but rather an honest evaluation of Carolyn Bond Day could be extended
human effort and accomplishment, indefinitely in Negro laboratories; and
without color blindness, and without in the purely physical and chemical
transforming history into a record of sciences, the need of Negroes familiar
dynasties and prodigies. with the intricate technical basis of
Here, we have in America, a work- modern civilization would not only
ing class which in our day has achieved help them to find their place in the
physical freedom, and mental clarity. industrial scene for their own organ-
An economic battle has just begun. I t ization, but also enable them to help
can be studied and guided; it can Abyssinia, India, China, and the col-
ored world, to maintain their racial
teach consumers' cooperation, de-
integrity, and their economic inde-
mocracy, and socialism, and be made
pendence. It could easily be the mis-
not simply a record and pattern for sion and duty of American Negroes to
the Negro race, but a guide for the rise master this scientific basis of modern
of the working classes throughout the invention, and give it to all mankind.
world, just at the critical time when Thus, instead of our schools being
these classes are about to assume their simply separate schools, forced on us
just political domination which is by grim necessity, they can become
DOES T H E NEGRO NEED SEPARATE SCHOOLS? 335

centers of a new and beautiful effort It is simply calling a spade a spade.


a t human education, which may easily It is saying in plain English: that a
lead and guide the world in many im- separate Negro school, where children
portant and valuable aspects. It is for are treated like human beings, trained
this reason that when our schools are by teachers of their own race, who
separate, the control of the teaching know what it means to be black in
force, the expenditure of money, the the year of salvation 1935, is infinitely
choice of textbooks, the discipline and better than making our boys and girls
other administrative matters of this doormats to be spit and trampled
sort ought, also, to come into our upon and lied t o by ignorant social
hands, and be incessantly demanded climbers, whose sole claim to supe-
and guarded. riorityis ability to kick"niggers" when
I remember once, in Tekas, reading they are down. I say, too, that certain
in a high-school textbook for colored studies and discipline necessary to
students, the one anecdote given con- Negroes can seldom be found in white
cerning Abraham Lincoln: he was schools.
pictured as chasing Negro thieves all It means this, and nothing more.
night through the woods from his To sum up this: theoretically,
Mississippi flatboat ! Children could the Negro needs neither segregated
read that history in vain to learn any schools nor mixed schools. What he
word of what had been accomplished needs is Education. What he must
in American history by Benjamin remember is that there is no magic,
Banneker, Jan Matseliger, Elijah Mc- either in mixed schools or in segre-
Coy, Frederick Douglass, or James gated schools. A mixed school with
Dunn. I n fact, one of the peculiar poor and unsympathetic teachers,
tragedies of the smaller Southern col- with hostile public opinion, and no
leges is that they hire as teachers of teaching of truth concerning black
history, economics and sociology, col- folk, is bad. A segregated school
ored men trained in Northern institu- with ignorant placeholders, inade-
tions where not a word of any infor- quate equipment, poor salaries, and
mation concerning these disciplines, wretched housing, is equally bad.
so far as Negroes are concerned, has Other things being equal, the mixed
ever been imparted t o them. I speak
school is the broader, more natural
from experience, because I came to
basis for the education of all youth.
Atlanta University to teach history in
1897, without the slightest idea from It gives wider contacts; it inspires
my Harvard tuition, that Negroes greater self-confidence; and suppresses
ever had any history! the inferiority complex. But other
I know that this article will forth- things seldom are equal, and in that
with be interpreted by certain illiter- case, Sympathy, Knowledge, and the
ate "nitwits" as a plea for segregated Truth, outweigh all that the mixed
Negro schools and colleges. It is not. school can offer.

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