W. E. B. Du Bois and the Ecosystem for Black Education: Closing Ranks and Reclaiming Communally Bonded Schooling

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

Abstract

Grounded within the sociohistorical context of Black school communities and the authors' empirically-based studies of contemporary Black school communities over several metropolitan areas and decades (Morris, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2021, 2023), this presentation situates W.E.B. Du Bois as a leading advocate for creating an ecosystem that supports the education of Black children--one that resonates with the author's Communally-Bonded Schooling Model (CBSM). CBSM tenets include:
1. Intergenerational trust and cultural bonding between educators and Black students;
2. Critical presence of Black educators;
3. Educators reach out to students and families;
4. Leaders bridge educational institutions and communities;
5. Schools serve as pillars in Black communities.

Earlier in his life, Du Bois embraced racial integration as a significant step toward social justice.
By the 1930s, however, he was not as hopeful of the possibilities of creating an integrated society because of white people's reluctance to build interracial alliances with Black people and his pragmatic view that racism was deeply ingrained in American society (Alridge, 1999a; 1999b, 2008). Du Bois later felt that Black people should develop communal arrangements—politically, socially, economically, and educationally—to protect themselves against the deleterious effects of racism and to affirm their sense of ethnic identity (Du Bois, 1935, 1960). Such arrangements would be similar to how immigrant groups often formed ethnic enclaves in the United States. Du Bois said this "voluntary segregation" was necessary in a society where racism was permanent, discrimination persisted, and Black culture was dismissed (see Bell, 1992).
Given entrenched racial inequality, persistent efforts to curtail Black opportunities educationally, and the resulting loss of hope and "soul" among segments within the Black community, the presentation engages this notion of communal relationships that Du Bois theorized when Black people "close ranks" and cultivate communally bonded educational institutions as a means of economic, educational, and political survival and success.

Author

• Jerome E. Morris, University of Missouri - St. Louis