“We had segregation for 100 years. Why don’t we have affirmative action for the next 100 years?” said Professor John H. Bracey Jr. yesterday afternoon.

In his discussion, titled “Du Bois ‘ Bond: Black Education in the Age of Jim Crow,” Bracey explained W.E.B. Du Bois’ and Horace Mann Bond’s feelings toward education for blacks during their time as civil rights leaders, as well as the current state of education in the United States.

Bracey said that the United States is in the same place today as it was 50 years ago when dealing with inequality in schooling between races.

“Segregation in education is tied to residential segregation as much now as it was in 1954. The notion that people aren’t debating about what it means to have separate schools is false,” he said.

Using the Washington D.C. public school system as an example, Bracey said that currently, there is no chance for integration in schools, simply because the majority of children attending the schools are either black or Latino. There are no Caucasian residents living in the area to integrate themselves in the schools. During 1954 attempts at integration made in the Washington D.C. public schools failed as they do today.

“As fast as we were coming in they were running out,” said Bracey.

Bracey said that Du Bois and Bond would feel that in order to fix the wrongs in today’s education system, the problems with economic and social maldistribution must be changed first. This would in turn change schools.

The type of education one receives has “nothing to do with anything except where you’re born,” said Bracey.

He gave examples of school systems in the area and how they were different from one another in educational resources and funding.

He chastised the United States for their inconsistency in curriculums throughout public schools in comparison to Europe. Bracey feels that schools in European nations have much more uniform curriculums.

When an audience member asked whether Bracey supported integrated schools or segregated schools, Bracey said that he does not strongly support either because they are both different choices that cannot be compared. He said that it’s most important for students “to be somewhere where the teachers understand your needs.”

He explained that moving to a new location for better schooling is a viable solution for an individual, but it does not solve the problem in the population as a whole.

Bracey’s speech commemorated the 165th birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois and the 50th anniversary of the famous United States Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court made the decision to end racial segregation in public schools.

Du Bois’ birthday was Feb. 22. The speech was held at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on the UMass campus yesterday.

Professor Bracey has been a member of the UMass Department of Afro-American Studies since 1972. He is the author of numerous books on the African American experience, with focus on African American social history. He also was editor of the microfilm version of the Horace Mann Bond papers. Currently, he is working on two separate as-yet-untitled monographs. The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries and the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies sponsored the talk.