History And Development Of Black Protest Rhetoric Of Web Dubois

W.E.B DuBois was a very educated man he received his Doctoral degree from Harvard University and was the first black male to do so. Dubois was an activist of the black community. As remarked once by Martin Luther King Jr. ‘history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man.’ Throughout his career, his ideas of ‘educate and agitate’ certainly agitated other black leaders and revolutionaries such as the likes of Marcus Garvey and his Back to Africa Movement or Booker T. Washington founder of Tuskegee Institute. His rivalry with Washington the most famous as Washington produced as many results as he did. His belief was firmly in the idea of ‘racial uplift’ and using agriculture as a way to do that. Washington also was for reconciling with the South and forgetting past discrepancies against blacks when they were once slaves and even after emancipation facing Jim Crow and lynching’s for those who did not abide the ‘separate but equal’ doctrines. DuBois was a firm believer of the ‘Talented Tenth’ of blacks and working toward making them the leaders and educators of the race. As well as forging ahead to make the black race of great repute in America.

Born February 23, 1868, William Edward Burghardt DuBois in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. DuBois became one of the most successful social activist, scholar and writer of the twentieth century. He descended of African, French, and Dutch lineage hence his name. DuBois was one of 25-50 blacks who lived in Great Barrington out of 5,000 whites. (http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois) So therefore signs of blatant Jim Crow and racism were not made blatant, there was a tone underlying the attitudes of those whom lived there? DuBois’ personality became abrupt and sullen as he got older as opposed to cheerful and outgoing as he had been when he was young. (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/web-dubois-is-born)

Back tracking a bit to the year 1903 W.E.B Dubois was in a heated intellectual battle with a few southern leaders Booker T. Washington was the main target of Dubois. Booker T. Washington delivered a speech that would later be known as the “Atlanta compromise”. At the time, the Washington/Dubois dispute polarized African American leaders into two wings–the ‘conservative’ supporters of Washington and his ‘radical’ critics. The Du Bois philosophy of agitation and protest for civil rights flowed directly into the Civil Rights movement which began to develop in the 1950’s and exploded in the 1960’s.

Dubois’s speech in response to Washington wrote in one of his most acclaimed works “The souls of black folk” was called “Equality and Education”. Dubois employed a Value claim in order to deter everything that was stated in the “Atlanta compromise” a Value claim is where the speaker is advocating a judgment claim determining whether it was good or bad right or wrong. In this instance he was saying that Washington’s solution was the wrong one and would the black community in a very bad state. Dubois stated this clearly in his letter when he stated: ‘The criticism that has hitherto met Mr. Washington has not always been of this broad character. In the south especially has he had to walk warily to avoid the harsh judgments, and naturally so, for he is dealing with the one subject of deepest sensitivities to that section. Twice ,once when at the Chicago celebration of the Spanish-American War he alluded to the color-prejudice that is “eating away he vitals of the south,” and once when he dined with President Roosevelt has he resulting Southern criticism been violent enough to threaten seriously his popularity in the North the feeling has several times forced itself into words that Mr. Washington’s counsels of submission overlooked certain elements of true manhood and that his educational pregame was unnecessarily narrow.’ (W.E.B Dubois)

Bibliography

2. http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.naacp.org: http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois

3. W.E.B Dubois. (n.d.). , Equality and Education . In T. R. Frazier, African American History.