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W.E.B. Du Bois: The Life of a Leader
Article
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NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Achieve3000, January 5, 2011). The
years following the Civil War were a time of monumental change for
African Americans. The institution of slavery had been abolished. The
14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to all former slaves, had
been passed. But these measures could not halt the problem of
widespread racism. Many white Americans were reluctant to recognize
African-American citizens as equals. Many people in the AfricanAmerican community began to organize and fight for equality. At the
forefront of that fledgling civil rights movement was W.E.B. Du Bois.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At a young age, Du Bois proved to be
an exceptional scholar. He became the first African American to
graduate from his high school, and he graduated at the very top of his
class.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
W.E.B. Du Bois was a pioneer in the
After high school, Du Bois attended Fisk University in Nashville,
20th-century civil rights movement.
Tennessee. Moving to the South had a profound effect on Du Bois. The
population of Great Barrington had been almost completely white, but the few African-American families in town were
treated relatively well. In Nashville, a city with a large black population, Du Bois witnessed racism firsthand. His
experiences shaped his beliefs and ideas on race relations that would last for the rest of his life.
In 1888, Du Bois left Fisk to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1895, he became the first African
American to earn a PhD from the respected university. In 1897, Du Bois returned to the South. He accepted a job as a
professor at Atlanta University. There, Du Bois led in-depth studies of race relations in America. Du Bois believed that
racism was in part rooted in ignorance of African-American contributions to culture and history. It was not widely known,
for example, that some of America's greatest achievements in science, exploration, and other fields were due in part to the
work of African Americans. Shedding light on these achievements, the young scholar believed, could help improve race
problems in the country.
But Du Bois faced an uphill battle. By the late 1800s, lawmakers had begun passing segregation laws. Even worse, racism
in America had taken a violent turn. Lynching—the act of white mobs murdering African Americans who had been falsely
accused of crimes—became common in the South. Du Bois realized that he would need to adopt a more forceful strategy
in his quest for equal rights. He concluded that the only way to advance African-American rights would be to encourage
public protests that would capture the attention of lawmakers.
Du Bois' beliefs were different from those of many other prominent civil rights activists of the time. Booker T.
Washington, for instance, believed that to achieve equality, African Americans would have to accept discrimination and
segregation laws for the time being. Instead of protesting, Washington believed that African Americans should focus on
working hard to learn skills and obtain higher-paying jobs. This would allow African Americans to purchase property and
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Achieve3000: Lesson
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W.E.B. Du Bois: The Life of a Leader
businesses, which would eventually elevate their position in American society.
Du Bois took issue with Washington's beliefs. In 1903, he published The Souls of Black Folk, a book that challenged
Washington and his ideas. Du Bois argued that Washington's approach would never achieve equal rights but would instead
continue the cycle of discrimination and oppression in the country. Some members of the African-American community
found Du Bois to be too extreme.
However, many activists supported Du Bois' work. In 1905, he founded the Niagara Movement. The group was made up
of African-American scholars and professionals who condemned Washington's beliefs about equal rights. The members of
the Niagara Movement protested segregation laws. They attempted to bring more attention to the issues of civil rights and
racial justice before officially disbanding in 1910.
While the Niagara Movement was coming to an end, Du Bois began work on a new organization to take its place. In 1909,
he helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was founded on
the belief that nonviolent protests and legal actions were the best ways to ensure equal rights for all Americans. For
decades, the organization won legal cases that protect the rights of African Americans and minorities. The group also
played a prominent role in overturning unjust laws.
Du Bois continued his work as a scholar and a writer while working with the NAACP. In 1924, Du Bois published a
history book called The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America. Maintaining his earlier belief that
ignorance was the root of racism, Du Bois pointed out that blacks were vital to a number of milestone events in American
history. Examples included the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The groundbreaking
book challenged pervasive stereotypes of black Americans by highlighting their rarely recognized achievements at
important points in history.
Du Bois left the NAACP in 1934, but he remained active in the civil rights movement in the following decades. He
continued to publish books about race relations and the role of African Americans in the country's history. In 1961,
unhappy with the state of civil rights in the country, Du Bois left the U.S. and moved to Ghana. He died there in 1963 at
the age of 95.
Today, historians cite Du Bois as one of the most important African-American leaders of the 20th century. Through the
work of the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, his legacy continues to endure.
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Dig Deeper
As you read in "W.E.B. Du Bois: The Life of a Leader," Du Bois' views on how African Americans could achieve equality
differed from those of another prominent civil rights leader, Booker T. Washington.
In 1895, Washington gave a famous speech. In it, he explained his beliefs about how African Americans should proceed in
the era of legalized discrimination. "Cast down your bucket where you are!" Washington said. In other words, African
Americans should make the best of their situation in the South and work hard to achieve prosperity. "Whatever other sins
the South may be called to bear," Washington said, "when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the
Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world."
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W.E.B. Du Bois: The Life of a Leader
Washington argued that black Southerners should temporarily overlook segregation for the sake of economic progress. "In
all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers," he said, "yet one as the hand in all things essential to
mutual progress." Eventually, Washington believed, white Americans would recognize the worth of African Americans
and grant them equality.
W.E.B. Du Bois disagreed with Washington's approach. He believed it would only lead to continued oppression of African
Americans. Du Bois argued that political action was necessary for change. To this end, he helped found the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization that still exists today. Du Bois
also argued that education was vital. (Washington had downplayed the value of education in the fight for equality. He said,
"No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.") Du Bois believed
that a core group of highly educated African Americans could "guide the Mass [of African Americans]."
Dictionary
disband (verb)
legacy (noun)
to break up a group or team
something handed down to a new generation
pervasive (adjective)
segregation (noun)
stereotype (noun)
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spreading or existing everywhere or in every part of something
the act of separating people by race, especially as an act of discrimination
an oversimplified image held by one person or group of another
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