Follow the Leader: Du Bois on the Purposes of School and Supporting Black Futures

• In Event: W. E. B. Du Bois in Our Times: Toward Racial Justice in Education in the 21st Century

Abstract

Inspired by Du Bois’s essay, “The Hampton Idea” and informed by crucial questions he posed in “The Talented Tenth,” my portion of the panel will explore the ways our endeavors as educators should center the dispossessed and disenfranchised in this nation, the marginalized, the Black, the Brown, those of us who are most school dependent. More than 120 years ago, Du Bois challenged us to consider schooling as an engagement of whole people toward a greater, fuller, broader humanity. Instead, in 2023, our P-20 education systems are beleaguered with credential chasing, grade grubbing, rote memorization, libraries as holding cells, and strict testing schedules which fund corporations but do nothing to improve the academic performance of students or the humanity within our communities. My presentation will explore how educators can use Du Bois’s work and wisdom to inform our cultivating the genius and innate leadership of Black students. We will explore questions such as the following: How are we shaping students’ experiences so we are cultivating in them their ability to live and thrive without us for Black futures we cannot see? How might our students be enabled but disempowered by the ways schooling operates? How are we teaching our students to examine their thoughts, their concerns, and their motivations toward building future knowledges and possibilities?

Author

• Camika Royal, Morgan State University