W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk

Impact

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois boldly challenged Booker T. Washington and his accommodationist approach to race relations. Du Bois emphasized the need to develop a “Talented Tenth”—an educated vanguard that would serve as the teachers and leaders in the black community. Demanding political and civil rights for Americans, in 1905 he organized the Niagara Movement, a group of black militants who were adamantly opposed to segregation. Regarded as a forerunner of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest, most influential, and highly venerable civil rights organization, the Niagara Movement met annually in Buffalo, New York, through 1909. Around this time, the philosophical differences between Washington and Du Bois grew into a bitter personal animosity. Washington used his influence to block financial support for Atlanta University, and he intimated to the university’s president that further support would not be forthcoming as long as Du Bois remained on the faculty. Consequently, Du Bois and Atlanta University parted company in 1910.

Du Bois went on to pursue a career as a distinguished activist, editor, and scholar. As one of the cofounders of the NAACP, he fought unceasingly for social change. The formation of the NAACP was fueled in part by a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois. Violence of this sort was not new, as the lynching of African Americans had been increasing with alarming frequency throughout the late nineteenth century. The riot in Springfield was one of several episodes of brutality inflicted by white mobs against black communities. What was alarming about the Springfield riots was that they erupted outside the South in the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. Many worried that the “race war” in the South would be transported to northern cities.

These events spurred Mary Ovington, a social worker who had been active in the Niagara Movement, to contact William English Walling, a Socialist who supported progressive causes, and Dr. Henry Moskowitz, another well-known progressive. The group issued a call for the formation of a political movement that would develop a program aimed at securing racial equality. A conference of the newly formed NAACP was held on May 12–14, 1910, in New York City, where the organization outlined its goals. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois had insisted on voting rights, civic equality, and access to higher education. These principles were incorporated into the fledgling organization’s mission, which was to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of people of color and to eliminate racial prejudice. Du Bois was appointed director of publicity and research for the NAACP.

By November 1911 a sixteen-page magazine under Du Bois’s editorship was ready for distribution. For a title, Du Bois settled on The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races. A thousand copies were printed, and the magazine was immediately successful. After The Crisis was established as the voice of the NAACP, Du Bois’s stature rose rapidly. Within a short period of time, the magazine’s circulation reached a thousand issues per month. As the periodical’s reputation grew, Du Bois became the most well-known black intellectual of his time. When Booker T. Washington died in 1915, the power of the Tuskegee machine faded rapidly. Its influence was replaced by the NAACP, which by 1919 had more than eighty-eight thousand members.

Over the next decade the NAACP continued its fight against segregation, using lobbying, public education, and demonstrations as its primary tools. Between 1918 and 1922, the NAACP campaigned for the adoption of antilynching laws by Congress. Such legislative measures failed to gain ground, however, even when argued on the basis of the fundamental Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. Du Bois viewed this and other barriers to equality for blacks as reprehensible, and he began to rethink the integrationist goals of the NAACP. In 1934 controversy erupted over an editorial Du Bois authored that argued that African Americans should adopt a program of self-segregation in which black-owned economic institutions would be encouraged and developed. Frustrated with the NAACP’s inability to make progress toward eliminating segregation, Du Bois contended that integration would likely take a long time to achieve. During the interim, instead of focusing all of its energies on demands for integration, the black community would be better served by developing and relying on its own institutions.

Du Bois’s editorial was perceived as acquiescing to continued segregation. A vigorous debate ensued. To many observers, Du Bois appeared to be advocating a return to Washington’s philosophy. Du Bois’s editorial independence was tolerated as long as The Crisis was self-supporting. But during the Great Depression years of 1930s, the publication lost money. In the wake of the controversy, the NAACP’s board of directors took steps to rein in Du Bois by adopting a formal resolution requiring editorials to reflect the NAACP’s institutional views and requiring advance approval by the board. This was more than Du Bois could take. In June 1934 he announced his resignation.