William Edward Burghart DuBois was a scholar, educator, writer, and activist. He was a major thinker in the ideology of Pan-Africanism and African American cultural thought. His activism established the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement. W.E.B Du Bois was an active contributor to the anti-colonial freedom struggles in the 20th century. W.E.B Du Bois was one of the founders of the N.A.A.C.P, which was born out of the Niagara movement. The movement was launched in 1905 calling for the end of discrimination and racial segregation in the United States. Du Bois published many works including The Souls of Black Folk and founded the Crisis magazine in 1910. During his lifetime he became a major spokesperson for the freedom struggle for African Americans. Educated in Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin his intellectual abilities were copious. Before his death he composed a compendium of African history and culture known as the Encyclopedia Africana. This encyclopedia continues to be published to this day. Du Bois lived a very adventurous life that had him travel around the world.
W.E.B DuBois became interested in taking the movement for racial equality internationally. He contributed to the organization of the second Pan-African Congress in 1919. DuBois understood that imperialism is international and as long as it exists the situation in America would continue to be unbearable for African Americans. The black people of the Americas he believed were connected by diaspora politics. DuBois visited the African continent in the 1920s witnessing the abuses of colonial rule. DuBois also lauded India's independence movement and expressed solidarity with other anti-imperial freedom movements. His new found international perspective became more pronounced when he adopted socialist philosophy. The impact of the Great Depression had effected the American population and the world horribly. Racial equality would mean nothing without economic equality. W.E.B DuBois when his politics became more international, became a target of the U.S. government. He was elected international president of the Pan-African Congress of 1945. As the Cold War's intensity grew, DuBois became a staunch critic of US foreign policy. DuBois became active in the international peace movement . W.E.B Dubois decided to remain active for the rest of his life for the cause of peace and anti-imperialism.
Dubois was later persecuted in the 1950s by the US Department of State, FBI, and the US government. He was indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938. This legal battle was won, but the US Department of State refused ti issue him a passport. By 1958, Du bois was able to acquire a passport and realized it was no longer safe to remain in the United States. He was effectively banished from the US. His support of anti-colonial movements, the peace movement, socialism, and a favorable view of the Soviet Union resulted in the amassing of reactionary forces in US politics against him. Even colleagues such as Walter White and the wider civil rights mainstream abandoned him. After the passport ban was lifted Du Bois went to the UK, Belgium, France, Holland, China, and the Soviet Union. During his travels he lectured on the importance of nuclear disarmament, peace, and the right of national self-determination for all colonized peoples. Du Bois expounded further on the ideas he put forward in Color and Democracy : Colonies and Peace and The World and Africa. Du Bois spent his last years in Ghana still working for the cause of African Diaspora liberation. He did not live to see colonial rule end in Africa and Asia or the fall of US segregation, but his contributions enabled these events.
Further Reading
Addams, Russell. Great Negroes of the Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Company,
1964.
Appiah, Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates. "William Edward Burghardt Du Bois." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. New York: Basic Civitas, 1999. 636-37.
No comments:
Post a Comment