Dealing with Education and Money
He gave her twenty dollars. What had worried him most about the hunger he felt before the salt was that his sister would somehow suffer the same, and he could not abide that. (“The Sunday Following Mother’s Day,” Lost in the City, 124)
African-American Populations and Education in the Late 1900s
Edward P. Jones’ Lost in the City is set in Washington, D.C., mainly around the 1970s and 1980s. Accordingly, we can gain relevant background information from a 1967 article in The Journal of Negro Education states that “mobility, on the economic scale, is greatly affected by the possession of academic credentials” (Cangemi 424) In that era (and even moreso today), school opened up novel career paths for students—and economic success directly correlated with education level. For example, lifetime earnings for those with no education equaled $58,000; four years elementary schooling $72,000; eight years $116,000; high school diploma $165,000; and college graduates $268,000 (Cangemi 425). Indeed, the article emphasizes: “Money is power, and this power is obtainable through school” (Cangemi 425).
The intersection between education and economic success was clear for Americans in general but even more prominent in African American populations—especially in terms of economic disadvantages for Black students. Even though education was crucial for economic development within family units, many young Black students did not even hope to afford higher education; these students represented a “Catch-22,” as they essentially did not have enough money to earn it (“Money” 16). As the line graph below communicates, the income disparity between Black and White students severely impaired Black students’ academic performances, with 26.1% of Black families earning less than $16,000 (below the poverty line) and median Black family income only 60% of the median white family income (“Money” 14).
Present Day Walker-Jones
Walker-Jones Education Campus teaches students in grades PK3-8. A community-based school, the campus facilitates relationships between the school and families’—and community—engagements in their children’s academic pursuits. Composed of primarily African American students, Walker-Jones states that 100% of its current students are listed as “economically disadvantaged.” Walker-Jones is a part of the DC Public School (DCPS) system; the famed Dunbar High School is its destination high school (“Walker-Jones”).
Walker-Jones in Lost in the City
In Lost in the City, Walker-Jones is mentioned twice: once in “The First Day” and once in “The Sunday Following Mother’s Day.” In both instances, Edward P. Jones positions the campus in terms of not only education, but also physical manifestations of financial resources—money.
In “The First Day,” the unnamed child’s mother cannot read or write; as a result, on the child’s registration day, her mother must explicitly ask for help from another parent to fill out school forms. Because the child’s mother has “learned that money is the beginning and end of everything in this world,” she offers fifty cents to the woman for her help (31). By outing herself as illiterate, our mother character places herself in a lower position of power—her female counterpart in this exchange is suddenly much “happier, so much more satisfied with everything” (30). The smug parent realizes her situational influence—in this instant, she is the gatekeeper to the unnamed child’s education. Notice the word “everything” in both quotes. If money is indeed “everything,” being “satisfied with everything” implies that the smug woman is satisfied with her money, a fact highlighted by the paper money curlers placed into her hair. Her appearance is literally augmented by cash. In an ideal society, on the first day of school, each student would be at the same stage of learning—perhaps, even, with equal levels of worldly advantage. However, money, or especially the lack of it, has irrevocably shifted the balance.
Access, money, and Walker-Jones are entwined again in “The Sunday Following Mother’s Day.” In that story, after their father murders their mother, 4-year-old Madeleine and 10-year-old Pookie (Sam) begin living with their aunt, Maddie. However, at age 15, Sam leaves for the navy. Before he leaves, he stops Madeleine while she is on her way to school (Walker-Jones), handing her most of his stolen emergency cash: twenty dollars out of twenty-one. As Pookie walks away, Madeleine is reminded of a “hungry man who went down to the river one day to fish for his supper” (Jones 124). From the introductory quote on top of this page, we know that Pookie was afraid that Madeleine would “somehow suffer the kind of same” kind of “hunger” he had felt earlier that day (Jones 124). Their resulting paths, then, represent two possible ways of ensuring hunger-less futures: Madeleine continues through higher education, while Pookie gains maturity through the navy—and indeed, Pookie is referred to as “Sam” for the rest of the story. Sam’s decision to gift his sister with most of his taken money, then, may signify his giving Madeleine the financial access needed to continue in school. Sam is the “hungry man” that fishes for own supper; with financial resources, Madeleine continues her path towards Walker-Jones, benefited by a brother who will not “abide” her “hunger.”
In its use of Walker-Jones, Lost in the City illustrates the ways in which access to education, and therefore access to careers and other opportunities, is shaped by money and social capital, even before a child is old enough to enter kindergarten. “The First Day” and “The Sunday Following Mother’s Day” both illustrate ways in which a Walker-Jones education, in spite of being nominally free and public, nonetheless raises issues of cost and access for many of its students and their families.
References
Cangemi, Joseph P. “Life-Chances: A Comment on the Dynamics of Education and Money.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 36, no. 4, 1967, pp. 424-427, http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2294263.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A0f2af40e16a959bee01f2842939c3f7b. Accessed 15 March 2018.
The JBHC Foundation, Inc. “Money and Higher Education: Blacks Continue to Have a Steeper Hill to Climb.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 26, 1999-2000, pp. 13-14+16, http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2999124.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:7050edad3be7be6db26b5699c668419f. Accessed 15 March 2018.
Urban Institute. “Rising demand among higher-educated families.” Urban Institute, http://apps.urban.org/features/OurChangingCity/schools/index.html#demand. Accessed 15 March 2018.
“Walker-Jones Education Campus.” District of Columbia Public Schools, http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Walker-Jones+Education+Campus. Accessed 13 March 2018.
