A reminder on Twitter today from Michael De Sousa, an educator and school leader who has created an education consulting business focused on equitable schooling:
"Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States." –W.E.B. Du Bois
I first heard of Du Bois as a junior in high school (1975/76) through the poem "Booker T. and W.E.B." I remember my teacher explaining enough of the background of who the two men in the poem were so we could make sense of it. It was part of the beginning of my awareness of how people diverge in their perspectives, even though they might seem to be on the same side of an issue.
The last lines in the poem (in Du Bois's voice) still reverberate in my head as I look at them now, close to 50 years later:
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.
We only learned a little bit in that class about what Du Bois did in his life, including his role in the NAACP. But it was a beginning that led me to find out more later and increase my appreciation of him and his work.
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