From 1913 to 1938, Gorée was home to the , a government teachers' college run by the French Colonial Government. Many of the school's graduates would one day lead the struggle for independence from France. In 1925 African-American historian, sociologist, and Pan-Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois wrote of the school "On the picturesque island of Goree whose ancient ramparts face modern and commercial Dakar I saw two or three hundred fine black boys of high school rank gathered in from all Senegal by competitive tests and taught thoroughly by excellent French teachers in accordance with a curriculum which, as far as it went, was equal to that of any European school," while faulting Colonial France for how limited its public education infrastructure was in the country overall and expressing pessimism about further investment.