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World Changers
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W.E.B DuBois
W.E.B. DuBois was born three years after the end of the Civil War in a small black community. In his early years, DuBois experienced enough racism to turn him from a young, happy, good-natured, and outgoing boy into reserved and unsociable young man. These racial innuendoes and attitudes of fellow citizens mutated his personality, and were later reinforced through further incidents of discrimination. DuBois first real experiences of feeling unwanted due to his race caused him to fall into moments of sadness, pushing him to seek solace in the hills. As time went on, he realized that some people in his town considered his brown skin a "misfortune" and he knew "days of secret tears". He became very sensitive to the reactions of others, and this acute perception probably served to spare him from many experiences of racial discrimination. He learned quickly to only join his companions when they indicated that they wanted him and went elsewhere otherwise. DuBois' hurts were further antagonized as he listened to his relatives and their complaints as they blamed their lack of success on racial discrimination. Due to his upbringing and reinforcements from relatives, DuBois learned to dislike the white race and the misfortunes brought upon him due to his race. Looking into a larger window, DuBois was born during the Reconstruction Era. At this time, Negroes were to remain an economically marginal group. They were to remain politically and socially powerless and segregated from the whites. Custom demanded that Negroes should be treated as a separate and inferior people. Blacks were given the opportunity to taste fragments of freedom, yet never allowed to experience it in full. Elements such as black codes set limitations upon blacks due to former generations, levels of education, taxes on property, and so forth, which inhibited them from being able to progress. Circumstances like these, in addition to others, added to the plight of blacks as they searched for freedom. The lengths that the white southerners took in order to "keep blacks in their place" were tremendous and unrelenting. These conditions motivated Negroes to seek solutions to the race problem and various plans for salvation were explored. It was at this time that black leadership had to find a way to improve the situation of their people. Due to the circumstances at hand and the opportunity for improvements to take place, DuBois' role was born. As an avid student, DuBois became the local correspondent for the New York Globe at the age of fifteen. It was in this position, that he conceived it his duty to push his race forward through lectures and editorials. DuBois thought that hard study would grant him immunity from the racial disabilities which his kinsmen experienced. It seemed clear to him that earnest effort in all that he attempted was the only way "to equal the whites". While in highschool, DuBois showed a keen concern for the development of his race, and it is probably true that no small reason for this solicitude was his sense of isolation from the whites in Great Barrington. DuBois continued on to Fisk College and pushed forward. He studied in Tennessee were his knowledge of race became more definitive. He saw discrimination in ways he never dreamed of and was determined to try and solve the problem at hand. While receiving his education, DuBois came to several realizations about the ways of the world dealt with issues of race. Due to this, he became a writer, editor, and orator and his real fight began with the issues of race, color, and civil rights. His energy soon became forced into other areas as he helped organize and participate in events meant to reshape the ideas of society. He did this through organizing the First Annual Pan-African Congress, the Niagara Movement, and the foundation of the NAACP. The NAACP was an organization that stood for many of the same things as DuBois did. They fought for black political power and civil rights as they worked to educate the black youth of America. Though DuBois later left the NAACP, there is no doubt that his ideals were the catalysts for the mission of the organization. After leaving the NAACP, DuBois remained a vital intellectual force, as he was continually committed to solving "the twentieth century's problem of the color line". He increasingly became more involved with other activists who were also addressing the problems of African-American oppression. DuBois greatest achievements were his writings. DuBois practiced what he preached and his mightiest weapon was his pen. He used it to encourage blacks to be proud of what they have and can accomplish, and to fight for the rights that they had been denied for 500 years. All of DuBois' acts were centered around his main beliefs which are as follows: He believed that the crimes of racism and exploitation necessitated the unity of Africans throughout the world. He saw that only through education could blacks gain status and that after gaining knowledge, they needed to integrate themselves into the white society. His opinion was that the blacks needed to work to become active parts of American society and join together to fight for the same cause. DuBois is generally recognized as a central figure in the history of
African-American politics. He was one of the twentieth century's greatest
scientific minds and his accomplishments to battle racism and to bring
peace are impressive. His discoveries and predictions concerning race,
civilization, world and African history have significantly altered the
world and the relationships within. The civil rights movement owes more
to him than any other single person. One writer stated that he "has done
more for the advancement of the American Negro than any other living man".
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"He would not
bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism for he knows that
Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible
for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and
spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed
roughly in his face." - W.E.B. DuBois