by Jacob Puhr
“Keep a-pluggin’ away.
Perseverance still is king;
Time its sure reward will bring;
Work and wait unwearying,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.”
The poem above is titled Keep A-Pluggin’ Away and was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar. During the time of the poem’s publication, schools were segregated by race, leaving many predominantly black schools underfunded. Among these schools was Dunbar High School, named after the poet previously mentioned. Stanzas from Keep A-Pluggin’ Away were written on the walls of a poor, overcrowded school that at many points held over 40 students in just one classroom and lacked a lunchroom large enough to encompass the nearly 1,400 students. The neighborhood Dunbar was centered in could be categorized as a ghetto; the city itself, Washington D.C., was segregated which resulted in a school system controlled by whites who starved Dunbar for funds it was in dire need of. Every factor was against Dunbar prevailing, yet against every odd imaginable, Dunbar became a success story…until it wasn’t.
For a roughly 85 year period from 1870-1955, Dunbar was in its academic prime. Going back to 1899, students from Dunbar scored first in citywide tests that were given to white schools as well. During this period, Dunbar sent most of its graduates to college. By today’s standards, this isn’t an accomplishment on its own, however, at a time where very few students went on to college whether white or black, it was an impressive feat. A majority of its graduates went on to smaller, oftentimes inexpensive colleges. This wasn’t always the case as pointed out by Mary Hundley in The Dunbar Story. She wrote how an examination of Dunbar graduates from 1918 to 1923 revealed 25 degrees were earned from Ivy League colleges. Graduates from Dunbar would go on to become Phi Beta Kappas at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Cornell to name a few.
Many Dunbar graduates would become the first firsts. Among Dunbar’s graduates were the first black Cabinet member, the first black federal judge, the first black senator elected since Reconstruction and the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. from an American university. Speaking of Ph.Ds, Horace Bond, when examining blacks with Ph.Ds, determined that Dunbar produced the highest number of Ph.D. earners among black schools.
How did Dunbar achieve this seemingly impossible success? Common arguments include Dunbar’s selectivity and the class of the students’ parents. The former suggests that Dunbar was very cautious in who was admitted; they achieved their success by keeping out less intelligent students. The ladder states due to the high class of the parents, the kids would be a step ahead of those from lower income backgrounds. Both arguments are fallacious. Dunbar may technically have been selective, but not in the way that is usually assumed. Economist Thomas Sowell noted that there were no tests to get into the school. In an essay on Dunbar, he pointed out that ⅓ of Washington D.C.’s black children attended Dunbar. These factors hardly make the school sound selective in the sense that’s usually meant. Sowell also debunks the second claim as well. In the same essay, he referenced a study of class records spanning from 1938-55. Of those students, most had parents whose occupation was listed as “unskilled and semi-skilled”. He compared the median job index of the parents to that of a white-collar worker. Perhaps some students came from wealthier backgrounds with parents engaged in a skilled profession, but this was a definitively slim minority.
Instead, Dunbar created a rigorous curriculum and held its students to high standards. These factors combined with a dedicated and highly educated staff made Dunbar into the success it was. What’s notable about Dunbar’s staff and principals was how overqualified they were. Many of them deserved to be college professors but due to segregation and blatant racism, they could never dream of pursuing a higher teaching position. Consequently, they streamed into Dunbar. Of Dunbar’s first eight principals, two of them graduated from Harvard. Remarkably, as cited from a thesis on Dunbar, “In the early 1900’s the school had thirty teachers, twenty with degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oberlin, Amherst, Dartmouth, and Bowdoin; and five with degrees from Howard University, regarded as the premier college for blacks.” The short explanation for why Dunbar was successful was due to its academically brilliant staff. Some of the most educated blacks in the country taught the students at Dunbar.
Furthermore, the staff implemented certain characteristics in their students. As the poem by Dunbar explained, despite any adversity, you must carry on and keep “a-pluggin away.” That’s exactly the message which was bestowed upon the students. Principals such as Mary Jane Patterson critically impacted the school’s traditions which made it the success it was. Patterson was the first black woman in the U.S. to earn a college degree; what’s even more astounding is the fact she insisted on taking what were then male-only courses. Among these were Latin, Greek and mathematics. Characterized as an “indefatigable worker” she undoubtedly set students on the course to succeed despite their circumstances. Her students, despite facing an uphill battle where they were segregated due to their skin color, were not treated as disadvantaged, but just as capable of success as anyone else; they were never taught to see themselves as victims.
The courses students took largely reflect the indisputably high standards they were held to. An argument could be made that many colleges lacked the rigor found in Dunbar’s courses. Historian Rayford Logan deemed Dunbar one of the best schools in the nation irrespective of race. He went on to explain how Dunbar’s course included: grammar, two years of Greek, four years of Latin, the works of Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens; mathematical courses such as geometry, trigonometry and higher levels of algebra.
William Syphax was largely responsible for founding the first high school for blacks in the U.S. As Sowell wrote, “Syphax was equally frank in telling the black community that it would have to send its children to school with respect for teachers and a willingness to submit to discipline and hard work, if their education was to amount to anything.” Surely, this idea has been reflected throughout Dunbar’s history. Students were committed to learning at this school which was exemplified by their attendance records in 1902 and 1952 being higher than white schools in D.C. As written in his essay titled Black Education, Sowell perhaps puts it best saying, “Throughout the 85 years of its academic success…Its whole focus was on expanding the students’ cultural horizons, not turning their minds inward. Still less was its focus on giving students a sense of victimhood or of doors closed, though in fact many doors were closed to them throughout the history of Dunbar’s academic success. On the other hand, many Dunbar alumni were the first to open some of those doors.” Dunbar’s poem is again present in this analysis. Even if the powers that be are against you, there’s no excuse to let those forces triumph. You must, “keep a-pluggin away” if you’re to amount to anything. Instead of succumbing to the idea that due to their disadvantages the students couldn’t achieve great things, the teachers maintained high standards, no matter what. Certain colleges today commonly lower admission and graduation standards for minority students in order to help them succeed, yet this was never the case at Dunbar. The staff of Dunbar faced adversity themselves yet attained high degrees, some of which included doctorates. The students themselves, despite being discriminated against in daily life, pursued an education which rivaled that of many colleges. Many of those students would go on to become artists, lawyers, senators, doctors, innovators etc. These achievements were made possible by the standards set by the “no excuse” mentality evident in the school’s staff and founders.
All good things must come to an end. Ironically, Dunbar’s success ended due to one of the most pivotal steps in ending the segregation experienced by its attendees. The step in question was the landmark Brown v Board (1954). It’s not in dispute that Brown was a victory for the many black children who were pitted against the evil that was discrimination. However, in order to understand why Dunbar’s unprecedented success came to a halt, the unforeseen consequences of Brown must be examined.
After the decision was handed down, schools had to find ways to comply with integration. It was by no means an easy task and was made even harder by schools resisting integrating long after Brown was engraved into American law. In D.C., schools were reorganized; selective schools, like Dunbar, became neighborhood schools. The issue with this was that those who lived by Dunbar rarely attended it. The neighborhood was described by Sowell to be one of D.C.’s “poorest multi-problem areas of the Washington ghetto.” Previously, the children who attended Dunbar were eager to learn and well behaved; they yearned to learn. However, the new children who came to the school did not share the same eagerness for knowledge. This trend was made evident in the declining enrollment in advanced math courses which could no longer be run. Teachers found themselves struggling to maintain order rather than teaching; teaching became so much of a burden that many retired at age 55, the minimum retirement age. Shockingly, when Dunbar was still the success it was, many teachers would work well past the standard retirement age since instructing was so fulfilling. Now, as student attendance fell, fights broke out and the learning atmosphere dwindled, these previously dedicated teachers were jumping from the ship. By 1993, it was common for observations of the school to state students were, “held to low standards by teachers unwilling or unable to demand more.” Dunbar had experienced a complete 180. It was known for its thriving atmosphere of learning, students ambitious and eager to fill their minds with knowledge, high standards, and a phenomenal staff that truly changed the lives of their students. Now, it’s all been extinguished.
The fate of Dunbar doesn’t spell doom for others like it. Sowell pointed out in his essay that other schools with similar circumstances to Dunbar were capable of achieving success as well. Among those schools was Frederick Douglass School in Cincinnati. Frederick could be described as an, “ancient building stood in the midst of a run-down slum, with no fence around it, no bars on the windows, no graffiti, quiet halls, and an atmosphere of human relations among the staff that would have been a credit to a middle class private school.” The school’s principal, Tom Murray, visited the homes of hundreds of students. His plan was to get the whole community involved in the children’s education. Through his efforts, the parents of these children would advocate for stricter discipline which resulted in better learning environments. It was a stellar example of a community coming together to further the development of its youth.
Community coming together seems to be a common theme in successful schools. A school in the Bronx was opened under the KIPP title. KIPP stood for the Knowledge is Power Program. This school, like Dunbar, consisted of largely low income minority students. This school had a tremendous emphasis on work and pushed its students rigorously. Like Tom Murray did, the KIPP academy encouraged parental involvement in their children’s education. The teachers would contact parents and explain to them what they were doing and why. They’d explain what was needed not just from the child but from the parent. Once more, by involving the community in education, particularly the parents, the school became a success. This combined with challenging its students increased their academic standing among others of similar circumstances.
Dunbar was renowned for pushing its students to reach heights they never dreamed of reaching in their academic careers. Other schools with similar practices to Dunbar found success of their own. Portland Elementary School faced a multitude of problems including students scoring two grade levels below their own on tests. Eventually, Ernest Smith became principal and brought back “Directed Instruction” which is a fancy way of saying “old fashioned education.” He also instilled many tests on the students, usually one every seven days. These methods paid off and at the time of Sowell’s essay Black Education every student scored at least grade level on tests. Cascade Elementary School consisted of 99% black students. All but about 20% of the students were from low-income backgrounds. Even though students faced financial difficulties at home, they excelled at school. Despite their troubles, the students scored in the 83rd percentile for math and 74th percentile for reading. Principal Alfonso L. Jesse is old-fashioned just as Smith was; in particular, he refused to tolerate misbehavior. Needless to say, when he threatened to transport misbehaving children to their parents’ workplace, behavior issues dropped. A common trend noted in these two schools was the no nonsense and no excuses attitude held by the staff. Misbehavior wasn’t tolerated and was punished accordingly. Despite children being poor and failing at schools, they were pushed to frequently test and commit themselves to their work.
Perhaps one last reason for success was the curriculum given to the children. Despite coming from low income families and struggling to learn, the teachers at the following schools raised standards for their students. Adversity was not a sufficient excuse for failure. Instead, they were pushed, pushed beyond the scope of their dreams. Marva Collins Preparatory developed a no nonsense curriculum consisting of phonics, memorization, literary analysis and reasoning. As Portland did, the school frequently tested its students every single week. Earhart Elementary School, located in Chicago, was almost 100% black and a majority of students qualified for some sort of lunch program with reduced costs. Despite having kids from such poor backgrounds, the school managed to bring their test scores into the 70th percentile for reading and the 80th for math. Just as Marva Collins did, the school focused on a difficult curriculum of phonics, memorization and encouraged its students to spend an immense amount of time reading.
How can these school’s success be explained? They all consisted of low income students usually centered in unsafe, poor neighborhoods. A fair number of those schools experienced segregation in its past as Dunbar did, yet rose to unimaginable heights. Perhaps by involving parents in the schools, an entire community was united to strengthen the minds of its youth. Or maybe a no nonsense attitude shared by several principals resulted in schools void of severe disciplinary issues and disruptions; a welcoming, flourishing learning environment could be experienced instead. Conceivably, the immensely challenging curriculum may have been the determining factor in these school’s success, paired with high standards that were expected to be achieved no matter the circumstance. Dunbar may have collapsed but other schools have risen in its place. Whether it was Dunbar’s 85 year success story, or any of the other schools listed, at least one variable remained constant: perseverance, and as Laurence Dunbar said, “Perseverance still is king.”