Masaryk University

4.2 W.E.B. Du Bois

As mentioned before, Du Bois’s contributions were not as direct as Washington’s. However, the associations which he helped to form or was a part of, strived for the same thing as Washington’s Tuskegee. Starting with The Niagara movement …"incorporated January 31, 1906, in the District of Columbia" Du Bois started to build up his reputation as a leader. There were 8 principles that Du Bois and other 28 members of The Niagara Movement wanted to advocate and promote for the African-American race. Only 3 points, out of 8, are important for this thesis as they mention education and signs of strategy for the uplift:

1. Freedom of speech and criticism.

2. An unfettered and unsubsidized press.

3. Manhood suffrage.

4. The abolition of all caste distinctions based simply on race and color.

5. The recognition of the principle of human brotherhood as practical present creed.

6. The recognition of the highest and best human training as the monopoly of no class or race.

7. A belief in the dignity of color.

8. United effort to realize these ideals under wise and courageous leadership. (Du Bois, p.249)

With taking a closer look on the points of 6 and 7 Du Bois (along with the other members) is sending out the message that there is no need for segregation or suppression of the rights for African-American people as we are equal; no matter the skin or race. In the point 7, they also highlight that there is no need for African-American people to be just manually / industrially focused – have dignity – African-American people should be put in the leading positions. What is more, point 8 is connected to Du Bois’s Talented Tenth as it describes the basic concept of it; few in charge and the rest support the same cause.

Nevertheless, Du Bois in his Autobiography of W.E.B Du Bois, page 253, states that The Niagara Movement had not met the expectations in which Du Bois would hope for, and that he had to move on, and thus NAACP was born: "The Niagara Movement with less momentum met in Boston in 1907 and in Oberlin in 1908…Finally, it practically became merged with a new and enveloping organization of which I became a leading official – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People." The NAACP was an organization with a similar purpose as The Niagara Movement, but it was better organized and more importantly it was more financed. "In 1909 DuBois helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization and similar groups formed since then have fought to end discrimination against black people and to obtain their full rights as citizens. They’ve worked toward these goals by taking legal action and making appeals to public opinion." (African American Autonomy) Du Bois in his Autobiography of W.E.B Du Bois, page 270, in a chapter specifically dedicated to the formation and information about NAACP tells his readers what he was trying to achieve:

But this was only part of my work. In the United States I was still fighting the battle of liberalism against race prejudice; trying to adjust war and postwar problems to the questions of racial justice; trying to show form the injustices of mobs and lynchings; encouraging Negro migration; helping woman suffrage; encouraging the new rush of young blacks to collage; watching and explaining the political situation and traveling and lecturing over thousands of miles and in hundreds of centers. In addition to this I was encouraging the writing of others and trying to help develop Negro art and literature.

With the merging of The Niagara Movement with the NAACP, Du Bois gained means to finally start promoting and realizing his strategy for the uplift of African-American people in ways mentioned previously. This inevitably divided African-American community into two separate camps: pro-Washington and pro-DuBois.