The Rise And Fall Of Black American Education - Case Study: Dunbar High School

 

[VIDEO] Dunbar High School is located in our nation's capital Washington, D.C. and is considered a Black school. In the late 19th century it was one of four high schools in D.C. and the only one for Black students the other three were for white students. You will hear this voiceover use M Street and Dunbar interchangeably during this video.

Dunbar High School had over its history a very excellent reputation and students who attend there were often able to translate that into success when it came to their collegiate careers or their professional careers as you will see in this video.

However, as happens with schools like this - especially public schools - is that sadly they fall victim to urban public education politics. This voiceover was taken from a book by economist Thomas Sowell titled Black Rednecks & White Liberals: Hope, Mercy, Justice and Autonomy in the American Health Care System.

Here's a quote from Sowell that discusses how Dunbar High fell so far in recent years

For Washington, the end of racial segregation led to a political compromise, in which all schools became neighborhood schools. Dunbar, which had been accepting outstanding black students from anywhere in the city, could now accept only students from the rough ghetto neighborhood in which it was located.

Virtually overnight, Dunbar became a typical ghetto school. As unmotivated, unruly and disruptive students flooded in, Dunbar teachers began moving out and many retired. More than 80 years of academic excellence simply vanished into thin air.

Nobody, black or white, mounted any serious opposition. "Integration" was the cry of the moment, and it drowned out everything else. That is what happens in politics.

The fall of Dunbar began with the landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education. Though don't get it twisted you should be able to go to any school you want, especially if changing schools will provide for the best education. Indeed some parents out there are still fighting for that for their own children some fight to get their children into charter schools in some cases they try to get their children into another school district they consider much better. Still the decline of the formerly prestigious Dunbar seems to be a cautionary tale.