W.E.B. DuBois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on February 23, 1868. Before Du Bois began school his father left the family and never came back. Du Bois enjoyed a pleasant childhood, participating in many of the activities with the other children.
Du Bois took college preparatory classes while in high school. He was also a column writer of a newspaper, the New York Globe. While still young he attended town meetings to listen to people discuss concerns of the town. He spoke about Wendell Phillips at his high school graduation. Du Bois’s mother unexpectedly died in 1884. After high school, he attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
At Fisk he took part in public speaking and debates. He edited the Fisk Herald, the school’s paper. At Fisk he realized that his goal was not for his own happiness, but for the advancement of the black race. He graduated from Fisk in 1886 with an A. B. degree. After Fisk he was accepted into Harvard. In 1895 Du Bois became the first African American to get a Ph.D. from Harvard. Even with a Ph. D. from Harvard he did not feel he was ready to deal with the problems that African Americans faced. He then spent two years at Berlin University. This gave him an extended outlook on the race problem. Du Bois came back to America in 1894.
In the south, African Americans received segregated and unequal education established by white Americans. Du Bois was confident that he could get white Americans to give up discrimination.
Du Bois was motivated to lead African Americans out of the disadvantaged position they seemed to be in. He believed the key to their advancement was in education. Near the end of the 1800’s African Americans occupied unskilled jobs in southern cities. Their economic situation was not good. Du Bois felt compelled to work to improve this situation. He initially wanted to dedicate his life to education. In 1909 he contributed to the development of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). According to Gerald Hynes, Du Bois was not pleased with the group, due in part by it being under the leadership of whites. He agreed to work with them and became the editor of “The Crisis” (1909-1934), a publication from the NAACP.
Du Bois once said, “Neither this nation nor the world can exist half-slave and half free”. He had faith that the democratic principles of the United States would prevail. He realized that the United States democratic ways was fueled by racism. He hoped that colored people would receive the democratic ways of Western countries.
In Dubois’s later years he believed that the source of the problems that African Americans faced was within the capitalist system. After World War II he was convinced that African Americans could not get out of the hole they were in under the capitalist system.
According to Zhang Juguo, Du Bois was practical and realistic in his speeches. He fought for what he thought was right [next page]