Education Prof. Derrick Alridge gave a speech yesterday afternoon as part of the Education School's annual Walter N. Ridley Distinguished Lecture Series, which discussed W.E.B. Du Bois and his contribution to education.
Alridge described Du Bois, who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, as "one of the most important African-American scholars of the 20th century."
Alridge spoke of Du Bois' view on race, black cultural immersion and his impact on the Civil Rights movement. Most importantly, however, Alridge said, "Du Bois believed that education was the most important tool in the freedom struggle."
Du Bois at first sought to educate only what he called the "talented tenth," a select group of highly talented African-Americans. Alridge said, however, later in his life Du Bois believed "the purpose of education must not be to educate the most talented, but to educate everyone."
Yesterday's lecture honored its namesake, Walter N. Ridley, the first black man to graduate from the University and to receive a doctorate from a southern, predominantly white university. He said to a dean when he was considering applying to the University he saw "no reason why a native son could not go to the state university," according to the University's Office of African American Affairs website.
Ridley started at the University in 1951, three years before the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Ridley had already earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology.
Fourth-year College student Sarajanee Davis, the president of the Black Student Alliance, said Ridley's legacy endures at the University.
"As the first black student to graduate, Walter Ridley empowered all of the student body to create change and shape the university," Davis said.
Ridley later became the head of Virginia State College's psychology department and served in the American Association of University Professors. He died in 1996.
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