During the time of segregation, African Americans did not feel very welcomed in the country that they only knew as home. The United States was meant to be a land of the free and home of the great but blacks still had to fight for their rights. White Americans used everything in their power to inhibit black Americans to be a part of the society. Although it was a very hard fought battle between southern whites and African Americans, there were some black nationalists that helped lead blacks to success in education, financing, and even politics. One of these extraordinary leaders that African Americans looked up to during this time of hostility, was W.E.B Du Bois. He was a very active nationalist who wanted to challenge white supremacy …show more content…
Du Bois was born February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a town that mostly white people resided. It was a small community where he encountered little overt racism and developed a passion for knowledge (Hines 345). After high school, Du Bois attended Fisk University in Nashville where he graduated at the age of 20 and moved on to Harvard University. In 1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. Du Bois was well educated, did many research and wrote many books to enlighten the black community. Elliott Rudwick states that, “Du Bois had originally believe that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching, peonage, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest” (Rudwick para. 3). W.E.B Du Bois knew that in order to stop whites from ridiculing blacks was for blacks to become educated. Whites were upset at the very idea that blacks should attend schools because then will there be a social change. Du Bois wanted blacks to stand up for their political and civil rights and education was the jump starter for that. “In this view, he clashed with the …show more content…
In 1900, W.E.B Du Bois participated in the Pan-African Conference in London which didn’t have any immediate action but, it most certainly attracted a lot of attention. Over the next few decades, there were numerous Pan-African Congresses. According to “A Negro Nation Within the Nation” by Walter Rucker, it states, “after World War I, President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, which was the idea that nations deserve the right to autonomy and sovereignty” (Rucker 42). Just a year after President Wilson’s declaration, the First Pan-African Congress was arranged in Paris in 1919. This was a call for more independence for colonized Africa. Du Bois was responsible for writing a manifesto of the Congress, which became the first official statement that favors for an independent Africa. The most significant Pan-African Congress was the fifth congress which was set to meet in Manchester, England in 1945. Kwame Nkrumah was one of the delegates that attended the meeting and Du Bois was selected as the International President of this Fifth Pan African Congress and was universally recognized as the true father of the Pan-Africanist Movement (Rucker 44). This was the very time in which Europe had been vulnerable because of the Second World War. The fifth congress helped Kwame Nkrumah established a footing where he made various liberation movements and by 1957 Ghana
During the American Gilded Age, W.E.B Du Bois, a civil rights activist, historian, and sociologist, was a significant figure in U.S history. He strongly advocated for the rights of blacks in post-civil war America primarily focusing on the importance of education, political rights, and social equality for African Americans. His accomplishments include becoming the first black to get a PhD at Harvard and co-founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. Although there were many ground breaking progress for blacks, Du Bois heavily expressed his concern for black representation in the political system. In his 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folks, Du Bois articulated the importance of representation for blacks stating,
Although Du Bois new that jobs and education were a good thing he didn’t feel like it was enough and he made sure to voice that. Du Bois believed that, African Americans rights and self-worth was more important and education would come with their rights, which is completely right. Du Bois plan was to fight for political power first, that way there is African Americans in office to let the African Americans voices be heard and let them have some say in the decisions being made about them. Once they received political power they then would fight for civil rights because once they received political power it would be harder for them to deprive African Americans of their rights when there is an African American in office with higher power. Du Bois then felt that once the political power and civil right were received then the fight for higher education for the African American youth would be the next battle. Once you have rights and political power to make decisions he felt higher education could be received and never taken from them again. Du Bois plan was problematic but
The time period of 1877 to 1915 was a period in history when the people of the Black race were being granted a free status, but equality, on the other hand, was not an option to some higher white officials. During this time period, many leaders started to fight for what they believed in by appealing to the white governing body for social equality. Two of the leaders that came out of that uproar were the well-known Black equality activists of that time, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Both of these leaders ultimately had the same goal, however, the paths that they took to achieve
W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington,In 1884 he graduated as valedictorian from high school. He got his bachelor of arts from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was the first african american to earn their P.H.D. DuBois was the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. W.E.B dubois argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called "the Talented Tenth:" Dubois disagreed with Washington's opinions but also respect for him as one of the first true black intellectuals who tried to help the black race. Dubois focused on a strategy called the gradualist political strategy. the strategy tells that Dubois
In the late 19th and 20th century, African Americans were going through hardships. At this period of time, they wanted improvement and wanted to be treated equality but no one had the political background to fight with the Whites. However, two great leaders named Booker Washington and W.E.B Du Bois took the stance and fought for improvement. But, even though they had the goals, they had different strategies for the community.
W.E.B. Du Bois was a man with impressive accomplishments and achievements. He was the first ever African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University and he
W.E.B. Du Bois can be most simply characterized with the “who” element of the question of inequality. Much of his sociological and political writings concern the inclusion and consideration of African Americans and others of African and non-European descent in studies and discussions of the social world. More specifically, he is concerned with acknowledging differences in the experience and conditions of Whites versus non-Whites.
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, the first of his race to do so; demanded complete equality for blacks; helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1910.
life in the US since before he had gained entry into Fisk University, his first attended college.
E. B. Du Bois agreed that self-improvement was a good idea, but that it should not happen at the expense of giving up immediate full citizenship rights. W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts in 1868. He attended racially integrated elementary and high schools and went off to Fiske College in Tennessee at age 16 on a scholarship. Du Bois completed his formal education at Harvard with a Ph.D. in history. Du Bois briefly taught at a college in Ohio before he became the director of a major study on the social conditions of blacks in Philadelphia. He concluded from his research that white discrimination was what kept African Americans from good-paying jobs. In 1897, two years after Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Address," Du Bois wrote, "We want to be Americans, full-fledged Americans, with all the rights of American citizens." He envisioned the creation of an elite group of educated black leaders, "The Talented Tenth," who would lead African Americans in securing equal rights and higher economic standards. Dubois attacked Washington's acceptance of racial segregation, arguing that this only encouraged whites to deny African-Americans the right to vote and to undermine black pride and progress. Du Bois also criticized Washington's Tuskegee approach as an attempt "to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings."Lynchings and riots against blacks led to the formation in 1909 of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an
In the years following the founding of the NAACP, DuBois was introduced into controversy as he joined the Socialists Party. DuBois became a candidate for the United States Senate on the American Labor (Communist) Party ticket. He also wrote letters, novels, and opinion excerpts as well as organized the first meeting of the Pan-African Congress, the purpose of the Congress was to improve the situation of native Africans. DuBois also initiated the concept of the "talented tenth" the talented tenth was where he called for ten percent of the African American population where he lived to receive a traditional college education so they could have leadership positions and assume leadership positions within society and within their communities.
Few men have influenced the lives of African-Americans as much as William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois is considered more of a history-maker than a historian(Aptheker, "The Historian"). Dr. Du Bois conducted the initial research on the black experience in the United States. Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. have referred to Du Bois as a father of the Civil Rights Movement. Du Bois conducted the initial research on the black experience in the United States, and paved the way for the Pan-African and Black Power movements. This paper will describe his life, work, influence in the black community, and much publicized civil dispute with another black leader, Booker T. Washington.
He co-founded the NAACP and supported Pan- Africanism. In 1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D from Harvard University. Du Bois opposed Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” an agreement that was asserted for blacks was more valuable to them than social advantages like higher education or political office. In 1903, Du Bois published his work, The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of 14 essays.
African Americans during the 1900s lived lives full of uncertainty. They were no longer slaves, but still looked upon by many as inferior to the white race. However in this period of tension, there were men who sought to bring their race to new heights. One of these men was W.E.B Du Bois. Few have influenced the lives of African Americans in such a way as W.E.B Du Bois. The vision he had for African Americans was one that many found great hope in. He sought for the day that his race for finally have civil equality in every aspect of life.
Du Bois overriding emphasis as a black activist was solidarity. As an intellectual, he believed he had a special responsibility in promoting black unity, a belief that some people have interpreted as arrogance. In an 1897 article, The Conservation of the Races, Du Bois wrote, "For the development of Negro genius, only Negroes bound and welded together, Negroes inspired by one vast ideal, can work out in its fullness the great message we have for humanity." Before the Russian Revolution, he called blacks living in the United States, "the advanced guard of Negro people."