W.E.B. Du Bois in his office at The Crisis magazine, c. 1920s (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the towering intellectuals of the 20th century and among the most influential African American thinkers ever. A pioneering sociologist, historian, writer and civil rights activist, Du Bois dedicated his prodigious talents to the struggle for racial justice. Over a remarkable 70+ year career, his ideas reshaped how we understand race, class and identity.
From Great Barrington to Harvard
Du Bois was born in 1868 in the small western Massachusetts town of Great Barrington. His mother was part of the small free black community there, which insulated Du Bois from the worst racial oppression of the time. Teachers recognized his precociousness and encouraged his studies. In 1885, he enrolled at the historically black Fisk University in Tennessee. There Du Bois first encountered southern-style Jim Crow racism, an experience that left a searing impression.
After earning his bachelor‘s at Fisk, Du Bois began graduate studies at Harvard in 1888. He completed his master‘s degree and in 1895, became the first African American to earn a PhD there. His doctoral thesis on the suppression of the African slave trade was published as his first book in 1896.
Pioneering Sociological Research
Trained as a sociologist, Du Bois conducted groundbreaking empirical studies of African American urban communities. His first major work was 1899‘s The Philadelphia Negro, a detailed sociological analysis of the city‘s black population. Based on pioneering survey research and ethnographic observation, Du Bois‘ data and conclusions shattered racist stereotypes. As the historian Francis Broderick noted, "The Philadelphia Negro revolutionized the approach to gathering data about the community."
Du Bois continued his studies of black life with 1904‘s The Negroes of Dougherty County, Georgia and dozens of articles in scholarly journals. In 1903, he published his most famous work, The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essays blending sociological analysis, history, fiction and autobiography. An instant classic, it introduced key concepts like "double consciousness":
"It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one‘s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one‘s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity."
Opposition to the "Atlanta Compromise"
Du Bois‘ intellectual gifts made him a rising star and leader in the African American community in the 1890s. This brought him into conflict with Booker T. Washington, who had struck a controversial deal with white leaders called the "Atlanta Compromise". Washington agreed to accept segregation and black disenfranchisement in exchange for modest educational and economic opportunities.
Du Bois adamantly rejected this, arguing African Americans should fight for full civil and political rights. In The Souls of Black Folk, he criticized Washington‘s "old attitude of adjustment and submission." Echoing abolitionists, Du Bois demanded a "seat at the table" and "uncompromising challenge" to racism. This public dispute split the civil rights movement for a generation.
Founding the NAACP and Fighting for Rights
Dissatisfied with Washington‘s approach, in 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, an organization dedicated to aggressive agitation for black rights. It was short-lived but laid the groundwork for the NAACP, which Du Bois co-founded in 1909. He became the editor of its magazine, The Crisis, and over the next 24 years built it into the leading African American journal of the era.
From this prominent perch, Du Bois tirelessly attacked lynching, segregation, and black disenfranchisement. The Crisis published the work of many leading black writers and kept up a drumbeat for federal anti-lynching legislation. In provocative editorials, Du Bois called out both the Republican and Democratic parties for their complicity in southern racism. He also attacked D.W. Griffith‘s film Birth of a Nation for glorifying the Ku Klux Klan.
Complex Views on Art and Culture
As editor of The Crisis and a leading black intellectual, Du Bois played an influential role in African American cultural affairs. When the Harlem Renaissance emerged in the 1920s, he initially supported the explosion of black artistic creativity. However, Du Bois later soured on the Renaissance, believing it catered too much to white audiences seeking primitivist thrills. He felt black art should serve the higher purpose of racial uplift.
In a famous 1926 essay "Criteria of Negro Art," Du Bois argued "all Art is propaganda and ever must be." He criticized Renaissance writers like Claude McKay for "prancing before the world." While hugely influential, Du Bois‘ instrumental view of African American art could also be constraining. The critic Langston Hughes quipped, "I did not want to be a race problem, I wanted to be a poet."
Global Vision and Embrace of Socialism
While best known for his role in U.S. civil rights, Du Bois was also a pioneering theorist of global oppression, anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism. He helped organize several Pan-African Conferences to unite the African diaspora. In works like 1915‘s The Negro and 1920‘s Darkwater, Du Bois situated African American struggles in the context of imperialism and capitalism.
Du Bois‘ research into Reconstruction also radicalized his politics. His landmark 1935 book Black Reconstruction argued the failure of post-Civil War reform was rooted in an alliance of northern capitalists and southern landowners. Du Bois came to see racism as a byproduct of class exploitation, writing "the emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor." He openly embraced socialism, shocking many colleagues.
Government Persecution and Move to Ghana
As the Cold War intensified, Du Bois‘ leftist views made him a target for government persecution. In 1951, at age 83, he was arrested and tried under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Though eventually acquitted, the ordeal damaged Du Bois‘ reputation. His passport was revoked for years, scholars shunned him, and the NAACP forced him out.
Unbowed, Du Bois became co-chair of the Peace Information Center and ran for U.S. Senate on the American Labor Party ticket. In 1961, Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah invited him to relocate to the West African country and oversee the creation of an Encyclopedia Africana. Assured he would not be allowed to return to the U.S., the 93-year old Du Bois renounced his citizenship and became a Ghanaian national.
Legacy of a Life‘s Work
W.E.B. Du Bois passed away in Accra, Ghana on August 27, 1963, one day before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s "I Have a Dream" speech. The civil rights movement of the 1960s would achieve many of the legal and political rights Du Bois had fought his whole life for. Yet Du Bois‘ writings and theories proved more enduring than even those landmark reforms.
Key concepts from his scholarship like the "veil" and "psychological wage" remain staples of sociological and critical race studies. His internationalist vision deeply shaped later black radical thought. Scholars continue finding fresh insights in his genre-defying mix of social science, history, polemic and artistic sensibility. As the eminent Yale scholar Hazel Carby put it:
"Very few intellectuals transcend the times in which they live. W. E. B. Du Bois is one of those few. Writing for over half of the 20th century, he has been a powerful and persistent presence in the public and academic consciousness."
While one can debate Du Bois‘ particular arguments and political choices, few other American thinkers have proven as lastingly relevant. In today‘s renewed struggles over racism, empire and inequality, W.E.B. Du Bois‘ prophetic voice still rings out loud and clear, inspiring new generations to take up the fight for justice.
