ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how Du Bois's thesis and arguments on education influenced author's thinking about three areas in education where his scholarship over the years has focused: school segregation, curriculum/instructional materials, and education in urban spaces. Racial segregation as a legal denial of equality based on skin color was firmly in place in the United States until the 1960s. Du Bois saw the classroom and the curriculum materials, therein, as a path to learning and enlightenment and individual and collective liberty of Blacks. Before Du Bois started publishing The Brownies' Books, each year, The Crisis would feature an issue called "Children's Number", dedicated to Black children. Equality and respect for Black and Brown humanity continues to represent the limits of American democracy, and in an urban space such as Chicago, where democracy is comprised and controlled by a White governing authority, the color line represents democracy failure.
