(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE INAMERICA. Today we tell about W. E. B. Du Bois. He was anAfrican-American writer, teacher and protest leader.
VOICE ONE:
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois fought for civil rights forblack people in the United States. During the Nineteen-Twenties andNineteen-Thirties, he was the person most responsible for thechanges in conditions for black people in American society. He alsowas responsible for changes in the way they thought aboutthemselves.
William Du Bois was the son of free blacks who lived in anorthern state. His mother was Mary Burghardt. His father was AlfredDu Bois. His parents had never been slaves. Nor were their parents.William was born into this free and independent African-Americanfamily in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
VOICE TWO:
William’s mother felt that ability and hard work would lead tosuccess. She urged him to seek an excellent education. In the earlypart of the century, it was not easy for most black people to get agood education. But William had a good experience in school. Hisintelligence earned him the respect of other students. He movedquickly through school.
It was in those years in school that William Du Bois learned whathe later called the secret of his success. His secret, he said, wasto go to bed every night at ten o’clock.
VOICE ONE:
After high school, William decided to attend Fisk University, acollege for black students in Nashville, Tennessee. He thought thatgoing to school in a southern state would help him learn more aboutthe life of most black Americans. Most black people lived in thesouth in those days.
He soon felt the effects of racial prejudice. He found that poor,uneducated white people judged themselves better than he was becausethey were white and he was black. From that time on, William Du Boisopposed all kinds of racial prejudice. He never missed a chance toexpress his opinions about race relations.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
William Du Bois went to excellent colleges, Harvard University inBoston, Massachusetts and the University of Berlin in Germany. Hereceived his doctorate degree in history from Harvard inEighteen-Ninety-Five.
His book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study was publishedfour years later. It was the first study of a black community in theUnited States. He became a professor of economics and history atAtlanta University in Eighteen Ninety-Seven. He remained there untilNineteen-Ten.
William Du Bois had believed that education and knowledge couldhelp solve the race problem. But racial prejudice in the UnitedStates was causing violence. Mobs of whites killed blacks. Lawsprovided for separation of the races. Race riots were common.
The situation in the country made Mister Du Bois believe thatsocial change could happen only through protest.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Du Bois’s belief in the need for protest clashed with theideas of the most influential black leader of the time, Booker T.Washington.
Mister Washington urged black people to accept unfair treatmentfor a time. He said they would improve their condition through hardwork and economic gain. He believed that in this way blacks wouldwin the respect of whites.
Mister Du Bois attacked this way of thinking in his famous book,”The Souls of Black Folk.” The book was a collection of separatepieces he had written. It was published in Nineteen-Oh-Three.
In the very beginning of “TheSouls of Black Folk” he expressed the reason he felt the book wasimportant:
VOICE THREE:
“Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience mayshow the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of theTwentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you,Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is theproblem of the color line.”
VOICE TWO:
Later in the book, Mister Du Bois explained the struggle blacks,or Negroes as they then were called, faced in America:
VOICE THREE:
“One ever feels his twoness — an American, a Negro: two souls,two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideas in onedark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being tornasunder. … He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to beboth a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon byhis fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughlyin his face.”
VOICE ONE:
W. E. B. Du Bois charged that Booker Washington’s plan would notfree blacks from oppression, but would continue it. The disputebetween the two leaders divided blacks into two groups – the”conservative” supporters of Mister Washington and his “extremist”opponents.
In Nineteen-Oh-Five, Mister Du Bois established the NiagaraMovement to oppose Mister Washington. He and other black leaderscalled for complete political, civil and social rights for blackAmericans.
The organization did not last long. Disputes among its membersand a campaign against it by Booker T. Washington kept it fromgrowing. Yet the Niagara Movement led to the creation inNineteen-Oh-Nine of an organization that would last, the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Du Boisbecame director of research for the organization. He also becameeditor of the N-A-A-C-P magazine, “The Crisis.”
VOICE TWO:
W. E. B. Du Bois felt that it was good for blacks to be linkedthrough culture and spirit to the home of their ancestors.Throughout his life he was active in the Pan-African movement.Pan-Africanism was the belief that all people who came from Africahad common interests and should work together in their struggle forfreedom.
Mister Du Bois believed black Americans should supportindependence for African nations that were European colonies. Hebelieved that once African nations were free of European controlthey could be markets for products and services made by blackAmericans.
He believed that blacks should develop a separate “groupeconomy.” A separate market system, he said, could be a weapon forfighting economic injustice against blacks and for improving theirpoor living conditions.
Mister Du Bois also called for the development of blackliterature and art. He urged the readers of the N-A-A-C-P magazine,”The Crisis,” to see beauty in black.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, W. E. B. Du Bois resigned from hisposition at The Crisis” magazine. It was during the severe economicdepression in the United States. He charged that the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People supported theinterests of successful blacks. He said the organization was notconcerned with the problems of poorer blacks.
Mister Du Bois returned to Atlanta University, where he hadtaught before. He remained there as a professor for the next tenyears. During this period, he wrote about his involvement in boththe African and the African-American struggles for freedom.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Forty-Four, Mister Du Bois returned to the N-A-A-C-Pin a research position. Four years later he left after anotherdisagreement with the organization. He became more and moreconcerned about politics. He wrote:
VOICE THREE:
“As…a citizen of the world as well as of the United States ofAmerica, I claim the right to know and think and tell the truth as Isee it. I believe in Socialism as well as Democracy. I believe inCommunism wherever and whenever men are wise and good enough toachieve it; but I do not believe that all nations will achieve it inthe same way or at the same time. I despise men and nations whichjudge human beings by their color, religious beliefs or income. …I hate War.”
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Fifty, W. E. B. Du Bois became an official of thePeace Information Center. The organization made public the workother nations were doing to support peace in the world.
The United States government accused the group of supporting theSoviet Union and charged its officials with acting as foreignagents. A federal judge found Mister Du Bois not guilty. But mostAmericans continued to consider him a criminal. He was treated as ifhe did not exist.
In Nineteen-Sixty-One, at the age of Ninety-Two, Mister Du Boisjoined the Communist party of the United States. Then he and hissecond wife moved to Ghana in west Africa. He gave up his Americancitizenship a year later. He died in Ghana on August Twenty-Seventh,Nineteen-Sixty-Three.
His death was announced the next day to a huge crowd in front ofthe Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands ofblacks and whites had gathered for the March on Washington to seekimproved civil rights in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois hadhelped make that march possible.
((THEME))
VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Vivian Chakarian andproduced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week to another PEOPLE INAMERICA program on the Voice of America.