W.E.B.DuBois

306 PART TWO. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY CHAPTER TEN: W. E. B. DU BOIS 307

subject to law" (Du Rois, 1968:205). Indeed, DLI Bois thought of much of his early work (through 1910) as kind of laboratory experinrents on the "Negro Problem" in which he "hoped to make the laws of social living clearer, surer. and more definite" (Du Bois, l968:216).~

For its day, T/ie Philtrtlelphia Negro (Du Rois, 189911906) was an impressive scientific study that relied on a variety of kinds of data to analyze the state ofNegros life in Philadelphia's seventh ward. It was, for ex;unple, loaded with statistical information on the history and current status of Negroes in Philatlelphia, as well as maps. observations. interview data, and so on.

One of things that was especially notable about the study from a scientific perspective was how "value free" (for more on this, see Chapter 7 on Weber) Du Bois attempted to be in his analysis and conclusions. He tried hard to let the data, and to a lesser degree the people, speak for themselves. His own "voice" is quite muted and dispassionate. AI- though he is critical of white America for what it was doing to Negroes, he was equally hard on the latter, making i t clear that they bore some of the responsibility for tlieir plight.

However, Tlle Pl~ilrrdelphio Negro, published early in Du Bois's career, proved to be very different from the vast majority of the work that he did over the succeeding half century and more. For example, although he continued to point an accusatory tinger at black Americans, at least for a time, he ultimately came to focus almost all his attention on, and anger at, white America and what it was doing to black Americans. Eventually, he took a broader focus and critically analyzed the world as a whole, focusing on the prejudice and discrimination of whites against the "darker" races-black, brown, yel- low, and so on. He wrote about these issues with increasingly great passion and anger- this work was anything but value free. Nevertheless, he continued to a g u e for the dispassionate, scientific study of race relations, even though he himself was less and less inclined to do such studies himself.

The direction taken by Du Bois in his own work was a reflection of the path he took in his career. He was an academic sociologist for many years, especially at Atlanta Uni- versity, and he later became an activist involved in the founding of not only the National Association of Colored People (NAACP), but also its predecessor-the Niagara Move- ment. Later, he was actively involved in nrany important movements, meetings. and events. not only in the United States, but throughout the world. He came to edit Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP, and in it wrote seemingly endless editorials on the plight of black Americans. He was also in demand as a writer for many newspapers, popular n~agazines, and political tracts; such writing demanded not science, but its seeming opposite-heated political rhetoric. Nonetheless. Du Bois did not surrender his acade-

'However. Du Bois (1968:?22) was later to surrender, at least in part, his co~nmitment to such scientific work hecause there was little interest in it and, more imporrantly, becacrse "one co~rld no! be a calm, cool, and detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered and srarved." Tn fnct, upon laterjoining the NAACP, he said: "My career as a scientist was to be swallowed up in my role as a masler of propaganda. This was not wholly to my liking" tDu Bois, 1968:253).

'1 use this now old-fashioned term at times in this chapter becaute Du Bois does and hecause it was the lnost commonly used term during the era in which Du Bois lived. At other times 1 will use the more contem- ponry terms-"hlacl;" and "African American."

{p mic, value-free side, and among other things, Du Bois was one of tlie founders of a sci-

entific jounlal for the study of race. Pli~1n11, in 1940. Tile Pliilndelphin Negro was clearly intended to bc a scientiiic work, and although

D~ Bois's values creep in now and then, in the main it is a balanced, dispassionate treat- of the "Negro Problem" in Phil~rdelphia. Frorn 1898-1 910, Du Bois published tile

Atlanta University Studies,"hicich were similar in lone and orientation. He often argned for the need for careful, sys(ern:ilic, scientific study of issues that relate ro Negroeb. However, Lewis (1995: 15 1) points out, although Du Bois "prol'csscd a commitment to 'Z objective social science, he was te~nperamentally incapable of neutrality."

&, $i+ .,:v ..,: q< :ei DU BO~S AND THE "NEW" SOCIAL THEORY #

The heated political rhetoric of fllost of Du Bois's work is one of thc things that would

@ have made it hard in the (modern) past to consider him a sociological theorist. Marx, as

. a' e we have seen, had much the same problem, but his work became part of the canon in the 3 United States by about 1970 (it had been accepted long before in orher parts of the

8 world), in part because of a recognition that amid all the rhetoric there was a profound

3 theory. In addition, Marx's work was accorded this status because it had such a power-

*$ ful effect on the thinking of lrlany classical and contemporary theorists who were them-

# selves unquestionably part of the canon. Although the latter was not true of Du Bois's

f work-it remained largely sequestered within the study of race relations-the former ar- gument, that amid the rhetoric there is serious theory, became clear to more and more social theorists outside the area of the study of race relatjons a decade or t w o after

LW. Marx's work was accorded general recognition as an important theory. 3 ' Those associated with fenlinist, rnulticult~rral and postmodern theory developed a cn- :.c i,

tique of the canon and a new vision of social theory. Du Bois's rnmner of thinking not only fit well within this new type of theory, but was something of an exemplar of it. v

.j$ First, as mentioned previously, Du Bois offered a .sttrndl>oirit t h e o ~ y of the kind espoused and created by feminists and multiculturalists. The latter (as well as the poslmodemists) were critical of the value-frec perspective, the "viel~; from nowhere," the so-called "god's eye" view, espoused by modernists. They argued that such a perspective w':~s

& impossible-one corrld never be value free. be nowhere. :idopt a sodlike perspective. -. ,*' .$

They were also seen as poses that allowed seerningly scientific social scientists (and

~4 others) lo adopt ideas that adversely affected minorities: be they women, gays, o r blacks.

.L .* among others. The new social theorists argued for the need to recognize this and to tle- P .\d velop theories that self-consciously looked at the social world f ro~n the standpoi111 of 9 such minority groups. In this, they were building on the work of Marx, especially, who 3

:d looked at the capitalist world from the standpoint of thc proletariat.

ti. Du Bois can be seen, especially after The Pltilodelpl~io N e y ~ o and his other early sci- *Li .. entific works, to be offering a view of society from the stantlpoint of back Americans and ;ir

'" ih

more generally of the world from the perspective of all minority races. At the minimunl. 3 being black gives observers the ability to see things whites cannot see: "We who are dark .4

61n tenns of the history of sociology, Du Bolt (194011995 216) claim$ rho1 thsse s tud~es conctituted '-llle beginning of applied Sociology and Anthropology to group prohlsmt."

308 PART TWO: CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICALTHEORY

W. E. B. DU BOIS: A Biographical Sketch

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23. 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (Lewis, 1993). Compared to the vast majority of blacks of his day, Du Bois had a comparatively advantaged up- bringing that led to college at Fisk University and later to a Ph.D. from Haward University, with a stop along the way at the University of Berlin. At Haward and in Germany, Du Bois came into contact with some of the important thinkers of his day, including philosophers William James and Josiah Royce, as well as the great social theorist, Max Weber.

Du Bois took his first job teaching Greek and Latin at a black college (Wilberforce). He notes that "the institution would have no sociology, even though I offered to teach it on my own time" (Du Bois. 1968:189). Du Bois moved on in the fall of 1896 when he was offered a position as assistant instructor at the University of Pennsylvania to do research on blacks in Philadelphia. That research led to the publication of one of the classic works of early sociology, The Philadelphia Negro (189911996). When that project was completed, Du Bois moved (he

never had a regular faculty position at Penn- sylvania and that, like many other things in his lifetime, rankled him) to Atlanta university where he taught sociology from 1897 to 1910 and was responsible for a number of research reports on various aspects of Ne- gro life in America. It was also in this period that he authored the first and most important of his autobiographical memoirs, The Souls of Black Folk(190311996). This was a highly literary and deeply personal work that also made a series of general theoretical points and contributed greatly to the understanding of black Americans and of race relations. Du Bois published a number of such autobiographical works during the course of his life, including Darkwater Voices from within the Veil (1 92011999). Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Con- cept (1 94011 968) and The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Centuy (1968). Of Dusk of Dawn, Du Bois (1968:2) says, "I have written then what is meant to be not so much my autobiography as the au- tobioqraphv of a conceot of race. elucidated. - , ~ - - -, magnified and doubtless distorted in the thoughts and deeds that were mine." (Du Bois was not lacking in self-esteem and he has often been criticized for his outsized ego.)

While at Atlanta University, Du Bois became more publicly and politically engaged. In 1905 he called for and attended a meeting near Buffalo, New York, that led to the forma- tion of the Niagara Movement, an interracial civil rights organization interested in such things as the "abolition of ali caste distinctions based simply on race and color" (Du Bois, 1968:249). This formed the basis of the similarly interracial National Association of Colored People (NAACP), which came into existence in 1910, and Du Bois became its

can see Amer ica i n a way that whi te Americans cannot" ( D u Bois, 1926/1995a:509).

M o r e specifically, i n a famous essay, "The Souls of Whi te Folk," Du Bo is argues that his

standpoint as a black American gave him special insight in to white Americans:

Of them I am singularly clairvoyant. I see i n and through them. I view them from unusual points o f vantage. Not as a foreigner do I come, for I am, native, not foreign, bone o f their thought and flesh of their language. Mine i s not the knowledge of the traveler. . . . Rather I see

#? ~ i ~ e c t o r of Publications and Research. He and in 1934 Du Bois (then 76) was forcibly

-cb founded the NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, retired by the university. Under pressure, the

%$ in its pages authored many essays on a NAACP invited him back as an ornamental

f ,ide range of issues relating to the state of figure, but Du Bois refused to play that role or the Negro in America. Du Bois took this new to act his age, arid he was dismissed in 1948.

d position because it offered him a platform for His ideas and his work grew increasingly rad- :.* the widespread dissemination of his ideas ical over the ensuing nearly two decades of

(he was solely responsible for the editorial his lite. t ie joined and participated in various @, opinions of The Cr~sis). In addition, his posi- peace organizations and eventually was in- $ tion atAtlanta University had become unten- dicted by a grand jury in 1951 for failing to

-tA able because of his conflict with the then very register as an agent of a foreign power in the

popular and powerful Booker T. Washington, peace movement. .g gi;

!.AI

who was regarded by most white leaders and Early in his life, Du Eois had hope in

6 politicians as the spokesman for black Amer- America in general and, rnore specifically, *. 2

ica. Du Bois came to view Washington as far that it could solve ~ t s racial problems peace-

*:.?I?

t~o~onsewat ive and much too willing to s~ib- fully within the context of a capitalist society.

.a ordinate Negroes to whites in general and Over the years he lost faith in capitalists and $% specifically within the white-dominated econ- capitalism and grew more supportive of so- % omy where they were to be trained for, and cialism. Eventually, he grew more radical in p satisfied with, manual work. his views and drifted toward communism. He 'q For the next half century, Du Bois was a was quite impressed with the advances com-

tireless writer and activist on behalf of Ne- munism brought to the Soviet Union and gro and other racial causes (Lewis, 2000). China. in the end, he joined the Communist He attended and participated in meetings Party. Toward the very end of his long life, Du

-% throughout the United States and much of Bois seemed to give up hope in the United

the world on Negroes in particular and all States, and he moved to the African nation of 1 & "colored" races in general. He took positions Ghana. Du Eois died there--a citizen of ':F $& on many of the pressing issues of the day, Ghana-n August 27, 1963, ironically the

almost always from the vantage point of Ne- day before the March on Washington. He groes and other minorities. For example, he was ninety-five years of age. had views on which presidential candidates Although wide-scale recognition o f Du

3 Negroes should support, whether the United Bois as an important theorist may be rela- 1 :f, .@

States should enter World Wars I and II, and tively recenl, he has long been influential 1 .-a whether Negroes should support those wars within the black community. For example, on i

and participate in them. becoming Chairman of the- Board of the By the early 1930% the Depression had NAACP, Julian Bond said: "I think for people

jr begun to wreak havoc on the circulation of of my age and generation, this [a picture in

Z The Crisisand Du Bois lost control !o young his home of a young Bond holding Du Bois's

v1 dissidents within the NAACP. He returned to hand] was a normal experience-not to have

.. " f

Atlanta University, to scholarly work, and Du Eois in your home, but to have his name

,. m among other things authored Black Recon- in your home, to know about him in yo~lr ,

structioninAmerica, 1860-1880(193511998). home. . . . This was table conversation for His tenure lasted a little more than a decade, us" (cited in Lemert, 2000:346).

@ +*a **1E .* -;* .& these souls undressed and from the back and side. 1 ice the w o r k i ~ ~ g of their entrails. 1 kriow 'V 1 their thoughts and they know that I know . . . I see t l~em stripped,-ugly, human. 18 Du Bois (l920/ 1999:17)

Late twentieth-century thinkers w h o adopted the standpo~nt o t b lack Arnerlcalls saw Du Bois as a pioneer i n this k i n d of work, and feminists, queer theorists. and others also ap- plauded and resonated w i th h is efforts

31 0 PART TWO: CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Another perspective that emerged at this point-the rejection of general theories and a greater appreciation of loctrl theories-also aided in the renewed appreciation of Du Bois's work. That is, unlike, say, Weber. Durkheim, or Parsons, Du Bois did not en- deavor to develop a general theory of society: in the main, his theory focused much more narrowly on race and race relations. The view emerged that a general theory of society was another of modernism's many impossible illusions. Furthermore, such general theories tended to ignore, subordinate, andlor denigrate minorities. What was needed, instead, were narrower, more focused theories of the kind developed by Du Bois. Among others. feminists had long created such theories, and such theorizing expanded enormously in the last few decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-rirst century. Furthermore, minority women came to the view that even feminisi theory was too general and what was needed was even more Ib;cal forms of theory, especially those from the standpoints of a wide array of minority women. Some of the most important work of this genre came from black feminists (for example, Collins, 1990; 1998) who clearly were working in a tradition pioneered by Du,Bois.

Yet another idea that aided in the emergence of the recognition o i D u Bois as an important social theorist was the rejection of the idea of value-free thinking. Not only did feminists, multiculturalists and postmodemists think that such an idea was still another modem illusion, but they also believed in the importance of thinking that was deeply implicated with the values of theorists and the communities from which they emanated and with which they sympathized. And, of course, there were few better models of this kind of thinking than the work of Du Bois.

However, in spite of these and other proclivities, it is important to remember that Du Bois was in many other ways a modernist; given the era in which he wrote, he had little other choice. First, of course, as we have seen, Du Bois believed in science and in the scientific study of the situation confronting black Americans. Second, for most of his life he believed in progress, especially for black Americans, even though that progress was being thwarted, largely by whites. Third, he bought into socialism early in his career and toward the end of his life became a firm believer in communism, both as an ide- ology and in the way it was practiced in the Soviet Union and in China. There are no better examples of modern thinking, especially of "grand narratives" whose conclusions lead ultimately to a better world, if not nirvana, than socialist and communist theories. For these and other reasons, it would be a mistake to consider Du Bois a postmodernist, or even a forerunner of it. Yet, his value-laden and single-minded focus on race puts him in accord with a range of radical new ideas in social theory that emerged in the late twentieth century.

STUDYING RACE SCIENTIFICALLY: THE PHlLADELPHlA NEGRO

Although it is not a work in theory ("Of the theory back of the plan of this study of Ne- groes I neither knew nor cared" [Du Bois, 1968: 197]), and it was not typical of the vast bulk of Du Bois's work, it is necessary to discuss, at least briefly, his pioneering study of the seventh ward in Philadelphia. Important in itself, it also helps us to understand the later development of Du Bois's thinking. Elijah Anderson (1999). who did his own study of the same ward in recent years, regards The Philadelphia Negro as a "master-

,- ' '...". ' - ,a,

"'I CHAPTER T E N . W. E. 0. DU 501% 3 1 1

w"-- . s& .ece13: "One of the first work\ to cornbinr the use of urban etlinogrnl~l~y. soci;ll Ilistory,

w PI and descriptive statistics. i t has \)ecome 3 classic work in the social science 1itel.a- & 8

tLlre*~(,!,nderson. I996:ix). 111 its use of multiple melliods. illicl in its m;lliy very contern-

4 sounding conclusions about h l ~ ~ c k Ame1ic:lnc :~ntl race ~.elatiollc, i t is a book tila[

d has aged well and stands up in coinparison to the widely ackriou,led~etl classics of this d

genfe. several things stand out about this piece of work. First, Ilu 13nis did i t all on his orl.,ii

fieldwork; he had ,lo rcsearch assistant to help l~ini cullect the wide arr:ly o f data an,assed in the s t ~ ~ d y . He walked (lie streets of h e seventh ward, observing. ]napping. asking questions. arld doing more fornial interviews.' Sccorld. his incluiries focused on topics that a similar s\udy done toclay would also concern itself \\'ith, including [lie Jc- mographic characteristics of Negroes in this :Ire:I of Philaclelphj;~. the geographic origins of this popul;~tion. marriage ;~nd the fa~nily, education (and illilrr;~cy), work, the chu1c11. housing and community, and politics and votil~g. In addition to covering rnost of what we woL~ld today call soci:il structures and social institutions. DLI Bois also exalnincd key contemporary social prob1em.s such as illiteracy. crime. and racial p~,ejudice aiid discrimination. Any contennporary study or this type would 11eed to cover these topics, and those that Du Bois did not concern himself with probably did not exist at the time. For example, Anderson (1999) rightly points to the enormous problen~s ~rssociated wit11 dl-ng Llse in the seventh ward in Philadelphia today, but drug abuse was virtually absent at the close of the nineteenth centllsy in that area (or virtually anywhere else).

The PI~iladelphia Negro is a largely descriptive study: it is not overtly shaped by m y theoretical perspective, 1101. does i t come to any broad theoretical conclusion. D u Bois begins by describing the history of the Negro i l l Philadelphia that led LIP to the point of his study-the late nineteenth century. After examining [lie history from 1638 to the time of his writing, especially [lie period following the end of tlie Civil W a r . 9 ~ Bois (1899/1996:43) concludes that developments had been disappointinz: "an abnormal and growing amount of c r in~e and poverty can justly be charged to the Negro; he is not a large taxpayer, holds no conspicuous place in the business world or the world of letten, and even as a working man seen~s to be losing ground."

Du Bois shows a very contenlporary sense of important issues i n the social sciences, especially time, space, and thcir i~~tcrscction. l ' i~nc is represented throu_ch his historic;ii analysis, whereas liis spdtiul ol.ic~ll;~liu~l is rcJlc.ctctl in his detailed ;~rlalysis of thc: geog- raphy (social ecology) of the seventh ward. One of the things that beconlzs clear quickly is that seventh ward is nor uniform; thel.c: is great diversity, rrom subarea to subarea, even block to block. In particular. Du Bois makcs it clear that 111e1.e are inipol-tant social class distinctions in the area, and 111e issue of social class is a11 iniportant elernent

'Later, in Thr Sor~ls ofBlncl Folk. DLI Dois (1903/l996:l55) wn.; critical oflhe "car-window sncinlogic~" who was content with reseorcl~ that invcl\,rd "[he ffw 1si.sul.e ho~~l-c o f 3 11olill:~y trip." Thc work in\,olvsd irl

The Phila~ielpl~itr Negro (and other carly ~.cscarch by Du Boic) was. in cuntl-:IS(, ext~nordi~~nrily intense and i n - tensive. However. later in his career, Du Bois become content with nrlnch:lir ~rcHeclion\ with0111 cvcn Ille l a -

suol observations of the "car-window sociologisl." 'This was in many senses a comparative-hictoricnl stutly. involving no1 ol~ly hictorici~l compar-isolls, b u

also conlemporaneous coml)arisons with v;irious European groups.

312 PART TWO. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICALTHEORY

throughout Du Bois's work (see below), although i t is increasingly suhortlinated to mce, which is, by far, the most important factor in his studies and an:~lyses.

One of the things that strikes today's reader is the rnultik~ceted character of Du Bois's analysis; he sees virtually everything in multifactorial terms. A good example is found in the realm of the occupations held by Negroes and the incomes derived from that work. He accounts for their relalively lowly status on both dimensions in terms of ( I ) their lack of previous training leading to low work-related efficiency: (2) the corn- petition from others, especially white immigrants, who are seen as "eager," "well- truined," and "ruthless;" (3) industrial changes leading to the rcplacernent of small l?usiliesses by increasingly large industries for whose work Negroes were ill-prepared; (4) wide-ranging discrimination against Negroes on the basis of race. Interestingly, the latter reinforces itself because as a result of discrimination, whites rarely come into con- fact with Negroes on the job, and this lack of contact serves to reinforce the prejudice that lies at the base of discrimination.

Although most of the blame, explicitly and ilnplicitly, is placed on whites and their prejudice and discrimination, Negroes do not escape unscathed. On the one side, Du Rois ( 18991 1966: 12 1 ) argues that when Negroes seek to advance economically, "almost unconsciously the whole countenance and aid of the [white] community is thrown against the Negro." On the other side, Du Bois describes the ways in which Negroes contribute to their own economic difficulties. For example, he argues that they tend to go to white physicians and lawyers, thereby having an adverse effect on the small numbers of Negroes who make it into these occupations. as well as on the motivation of others to make the effort.

Crime

One of the most impressive aspects of T l ~ e Philndelphin Negro is its analysis of the high crime rates among Negroes. Du Bois shows a very contemporary caution about earlier statistics showing a higher crime rate for Negroes. For example, he demonstrates the role played by discrimination in these statistics, arguing that Negroes were "arrested for less cause and given longer sentences than whites" (Du Bois, 1899/1996:239). He also makes the point that Inany of the Negroes arrested were never brought to trial. with the restilt that their guilt or innocence was never proven.

Du Bois was careful to analyze the social causes of high crime rates among Negroes after the close of the Civil War. Among the factors that he points to is the heritage of slavery and emancipation, the influx of larger numbers of Negroes (and others) into the city, increasing competition for jobs, the increasing complexity of life, and the environment, including "the world of custom and thought in which he (the Negro) must live and work. the physical surrounding of house and home and ward, the moral encouragements and discourage~nents which he encounters" (Du Bois. 1899/1996:284). Turning to causes within the white community, Du Bois (189911996:241) points to the "stinging oppression and ridicule" heaped on blacks and later concludes: "The real foundation of the difference (of the social conditions facing Negroes) is the widespread feeling all over the land . . . that the Negro is something less than an American and oughl not to be much more than he is" (Du Bois, 1899/1996:284). He concludes that crime is a "symp- tom of countless wrong social conditions" (Du Bois, 189911996:242).

CHAPTER TEN W E B. DU ROIS 313

~ l t h ~ ~ g h Du Rois (IS99/19c16:37_7_) iillds that whites are in genzral " q ~ ~ i t e uncon- scious of any such powerf~~l ant1 vintlictive feeling," Negroes "regard [his prcjuilice :I.; ~ l le chief cause of their prescnr unfortunate condition." Herc. DII Bois isolates an imposl:tnt difference between the races that contillues to this clay nlltl, if possible, the cliflcrenccs I 11

perception have increasetl. Nonetheless, Du Bois ref~iscs It) ~nakc a simplistic ,~.s.;oci:ltinn

6- between (ant1 discri~ninntion) ~ ~ n d crime (as well other prol~lems confi-ontimg

@ A N ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ) . He sees thc linkages ;IS both subtler :unil lnorc iI:~nge~-oi~s. '"S w ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ a ] l y . Du Bois (1899lI996:352) finds that ~ h c city of I'hilndelphi:~. through rts * IS.-

institutions, cl~nrities, and sympathy, I~ait s111)ported "tllc c~.imi~lnl, the 1:17y and the slli i't- 8 $$

less," but the city is found to have "no use" I'or "the cducatctl 2nd inilustl.ious yt~ullg

colored man."

intermarriage

On the issue of intermarriage, Du Bois (I 89911 996:358) argues that Negroes (and [)re- sumably whites) must see marriage ns a "private contract" and that "it does not concern any one but themselves as to whether one of them be white. black or rctl." Howeve[-. whatever Du Bois ( I 89911996:359) would like, he recogr~izes that the reality is qu~ te different-"the average white person docs not marry a Negro: and the average Negro. despite his theory, himself marries one of his race, and fro\\,ns darkly on his fellows unless they do likewise."

Social Inequality: C a s t e a n d C las s

Although Du Bois certainly privileged race as a filctor i n this analysis. and Ile slendfaslly p i, retained such a focus througl~out his long career. he was also very interested in social

3 \ class.' He differentiated among whites in terms of social cbss (we will discuss his

& thoughts on an elite group-"benevole~~t despots"-belo\\) ;ind later we will d isc~iss his

, g$ analysis and criticis~ns of the white working class), but in Tlir P l ~ r l n d e l ~ ~ l ~ i ~ ~ Neg7.0 tt~ere

% is much about social class among Negroes. For esnml)le, one of his class syster~ls is: . & Grade 1 (respectable families earning enough income to live well); Gside 2 (resycctable ,:rq +

working class with steady paying work): Grade ? (the poor and very poor without

+v enough steady incollle); Grade -1 (tllc '.lowest class of criminals, pmstitutes ancl ~ o a k ~ - c ; ;$

.a,+

the 'submerged tenth' " [Du Rois, 189911996:31 I]). '"

Q Du Bois not only wants to make it clear that therc are vast differences withiu tlle -*

q black community in terms of class (ar~d in ternls of spatial distrit>ution, as we snw ear- "b .d lier), that they are not on one piece. but he also wants to give special irnportnnce to tlie IQ *? ?IF

highest classes within the Negro community. He a r g ~ ~ c s t1i:lt "the better classes ol'tht

q Negroes should recognize their duty towwd the rnllsscs . . . toward lirting the rahblc" : $ 2

(Du Bois. 189911996:392-393). Given his elite backgrountl and training, Do ~ o i s " , at >%

.q 9Al~hough Du Bois uaunlly talks In temlt ol'cocial classcc. :lt tilnrr lic u\e< (he stronger term or >I "~: i>tc" :p system lo describe the siloaliun conrrontil~g bl:lcks in Allieric:~. I n lhic contcxr hc di?cusses Illc '.Jitn-C~.ow" $[ laws that eslahlisht'd rleficfo (legal) segl-egalion .Inti discriniinution on the bnsis of race. $1 '"Du Bois (181)8/199.5) describes :I sinril:~r class system in n .;tudy of Alric:~n A~nericnns in Fn~rn~ illc.

Virginia. "Indeed. Du Bois was oflt'n c r i ~ i c ~ z e ~ l :\.: bci~lg an eli t igt , especi:rlly in hi.: r.lrly work

this early stage in his career, accords great inlportance to the elites of both races. Indeed, he argues for the need for elite whites interested in helping to "recognize the existence of the better class of Negroes [who] must gain their active aid and cooperation by generous and polite conduct" (Du Bois, 1899/1996:396). Tlze Philndelpllicr Negr-cr concludes "0' with a rallying cry to black Americans, but with talk of the need for whites to be "polite and sympathetic" and "generous" to Negroes while, for their part, the latter are urged to engage in "proper striving." Together. whites and African Americans will be able to "realize what the great founder of the city meant when he named i t the City of Brotherly Love" (Du Bois, 1899/1996:397)."

Du Bois came to be known for the phrase "The Talented Tenth" to describe the small group at the top that were to be the leaders of the Negro community. He revisited that idea late in his career in light of being criticized for his elitism. and because he began to take M a n ' s ideas increasingly seriously. The latter's ideas, of course. pointed to a revolution from below emanating from the masses. Although Du Bois did not abandon his views on the importance of leadership, he did modify them. In his later work, it was no - longer enough for these leaders to be talented in a general sense, they also had to be ex- perts in economics and its effect on Negroes. The "Talented Tenth" became the '.Chid- ing Hundredthn13 and they had to be willing to .'sacrifice and plan such economic revolution in industry and just distribution of wealth, as would make the rise of our group Possible." (Du Bois, 1948/1995:350).

T h e Benevolent Despo t

If there is a hopeful figure in The Philndelplzin Negro it is the "benevolent despot." often a benevolent capitalist. At this early stage in his work, Du Bois retains some faith in whites, strong and benevolent leaders, nnd in capitalism. Thus, on the issue of economic and work-related problems. Du Bois argues that a benevolent despot might have sought to deal with the lack of training of the Negro and the discrimination practiced against them. However, there was "no benevolent despot, no philanthropist, no far-seeing cap- tain of industry to prevent the Negro from losing even the skill he had learned or to in- spire him hy opportunities to learn more" (Du Bois, 1899/1996:127). However. characteristically Du Bois (1 89911 996: 130) is quick not to let Negroes off the hook and '0 blame others: ..Undoubtedly much blame can rightly be laid at the door of Ne- groes for submitting rather tamely to their organized opposition." More positively. in terms of health-related problems, Du Bois (189911996: 163) argues: "The main movement of reform must come from the Negroes themselves, and should start with a crusade for fresh air, cleanliness, healthfully located homes and proper food."

Du Bois did not long hold out much hope for aid from the benevolent despot and, Inore specifically, from the capitalist. Indeed, in a later analysis of the economy of the post-civil war South, he points an accusatory finger at northern capitalists '.who have come to take charge of the industrial exploitation of the New South. . . there is in these

We will see, Du Bois was to radically revise his thinking and abandon such romantic rhetoric as his thinking evolved and changed,

"Of i n a sense, the smaller number involved in this group (a hundredth rather than a tenth) implied even greater elilism.

CHAPTER TEN: W. E. B. DU B01S 31 5

new caylains of industry neither IOVC rlor Iiate. neithcl. symp3thy nor roninnce; it is a clucstion of dollars and divitlelltl~" (DL) B o i ~ . 100311996: 170). And in n still I ~ t e r

work, ~ [ ~ c k R e ~ ~ ~ ~ s l r ~ r c f i o n it1 Aorcricrr. 1860-185'0 (Du Rois. 193511998). cnl,italists, especill[y those from the North. ale accorded nlucll of thc blanlr P a the fsilnre of ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t r u c t i o n after the Civil War.

*ppeal to White Seif-lnterest

An taken by DLI Bois in this early s tuds and utilized nlany times n \ r r the course of his carte?, is to seek to improve the situation for Ncyoes by nppe:lling to \vhite self-interest. That is, he argues that whites, as well as society as a whole, would henetit from black educational and economic advancenlent as well as an amelioration of'

within the black community For e ~ r m p l e . white emp1oyel.s and the economy whole would benefit from better-trained black workers with grtater ability to sue-

teed occupationally and in terms of income. The fact that whites are unwilling tc~ recognize this. kt done help blacks. points to the lilct that "one of the orcat po~tuliltes in the science of econiiiiiics-that men will seek their economic advantaze-is ill this case untrue" (Du Bois, 189911996: 146).IJ That is, even though it is to whites' collcctivc od- vantage to have Negroes succeed economically, they are u~iwilling to help them and m y even act to their further detriment. After describing the relatively poor hrii th of Na- groes (which he attributes largely to poor social conditions), Du Bois makes the some point-whites and the community in general would benefit f ro~n better health among ~n on Negroes ( a healthier workforce would provide more workel-.s and be less of a dr?' the community). More generally. Du Rois (1 898/1996:394) concl~ldes: "Such discr-imi- nation is morally wrong, politically dangerous, industrially w:lsteful, and socially silly. I t is the duty of whites to stop it, and to do so primarily for their own sakes."

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Although there is no "theory" in modern sense in Du Bois's work, here certainly ore a series of general ideas that continue to be useful in thinking in theo~~t ica l terms about mce in general, and black Arnericnns in p~lrticulnr. Thcre is no gcntml theory in his work because he never set out to create one and because he was involved in many other kinds of work, including Tlir Pl~ilo$e~l7io Negro (and other empirical works that occ~l- pied most of his attention until rouilily 1910). later more autobiographical writings (in which, however, theoretical ideas were embedded), political tracts. and politic:2l activi- ties of great variety and importance.,Nevertheless, it is possible to identify several inl- portant theoretical ideas and twists aiid turns in his work.

% - Racialism a n d Race Pride

In an early essay. Du Bois (1897/1995:21) argues that the 'mce idea" is "the central

f,) thought of all history" and this 1s follov,ed immediately with a decinitlon of r:lce "a

"This constitutes n critique of what totlny ir called mrionnl-choice 1ht.ory

31 6 PART TWO: CLASSICAL sOClOLOGlCAL THEORY

family of human beings. generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life." This leads Du Bois (1 89711995:23) to the view that the goal of American Negroes (;lnd implicitly of all races) is not integration, and certainly not "absorption by the white Americans," but rather. to serve as the "advance guard" of "Pan-Negroi~rn."~" In various ways, Du Bois (192311995:471477) sees Negroes as superior to whites, and it is their role to "soften" the hardness of "the "twisted white American environment" (Du Bois, 1933/1995a:73). Here he points to sucl~ things as Negro music (the only truly orig- inal American music, he argues),lh fairy tales, and humor.'' More generally, Du Bois ( 19 1511 99553) argues that "in its normal condition" thc Negro race is "at once the strongest and gentlest of the races of men." Whereas whites are seen as immersed in a "mad money-getting plutocracy" (Du Bois, 189711995:25), blacks are seen as being able to ameliorate these excesses by infusing American society with their softer. gentler culture. To accomplish this goal, as well as to defend and further their self-interests, Du - Bois urges race organization, solidarity, and unity.

It is the race-conscious black man cooperating together in his ow11 institutions and movenlents who will eventually emancipate the cnlored race, and the great step ahead today is for the American Negro to accomplish his economic emancipation through voluntary determinetl cooperative effort.

(Du Bois. 1934/1995:558) Along these lines, he makes it clear that he is not opposed to segregation per se, but segregation accompanied by discrimination. As long as segregated facilities are more or less equal and operate on the basis of the same principles, he has no problem with their segregation on the basis of race. However, he later came to the realization that such "separate but equal" facilities are "rarely possible" (Du Bois, 194411995:615).

Race, of course, was at the base of what Du Bois famously called the "Negro Prob- lem," or the frictions between the races in America. He thought in terms of a "color- line" in the United States in general, and in the South in particular. (As early as his college-student years, Du Bois [I 968: 1251 says that he "developed a belligerent attit~~de toward the color bar.") For example, he described a

frightful chasm at the color-line ;Icrncc \vhich nien pass at tlleir peril. Thus, then and now, there stand in the South two separate worlds; and separate not simply in the higher realms of social intercourse, but also in church and school. on railway and street-car, in hotels and the- atres, in streets and city sections, in books and newspapers, in asylunls and jails, in hospitals and graveyards.

(Du Bois. 100311996:97)

However, later Du Bois came to broaden his perspective and to see the American case as part of a global color line. In fact. he had anticipated that position earlier in one of his

"Yet, at least in his critique of (he separatism (back to Africa) of Marcus Gnrvey, Du Bois (192311995:337) sees the "e.hchange of one race supremacy for another" as fulile and spiritually bankrupt.

'"In fact, The Sorrls ofBlock Folk (Du Bois, 190311996) is organized around, and each chapter begins with, verses from Negro songs.

"Du Bois ako sees the gifl of spirit, or religion. as an important contribufion, although he was most often quite critiu;tl of hlack religion.

CHAPTER TEN: W. E. B DU 001s 317

most famous statements, and one that seems even more true in the early years of the Century:

The proh]cnl of the twentietll ccnt~~ry is the ~,rohlctn of the COIOLI~ lit~c, Il~e clt~estio~~ is t~> /haw fardifferences of race. . . arc going to be nlnilc, h~lcafi~l.. tllc h;lsis ofdcny~ng to over 11;1li the world the ol.sha~-infi lo their Llt~nost ;ll?ilily lllc o[lportunilies ;llld pl.ivileges 01' nloder~~

(Du Bois. IY00/1995.6.;9)

DU Bois (190311996: 15) no longer focused exclusi\ely on tile Unitecl States, hut looked at Negroes in "Asia :~nd ilfi-ica and (he isl;~~lds of [he sc:~" and Inore generally at other races throughout the world. Du Bois c;tmc to Lhink tlrorc broadly in Lerrns orrace rather than focusing exclusively on one racc-tlic Nep1.0. Furrlic~.morc. he begill1 to discuss nol just the need for Negro organiz.ations (including Negro colleges), but lor ut~i- fied involving all .'colored r:lces."'%owever, in spite of this focus on race, Du Bois recognized that there were no "pure" races ;rnd that the vast tllajority of the differences between the races stemmed from dil'fel-ences in their environment. especially their social environment.

Du Bois's more general focus on race led him in a variety of directions, some more defensible than others. For exaniple, as early 1936, Du Bois ( 1936/1995b:81) esprebsed concern over the plight of Jews in Germany as victims ol'.'race hate." On the other htlnd, for a time, Du Bois seemed to be blind to the abuses cornmittrd by the Japanese before and during WW 11. For example, he talked of an absence of "racial or color caste" jn Manchuria, which was occ~~pied by the Japanese before World Wru I1 (Du I3ois. ]937/1995:83). Even at the close of that war, while he cotldemned the attack on Pearl Harbor ("unwise", "ill-considered"), DLI Bois (194511 995:86-87) praised the Japanese people ("fine and progressive"), criticized an American admiral ("he is fighting andhat- ing a colored race"), and fretted over the occupation of Japan by white troops.

The Veil

One of Du Bois's most famous concepts is that of the \+lril.l%y [his idea, he rne;lnsih~t there is a clear separation, a barrier, between Negroes iind whites. The ilnagcry is riof one of a wall, but ~.nthsr of thin. porous nl;tttri;ll tlit-uugli ulljcli eitcll race car1 see Llle other. However, no matter how thin arltl porous the Veil, no matter how easy it is to FCC through, it still clearly separates the races. In his "Forethou~llt" to Tllc Souls of'Blirck Folk, Du Bois makes it clear that it is his intention to .'lift" the Veil, to venture behind or within it, in order to examine, and let his (white) readers glimpse, the "SOU~S" of Negroes in America:

Leaving, then, the white world. I have stepped within the Veil. r:rising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses,-the nienning of its religion, tlie prs\ion of its Ilu~nan sonow, ;~rrcl

"Du Bois even called for all I;~hot.ers. while 2nd nonwhitz, throu;hout liie world to join together. How- ever, this was nn atypical position for Du Bois who ordinarily saw while lohorcrs (and lheir unions) as theell- elnv of black (and otller nonwhi~e) \vot.kers. This oppositir,n is also seen as a key Ihcror in the inilulc of rleconstrnction (Du Bois. 193.511998).

"Du Bois also used the metaphor of a .'cave3' to get at posllion of African Americans ~11o could he 2s peering out from it, being ignored by ~vhite pllssel.sby. 2nd ;is scre~tlling OLII ill il va~~illin (Lewis, 1000.4741-

31 8 PART TWO: CLASSICAL SOC~OLOG~CAL THEORY

the ruuggle of its greater souls. . . . And. finally, need I add that I who speak here am bone of the hone and flesh ot the flesh of them that live within the Veil'?

(Du Bois, 1903lI996:xxiv) Although the Veil is usually seen as capahle of being reen through and of being

lifted. there are times when DL] Bois Sees it as more opaque and impossible to lift, let alone breach. For example, in describing thc "older SoL[th," he argues that "we build

around them walls so high, and hang between thcln and the light :I Veil so thick, that they shall not even think of breaking through" (Du Bois, 1903/1996:90).

Du Bois discusses the Veil in a number of ways:

as something that shuts blacks out from the rest of the world and within which they live as something that blacks are born with that falls or lays between blacks and whites (for example, Du Bois [1903/1996:65] describes an incident where he was greeted amiably by a white commissioner, but when it came time for dinner "then fell the awful shadow of the Veil, for they ate first, then I-alone") even though at times it was lifted, at least partially as something that affects the way Negroes and whites see each other that hangs between Negroes and opportunitv that through education and truth, it would become possible, as he does, to "dwell above the Veil" (Du Rois. 1?0311996: 110) that it is also possible to dwell above the Veil in deathz0 that negatively affects both blacks and whites that impoverishes them in different ways, including their "souls" as something that he hopes someday might be lifted in order to "set the prisoned free" (Du Bois, 190311 996:215)

Overall, "worlds within and without the Veil of Color are changing, and charlgirlg rapidly, but not at the same rate. not in the same way; and this must produce a peculiar wrenching of the soul, a peculiar sense of doubt and bewilderment" (Du Bois, 1903/1996:203).

The following is one of Du Bois's best and most lyrical statements on the Veil: ~~ ~.

And [hen-the Veil, the Veil of color. 11 drops as drops the night on southern seas-vast. sutl- &I\, unanswrring. There is Hate behind i ~ . and Cruelty and Tears. As one peers tllrough its in- tricate, unfathomable pattern of ancient, old. old design, one sees blood and guilt and misunderstanding. And yet it hangs there, this Veil, between then and now, hetween Pale and Colored and Black and White--between You and Me. Surely it is but a thought-thing, tenuous, intangible: yet just as surely i s it true and terrible and not in our little day may ypu and I lift it. We may feverishly unravel its edges and even climb slow with giant shears to where its ringed and gilded top nestles close to the throne of Eternity. But as we work and climb we shall see through streanling eyes and hear with aching ears, lynclling ant1 murder, cheating and despis- ing, degmding and lying, so flashed and flashed through this vast hanging darkness that the Doer never sees the Deed and the Victim knows not the Victor and Each hate All in wild and bitter ig~ordnce. Listell, 0 Isles, to those voices from within the Veil, forthey poflray the most human hurt of the Twentieth Cycle.

(Du Bois, 192011 999: 143-144)

"After the death of his infant Ton. Du Bois (100311996:213) saw "(he world, . . darkly through the veil."

F''~

CHAPTER TEN: W. E. R. DU BOlS 31 9

the notable things about this ~t:llcilient is 1311 Uois's recoynition that w l~ i l e the Veil is a "thought thing," an itlea or rather a series of i d e n i t is 11ot eabily lifted, cut. QI.

des t roye~ It will be a long-term struggle to lift thc Veil :incl that event was not t o ciirne anytinle soon. That something like the Vcil cl~scr.ihe~l by Du Bois con l i~~ucs to c'iict points to the contintted i t i ipo~- t :~~rc o l this view, itldced :ill o i his ihiliking o s thc VcI.

C o n s c i o u s n e s s , or "Twoness"

closely related to the concept of the Veil. is onc ol ' l l r~ 13oiy's best-known and most in-

fluential ideas-rlo~,h/~-~or~~~~io~t,~~~~o.~rs. By thi.;, he ~ncans that a bl:~ch person 112s an n i l -

feeling, a ~cnsation of

looking at one's sell 'th~.o~~gl~ Ihc cycs ol.otllcl.s, of rncdul-illg one's soul hy lhc tapc nf that looks on in an~uscd conle~npi ;rnd pity. Orlc e\,cl- kcl\ 1111s Iwo~lcss.-:r~l Atnc1.1-

,-an, a Negro; t\vo souls, two thoughts, I w i ~ ~~nl-c.concilc~l strivinfh; r\vo w;~l-rill: iclcals i l l tlllc dark body, wllosr dogged SIIWI~:~II ;iIn!l~ ~ C L ' P I i t ('1.17111 hcjllf tol-~l : I \ I I I I ~ ~ ~ .

t Du Roih, 10031 1996:5)

T~ this another way, African A~nericuns wcrc s;mult:lneously o~rtqiders 2nd in id t r s , 0, more specifically, outsiders within. Tlint is. they were ( m d lo ,ol))e depl.ee still arc) both inside and outside of the dominant white society (sep:)l.ated, of coul-se. by the Veil). On the one hand, this position gives the~n uniql~e ;)IICI perhaps enl~ancetl illsight into society as a whole (see his standpoint theory discussetl earlier); ancl on thc other i t produces enolmous tension that manifests itself in ;i l l sorts of patliologies within Ihe black con)-

munity. As Du Bois (1?03/1996:7) puts it, "tliis seeking to sntisly two irnreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and fiiith and deeds" of Negro Ame~.ic;~ns.

Given !he cxistencc of this double consciousness, n u Bois (190?/1996:6) argues that the American Negro longs "to attain self-conscious mnnhood, to merge his tlvuhle self into a better and tnler self. In this merging he wishcs neither of the oldrr [Negro. An~er- ican] selves to be lost.. . . He sitiiply wishes to make it possible Jbr a mull to be both a Negro and an American, without being c~u-sed and spit oooli by his Sellotvs, witllout I~:II,- ing the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face."

Du Bois's thiliking on double con~ciousness recon;ites with a na~nber of classical 2nd contemporary theoretical ide;~.;. For eunmpli.. Siinmcl'z "strangel." (see Chapter 81 would likely suffer from double consciousness. and black A~llericans c:in be thongllt of as strangers within white-dominated American society. blore contcnlp!~rtlnt.ou?;ly, Patri- cia I-Iill Collins's (1990; 1998) work on .'the o~~tsiclrr witl~i~l" has stronp ~.rssn~hl, i~ll^rs to Du Bois's thinking on double consciousness. The point is tllat althoufh Du Bois largely ignored by the mainstream within sociology i l l gcncral, and socivlo,oical theory in particular, and he gei~crally ignored i t , his ideas do resonate with a nulnbcr o f strarlds of theory and empirical ~tsearch within the mainstrean).

ECONOMICS

Du Bois devoted a great deal of attention to ecollonlic factors. ant1 nlrl~ougll hc dis- cussed many other factors (social, political, and go on). in the elid lie usually cnrne back to economics as the most basic and rnost irnporlar~t factor. For eu;lrnl)le: "The main

320 PART TWO: CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY CHAPTER TEN. W. E. U DU BOlS 321

weakness of the Negro's position is that since emancipation he has never had an ade- quate economic foundation" (Du Hois, 1935/1998:565). He tied this position into the kind of economic determinism often associated with Marx: "I believe in the dictt~m of Karl Marx, that the economic foundi~tion of a nation is widely decisive Ihr its politics, its art and its culture" (Du Bois, 1944/1995:610). As Lemert (2000:357) puts i t , "Du Bois's most distinctive theoretic;~l convictioln /was]: that rzice never stands alone, ap;~rt frorn econ0niic realities. . . . Race makes little sense apart from cl;~ss."

However, although Du Bois recognized the illtimate importance of economic Factors, he was highly critical of the attention accorded, and the amount or time and energy devoted, to the striving for economic success. At first, he criticized white America for its fetishization of money: for its overarching materialism. Later. he criticized the United States as a whole for this. He thought there were more important, "higher," things in life that had been lost sight of by white Americans. In contrast, Negroes had not yet accorded as much importance to material success (perhaps, at least in part, because they had not been given a real opportunity to achieve i t ) and Du Bois hoped they never would attach too much importance to material success. This is part of the reason why Du Bois argued so often and so determinedly for the importance of education, especially higher education, in the black community. Education would permit blacks to achieve a range of higher goals and objectives than mere economic success. This is also olle of the central reasons why DU Bois was critical of Booker T. Washington, especially the latter's economic focus on success in industry and the trades. Not only did Washington's philosophy relegate Negroes to secondary economic status, but also lost in this focus is the need for leadership, morality, and "self-respecting manhood for black folk" (Du Bois, 1904/1995:330). This is closely linked to Du Bois's view that Washington preached sub- servience and to Du Bois's (1904/1995:33I) refusal, as he puts it, "to kiss the hands that smite us."

KARL MARX, SOCIALISM, AND COMMUNISM

We have seen that early in his career, DuBois could have been considered in some re- spects quite conservative, even elitist. After completing the early scientific phase of his career, he became active in the Njagara Movement and in the NAACPin an effort to improve the situation of Negro American<. Ho\\,evcl-, these Lverc reformist or-gani~;~tion.; seeking change of, and within, the system. Indeed, Du Bois ( 1921/1995:555) admits this when in editorializing for the NAACP, he says: "We do not believe in revolution." Ear- lier, he had said: ''By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men" (Du Bois, 1903/1996:6 I). In these initial phases of his career he, like most other American social scientists and public intellectuals of the day, placed great faith in reforms of various types (for example, education) and even allowed himself romantic notions of harmony between blacks and whites: "Only by a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph (Du Bois, 1903/1996: 189j.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Du Bois (190311996: 151) was critical of socialism, characterizing it as "cheap and dangerous." However, as widespread reform movements proved ineffective, Du Bois was drawn to socialism and he retained an interest,

sympathy, md llopc i l l i t h r the rest ot' his l ife l-le joined the Socialist Party in 19 1 1 . *I- oh he soon he conrinucd to c o ~ ~ s i d e ~ . l ~ i ~ l ~ s c l f ' a soci;ilist. Toward the encl 01'

thou, lik, D~ nois (\958/I99S: 147) rctoinal that o~~c i l t i~ t io~> , altllol~gll he h;id come to col-

lapse the distinction Lvtwcen soc i i~ l i s~ l~ and m~nonunism: "I believe in sa i i~ l i s rn . I seek . wnrld where the ideals of communis~n will triun~ph--to eilch accortiing to h i s ~nrccl: .. - - from each according to his ability."

~~~l~ on, DLI Bois was critical o f soci;llist p;~~-ty orgril iz;~tio~~s (as well as the lxhor movesm~) for cootinuVg to discrirni~~i~te irgai~nsr Negroes. Mnr i i~ryortant. even as ble as 1933, ~u Bois to i~1hc1.c to t l~c view tln;lt the ''lnu8cst ;lild 11lost f:~t;ll ( l e g r ~

of itl [Negm labor's] sul'fering conles not lion] c:~pil;~lisls \lilt 1.1-or1 l e l l ~ ~ w r h t c l a~re rs . . ( 1 9331 1995h:54 I ) This \\I:* :I view tli:~t got$ all the way hick to 171rc Pliilfirlr/.

~~~m where Du Bois saw Negro workers slifiri~ng fro111 co~l l~ci i t ion from a l ~ i t e $borers, plilnarily i inmiglrlr . As ;I result, at this point DII Rvis holds out little lloyc f o r a union of black and white workers, Marxian theory, soci;ilism, and c o m m u ~ ~ i s m :

H~~ now docs tile philosophy of Karl Miwx :~pply today to colnlcd I;~bor'.' Fisst 0 1 all colored labor has no common ground with white labor. No soviet oTtcchr~ocrnt.\ wo~~ld do mol-e tha? e't-

,,loit colored l~bor in order to raise tlic s ls t~~s of ivllitcs. No rev011 oi a ivhiic prolet;lriill could be started if its objecl was to makc black workers tlirir eco~lonlic, po!ilic;ll n~ld social eqtl;ll?. 11

- 0 o problem. is fbr this reason that American socialis~n for lifly )ie;~l-s has heen dumb O I I the NL,~ and the communists cannot even yet a respeclh~l henring in America unless they begin by eu- pelling Negroes. . . . There is nor at present the slightes~ inilicatio~l tllilt a i*l:lrrion re\'olut~on based on a united class-conscious pro1et;11.int is anywhere on thc American far horizon.

(Du Bois. 193311 995b:542-544)

However, by the 1940s. Du Bois had come to the view that t11c white working class could come to form an alliance with black workers. at least in the South (Du B O ~ .

-\ 1947/1995:545-550). Ultimately, Du Bois (l957/1995:357) came to the conclusion "that without the overthrow of capitalist monopoly the Negro cannot survive in the United States as a self-respecting cultural unit, integrating gradually into the nation, bul not on terms which imply self-destruction or loss of his possiblc gifts to America."

Gradually, in his later years, Du Bois movetl fitfully in the directicin of communisl~l. This was motivated, in part, by the experiences he had durinp his travels around the world, especially the Sovict Union. Following 3n early visit there, lit- 171-ncl:ri~ncd: "1 nil1 a Bolshevik" (Du Bois. 1926/1995b:582). Although he co~ltinuetl to I~ave reservntions about communism as it was practiced in the Soviet Union, he was especially critical o l American communism and its leaders ("young jackasses") (Du Rois, 1931/1995:.588). Still later, in another of his dramatic shifts, he beca~ne so~nething of a worshiper of boll1 the Soviet Union and China. This led to some unfort~unnte ;und enlbarsnssing statements. including applauding "democracy" in the Soviet Union, welcoming the Sovict ~.eprcssion of the Hungarian uprising, contending that "Joseph St;~lin n'aq a great nuan" (1111 Bois. 1953/1995:796), and arguing that "It was only a matter of time and a co~nl,;~r-atively short time when the Soviet Union will lead the world in inclustry" (Du Bois, 1968:39).

By the 1950s. discouraged by the continuing ht~miliation of. and discriminntion against, African Americans, DII Bois was arguing for some sort of s o c i a l i s t / c o n ~ ~ n ~ l n ~ change within the United States. He suggested "d~lstically curbing the l~rcsent power 01

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Documents

W.E.B.DuBois