This essay centers the defense of black educational possibility in the work of historian, pioneering sociologist, and scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) as a conduit igniting what critical social theorists Stefano Harney and Fred Moten (2013) call Fugitive Black Study. The critical appreciation of Du Bois forces us to consider the weight of education and the ethics of democratic practice. Democratic practice is employed here in an effort to underscore the notion that we are not moving toward a more perfect union, and to make the point that the work of Du Bois explodes the very meaning of democracy as constituted by global racial capitalism. The racist, settler-colonial foundation of the United States requires a rethinking of the very concept of democracy. After all, Du Bois argued that democracy had never been truly practiced in the United States. His realization that democratic practice depended on a fierce commitment to critical education has proved prophetic.