W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts among a population of about 50 blacks among some 5,000 people. Though not as racist as other areas of America at the time, bigotry was still rampant in Great Barrington. This no doubt shaped the personality and thinking of the young DuBois as it was said he was often "sullen" and "withdrawn."
As early as high school DuBois showed a strong concern for the development of his race. At age fifteen he became the local correspondent for the New York Globenewspaper. He used this position as a vehicle with which to push his race forward. Through lectures and editorials, he spoke strongly upon the need of Black people to politicize themselves.
From 1885-1888 DuBois attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. This was DuBois' first trip south. And in those three year he witnessed racism as he had never before. These experiences made him more determined than ever to seek empowerment and true freedom for Black people. After graduation from Fisk DuBois entered Harvard, his first college choice. At first focusing on philosophy and history, he later turned his studies towards economics and social problems. Though able to become the first Black person to graduate from the prestigious university, racism left him in an alienated environment. Later in life he remarked "I was in Harvard but not of it." He received his bachelor's degree in 1890 and immediately began working toward his master's and doctor's degree.
DuBois completed his master's degree in the spring of 1891. However, shortly before that, ex-president Rutherford B. Hayes, the current head of a fund to educate Negroes, was quoted in the Boston Herald as claiming that they could not find one worthy to enough for advanced study abroad. Angered by an obvious insult to his race, DuBois applied directly to Hayes for funds to study abroad. His credentials and references were so impeccable he not only received a grant, but a leter from Hayes in which he claimed to have been misquoted.
DuBois chose to study at the University of Berlin in Germany, at the time one of the world's finest institutions of higher learning. While in Berlin DuBois began to see the race problems
in the Americas, Africa, and Asia and Europe's role in these affairs as one. This was the period of his life that united his studies of history, economics, and politics into a scientific approach of social research. DuBois' time at Berlin was cut short however after the white philanthropists funding him decided that the University of Berlin was not giving him the "correct" education which would "help Negroes." DuBois objected but was forced to return to Harvard to obtain his degree. His
doctoral thesis, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in America, remains the authoritative work on that subject, and is the first volume in Harvard's Historical Series.
With several years of study under his belt, DuBois worked on several research projects dealing with the state of Black Americans. He also begins to look at Africa and its rich history, forming theories of African past developments and achievements. It is during this time that his ideology begins to grow and he becomes recognized as a popular figure in Black America. But with this new found fame and ideology would come strong controversy and conflicts.
The first of these conflicts would occur with none other than Booker T. Washington, who at that time was undoubtedly the most powerful black man in America. Following his famed "Atlanta Compromise" speech in 1910, an infamous speech to the likes of DuBois, whatever grant, job placement or any endeavor concerning Blacks that influential whites received was sent to Washington for endorsement or rejection. Known as the Tuskeegee machine, Washington's black school, it regulated many aspects of black life. DuBois' conflict with Washington was not over the power he wielded actually, but rather Washington's philosophy. Washington argued the Black people should temporarily forego "political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education of Negro youth. They should concentrate all their energies on industrial education." DuBois firmly believed in the higher education of a "Talented Tenth" of Black intellectuals who could guide Black America to higher form of world wide Black civilization. To DuBois Washington's notions of anti-black intellectualism and political activity seemed to go against everything he believed in. This conflict came to a climax in 1903 when DuBois published his now famous book, The Souls of Black Folks. The chapter entitled "Of Booker T. Washington and Others" contains an analytical discourse on what DuBois believed to be the general philosophy of Washington. DuBois edited the chapter himself to keep the most controversial and bitter remarks out of it. Nevertheless, it still was more than enough to turn the ideological conflict between DuBois and Washington into a personal one.
In the early summer of 1905 Washington went to Boston to address a rally. While speaking he was heckled and verbally assaulted by William Monroe Trotter who happened to be a college friend of DuBois. The subsequent jailing of Trotter on trumped-up charges, apparently by followers of Washington, angered DuBois to no end.
This incident caused him to issue a call for Black individuals who could perhaps counter the Tuskeegee Machine and create what he saw as real "Negro Freedom and growth." This culminated in January of 1906 the famed "Niagara Movement." The group of Black activists and intellectuals were forced to meet on the Canadian side of Niagra after they were barred from meeting on the American side. The movement's objectives were to advocate civil justice and abolish caste discrimination. In 1909 all members of the Niagara Movement except Trotter, who distrusted whites and their objectives, merged with some white liberals to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). Like Trotter, DuBois was not altogether pleased with the new group but agreed to stay on as Director of Publications and Research.
The Crisis magazine of the NAACP was the chief vehicle of the movement. DuBois held the title of Editor-in-Chief of the magazine for 25 years and often wrote about what he felt was important, without dictation from the organization itself.
His editorials, which spared no one, often lead to battles within the ranks of the NAACP itself. DuBois' tensions with the NAACP also arose from the fact that it was governed by whites. DuBois, like Trotter, firmly objected to this as he believed any true freedom black people gained would have to be orchestrated by black people themselves. Nevertheless he remained on as the Editor of the Crisis because he understood its ability to reach masses of black people. A time of rampant lynchings, anti-black white riots and numerous vicious acts of racism towards black people, DuBois' articles left no injustice untouched. His writings became a source of resistance and black identity for blacks throughout the United States. So popular did DuBois become that the Crisis magazine subscription rate grew from 1000 in 1909 to over 10,000 in May of 1919. Such writings played a great part many believe in the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance.
While in France acting as a representative of the NAACP at the Peace Conference following WWI, DuBois became convinced that it was opportune time for a Pan-African conference to bring
attention to the problems of Africans around the world. The First Pan-African Congress was held in 1900 and DuBois had always been interested in the idea. DuBois believed that for Africans to be free anywhere, they must be free everywhere. He therefore decided to hold another Pan-African meeting in 1921. There were many obstacles against him however. Following the first world
war, "a political and social revolution, economic upheaval and depression, national and racial hatred made a setting in which any such movement was entirely out of the Question." It was during this time however that DuBois would encounter none other than a rising figure in Pan-African affairs, Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
The conflict between DuBois and Garvey was probably more personal than between he and Booker T. Washington. Garvey, who ironically enough was influenced by none other than Booker T. Washington, came to lead what was probably the greatest mass movement of African people in the world. Unlike DuBois, Garvey gained tremendous support for his movement. He created the Universal Negro Improvement Association and invested in everything from black doll factories to steam ships. He held gallant pageants and parades in which he made speeches extolling black pride and self empowerment. And though his methods were unique, inspiring and worthy of praise, they were in direct conflict with DuBois' professional and intellectual approach. DuBois
characterized Garvey as "a hard-working idealist, but his methods are bombastic, wasteful, illogical and almost illegal." The two traded insults on more than one occassion about each other. Some became as personal as the very difference in skin color of the two men. The conflict between the two men was amplified by the white press, including liberal whites in the NAACP. It also served to debilitate the progress of the future planned Pan-African Congress. Nevertheless, DuBois held his conference in 1923, and as expected the turnout was small. Garvey himself was imprisoned on trumped up charges of fraud and later exiled from the United States. In the end the losers between the conflict of the two men would be none other than the very people both attempted to serve.
Following the conference DuBois visited Africa for the first tiem and gained a very romantic attachment to the land, culture and people. Upon his return from Africa DuBois began upon a great deal of self reflection. Seeing what looked to be an unending series of racism in the United States, feeling betrayed by white politicians, liberals and others, he began to question whether integration was a feasible or proper goal. The newly emerging ideology of communism, made famous by the Russian revolution, also sparked DuBois' interests. He became more and more disillusioned with the NAACP and in the end he could no longer rationalize his association with the organization. In 1933 he left the NAACP and took up new focuses. He completed several major works dealing with Africa and African-American attempts at freedom and power. He became strongly interested in putting an end to Europe's colonial hold on Africa and established the 5th Pan-African Congress to address this issue. Attendees at this conference included such figures as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and George Padamore. The congress elected DuBois International President and cast him a "Father of Pan-Africanism."
An antagonist and activist even in old age, DuBois became chairman of the Peace Information Center where he demanded the outlawing of
atomic weapons. The Secretary of State denounced DuBois' demands as Soviet propaganda. The U.S. Department of Justice
ordered DuBois and others to register as agents of a "foreign principal." DuBois refused and was immediately indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Sufficient evidence was lacking, therefore DuBois was acquitted. These actions only spurred on the
dissatisfaction DuBois held for the American system. His feelings were heard around the world in 1959. While in Peking he told a large audience�"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a NIGGER." By the time the U.S. press published the account, he was residing in Ghana; an expatriate from the United States. President Nkruma invited DuBois and asked him to direct the government-sponsored Encyclopedia Africana. The offer was accepted by a gracious DuBois and a year later, in the final months of his life, DuBois became a Ghanian citizen and an official member of the Communist party. On August 27,1963, on the eve of the March On Washington, DuBois died in Accra, Ghana. His role in the development of Black social and political ideologies are without dispute. His life was one of continuous change and growth as he, like the black world, tested various methods of dealing with the oppression around them. W.E.B. DuBois was in the truest fashion, a revolutionary. . (Photo and Information courtesy of The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois,Dusk of Dawnby W.E.B. DuBois, The W.E.B. DuBois Institute , and The W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center)
Electronic Version of The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois