W.E.B. Du Bois: American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist

The following article is a summary based on an interview Ralph McGill and Mark Lewis did on Mr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois who was a prominent spokesman for Negro civil rights. Mr. Du Bois was an honored Ghanaian citizen scholar and civil rights fighter of the Negro people. The interview was made possible after a luncheon was hosted at the University of Ghana by the then Vice Chancellor. Mr. Du Bois was a fiercely independent individual who was very sensitive intellectually and had passionately fought for the civil rights and citizenship of Negros for over fifty years. Mr. Du Bois status and beliefs placed him in an opposing position against Mr. Booker T. Washington. Mr. Du Bois after greeting his guest started by asking him whether he knew Joel Harris. Ralph had not met Joel Harris but had met his son and daughter. Mr. Du Bois told Ralph that he had a letter of introduction he had planned to give to Joel Harris but as he was on his way to present it to him he saw a grocery store which had displayed the fingers of a lynched Negro (McGill, 1965). This made him not to reach his destination. It is assumed that he turned back and went back to fighting for Negro rights. Du Bois mentioned that he wished he had gone to John Harris and presented him with the letter. Though Harris was a kind man Du Bois believed that he saw the Negro people as separate and lesser citizens. He also said that Washington helped them to rationalize this concept. 

Du Bois believed Washington to be a sincere man only that he was wrong. The reason for this was that Mr. Washington had been born into slavery while Du Bois was born free. The difference in opinion Du Bois and Washington had caused a lot of controversy but the controversy was more visible between their followers rather than themselves. Mr. Washington was of the opinion that Negros should get vocational and industrial education so that in future they would command enough respect and presence to be granted full civil rights. Du Bois wanted these civil rights to be granted to the Negros immediately. Du Bois believed that Washington had died feeling betrayed because what he had fought for was being slowly shunned by the white people who had supported his way of fighting for Negros civil rights. Mr. Du Bois might not have agreed with the ways Washington was trying to fight for civil rights but he had no doubt that without the position he held there would have never been the Plessy- Ferguson decision of 1896. Du Bois was a scholar and dealt with small crowds. The people he taught mentioned that Du Bois was a leader who dreamt of teaching and educating a talented tenth who would later lead the fight of gaining full civil rights and equality for Negros. Mr. Du Bois had in 1917 launched an attack on the primary system which was in use by the whites because it was main reason why Negros had been barred from participating in the ballot. During most of Mr. Du Bois lifetime he fought for the attainment of civil rights to the Negros but as he grew older he focused his attention on movements for socialism and world peace. Mr. Du Bois died on the eve before the march on Washington. It was like an act of fate because just as he went silent his lifetime work had started being achieved and was loud enough for everyone to know of it in a way that could not be ignored. 

Reference 

McGill, R. (1965). W.E.B. Du Bois . Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/black/mcgillbh.htm