Carlos Holmes is the university historian for Delaware State University, as well as its director of news services.
Virtually lost in the annals of Black history are the contributions of Whites in countering the abject racism and discrimination that hinder the progress of African Americans.
At the risk possibly of infuriating those who adamantly believe that only Black men and women should be honored during the annual February focus on the African American icons of courage, accomplishments and the victories over seemingly insurmountable odds, there is at least one White person who is worthy of breaking that celebratory trend.
Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) is known in history as an American entrepreneur, a highly successful businessman and a member of the astronomically rich and prominent du Pont family.
However, it is Pierre du Pont’s contribution to the education of African Americans in the 1920s that merits such an exception to the Black History Month subject norm.
To understand that assertion, one must understand the state of education for the so-called “Negroes” of Delaware in the 65 years that followed the end of slavery.
The First State did not get that nickname from its performance in providing for the public school education of its youth. Delaware had one of the worst education systems in the latter half of the 19th century, as well as the first two decades of the 1900s — for both Blacks and Whites. It was a decentralized system with too many school districts and was stunted by abysmally low state government financial support.
As bad as it was for White youths, Black children really got the shortest end of the stick.
After slavery ended in 1865, Delaware refused to make any provision for the education of Blacks. In the ensuing segregation years, virtually no state dollars were appropriated for the construction of schools for Blacks. Only the 1867 establishment of a private organization, the Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of the Colored People, provided a means — largely through meager but faithful financial support from the then-existing Black churches in the state — for the building of school structures for Blacks.
Thank God for that organization, as it is darkly unclear when the state would have gotten around to the issue of school construction for Delaware Black youths. By 1870, the association had facilitated the erection of 52 Black schoolhouses throughout the state. However, having to stretch dollars to accomplish that resulted in wooden school structures that would reach the state of dilapidation within two to three decades.
The subpar schoolhouse construction, coupled with the virtual absence of quality teachers, yielded generally a subpar education for Black youths in the late 1800s and into the 20th century. When the state took advantage of federal funding from the 1890 Morrill Act to establish the Delaware College for Colored Students (now Delaware State University) in 1891, there were few Black teens who were even close to being adequately prepared for the rigors of college. As such, Wesley Webb, the college’s first president, had to establish a preparatory school on campus to develop future students for the fledging historically Black university.
The state of Delaware reluctantly took control of Black education in the 1890s. But, while this resulted in state dollars to provide meager support for the schools, it did not translate into new school construction for Blacks. Black public education continued to take place in rundown buildings that were increasingly falling apart. (To be fair, the state’s handoff, money-withholding position on new school construction also led to deteriorating school structures for Whites.)
This was the sorry status quo of education in the state of Delaware in the late 1910s, when Pierre du Pont became wholly involved in education reform in the state. By this time, du Pont’s financial management contribution to the company he owned with his cousins, as well as the company’s World War I profits, had made him among the wealthiest people in the state. He also served on the state Board of Education from 1919-21.
Using his own money, Pierre du Pont initially established a $1.5 million trust fund (which would be $22 million in today’s dollars) to build new school structures for Blacks throughout the state. Ultimately, the du Pont contribution totaled almost $2.3 million, covering the construction of 89 African American schools between 1920-25. This included 26 schools in Kent County, such as Star Hill Elementary, Booker T. Washington Middle School in Dover and others. Thirty-three such schools were erected in Sussex County and 23 in New Castle — including a new Howard High School in Wilmington.
Pierre du Pont also donated more than $167,782 for two new buildings and infrastructure improvements at the then-Delaware College for Colored Students. That included the construction of the Delaware State College Colored High School on campus — which gave the state two secondary schools for Delaware Blacks. (the former high school still exists on the DelState campus, now as the Campus Health Center).
Unlike the shorter-life materials used to build Black schools 50 years previous, some du Pont schools were brick edifices, far more durable than the dilapidated schoolhouses they replaced. In short, the du Pont philanthropy provided Black children and teens with vastly improved education environments in which to develop their intellect.
Without du Pont’s contribution, it is hard to say how long it would have taken state government to get off its fiscal butt and start funding school construction for Blacks. What is certain is that the longer the delay might have been, the longer Black folks would have had to endure an education system that never met the then-legal standard of “separate but equal.”
Some may bristle at the thought of giving Whites any Black History Month kudos for positive contributions in the course of African Americans’ more than three centuries of history in Delaware. Nevertheless, this writer unapologetically believes that Pierre S. du Pont deserves far more celebration and honor in Black history than the space afforded to this commentary.
