White Philanthropy Won’t Save Black Education: Tracing an “Ordinary” Segregated School’s Life in Delaware

Abstract

This essay suggests examining “ordinary,” segregated Black schools from the past helps explain persistent issues in Black education at present. To demonstrate this point, the essay focuses on the shortcomings of philanthropy in education from the 1920s to the present day in Wilmington, Delaware. It asserts for Black education to thrive, a combination of adequate resources and Black control over those resources is necessary. Utilizing School No. 5, a school heretofore undocumented in scholarship, as one specific case, the authors show how this elementary school was initially overlooked by white philanthropy, only to be pervaded with it decades later. Centrally, the authors argue in both instances, whites’ actions, either by oversight or interference, hindered the holistic quality of Black children’s education; these persistent impediments to Black education, however, transpired alongside the valiant efforts and self-determination of Black educators and Wilmington’s Black community.