W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts just three years after the end of the Civil War, but, unlike most black Americans, the Du Bois family were not freed slaves. His great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, and his family had been a part of the community for generations.

From his earliest years, however, Du Bois was aware of the differences that set him apart from his white, Yankee neighbors. He learned the traditional hymns of the local Congregational Church, and learned the traditional songs of Africa from his grandmother. W.E.B. Du Bois knew early on that he was different, that he came from a different place, from different people. And he knew he had to over-achieve just to be noticed.

His father left home soon after Du Bois was born, so he was raised mostly by his mother, who encouraged education, and adherence to the strict Victorian virtues characteristic of New England in the 19th century. For his part, Du Bois felt a sense of duty toward his mother above all others.

Under his mother's influence, Du Bois excelled at school. In high school he worked as a correspondent for New York newspapers, becoming a prodigy of sorts in the eyes of the community. And yet he was all too aware of the social boundaries expected of him; this gave him an even stronger sense of ambition, to be recognized by everyone for his academic achievements.

Du Bois had wanted to go to Harvard, and was disappointed when to learn that it had been arranged for him to attend Fisk University in Nashville. That experience, however, changed his life. It clarified his identity and gave him direction.

He was a serious young man, with the habits and attitudes of a typical New Englander, but at Fisk he met the sons and daughters of former slaves, who felt the pain and degradation of those years; and he was surprised that, even while still reeling from the sting of oppression, these young black men and women had a rich cultural and spiritual tradition that Du Bois saw as his own, as his past, as his heritage.

Du Bois also encountered the White South.

The achievements of Reconstruction had been abused and destroyed by the white politicians and businessmen who gained political control after the war. Blacks were terrorized at the polls, and forced to live lives similar to that of slavery, although little had changed but the name. Teaching school during the summers in the East Tennessee, Du Bois was an eye-witness to the suffering and abuse pf rural blacks, and decided that his life would be spent trying to overcome racial and economic oppression. He was determined to continue his education and was rewarded with an offer to study at Harvard.

At Harvard he entered a progressive era, and Du Bois liked the idea that science--an objective truth--could dispel the irrational prejudices and ignorance that faced black Americans. He worked at Atlanta University creating landmarks in the scientific study of race relations, but he grew dismayed, watching the nation retreat into bigotry and oppression, repressive segregation laws, lynching, and terror.

While Booker T. Washington argued for acceptance of the social order, Du Bois demanded a call to arms. He founded the Niagara Movement and later the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, becoming a champion of direct assault on the socio-economic and political institutions that exploited the poor.

Du Bois' style of leadership was intensely personal; he wanted ideas and input. He did not want people to follow him on blind faith, like those who followed Marcus Garvey. The passionate determination with which he fought for his ideals alienated many who believed less direct means, however limited they might be, would result in political gains.

With his ideas and ideals becoming more popular around the globe, Du Bois became less accepted at home. He left the United States for Ghana in 1961, not as a rejection of America or black Americans, but more out of a desire to return to the land of his ancestors. He came to accept struggle and conflict, of being Black and American, as essential elements of life, but believed in that the human race would progress, and embrace a broader, fuller existence that would benefit all mankind.

Du Bois' last statement to the world was one of hope and confidence in the ability of human beings to shape their own destinies:

One thing alone I charge you, as you live, believe in Life!

Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life.

The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth

simply because the Great End comes slowly, because time is long.