[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 9, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2510-E2511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING W.E.B. DuBOIS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 8, 2003

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, on the eve of the 1963 March on Washington, 
the life of one of the 20th century's most brilliant individuals came 
to an end. W.E.B. DuBois--scholar, Pan-Africanist, political leader, 
champion of the struggle against white supremacy in the United States--
died in Ghana on August 27, 1963. This year marks the 40th anniversary 
of DuBois' death.
  DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, 
Massachusetts. At that time Great Barrington had perhaps 25, but not 
more than 50, Black people out of a population of about 5,000.
  While in high school DuBois showed a keen concern for the development 
of his race. At age fifteen he became the local correspondent for the 
New York Globe. While in this position he conceived it his duty to push 
his race forward by lectures and editorials reflecting the need for 
Black people to politicize themselves.
  Upon graduating high school DuBois desired to attend Harvard. 
Although he lacked the financial resources, the aid of family and 
friends, along with a scholarship he received to Fisk College (now 
University), allowed him to head to Nashville, Tennessee to further his 
education.
  In his three years at Fisk (1885-1888), DuBois' first trip to the 
south, his knowledge of the race problem manifested. After seeing 
discrimination in unimaginable ways, he developed a determination to 
expedite the emancipation of his people. As a result, he became a 
writer, editor, and a passionate orator. Simultaneously, he acquired a 
belligerent attitude toward the color bar.
  After graduation from Fisk, DuBois entered Harvard through 
scholarships. He received his bachelor's degree in 1890 and immediately 
began working toward his master's and doctor's degrees. After studying 
at the University of Berlin for some time, DuBois obtained his doctor's 
degree from Harvard. Indeed, his doctoral thesis, The Suppression of 
the African Slave Trade in America, remains the authoritative work on 
that subject, and is the first volume in Harvard's Historical Series.

  At the age of twenty-six, DuBois accepted a teaching job at 
Wilberforce in Ohio. After two years at Wilberforce, DuBois accepted a 
special fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a 
research project in Philadelphia's seventh ward slums. This gave him 
the opportunity to study Blacks as a social system. The result of this 
endeavor was The Philadelphia Negro. This was the first time such a 
scientific approach to studying social phenomena was undertaken. 
Consequently, DuBois is known as the father of Social Science. After 
completing the study, DuBois accepted a position at Atlanta University 
to further his teachings in sociology.
  Originally, DuBois believed that social science could provide the 
knowledge to solve the race problem. However, he gradually concluded 
that in a climate of violent racism, social change could only be 
accomplished through protest. In this view, he clashed with Booker T. 
Washington, the most influential black leader of the period. Washington 
preached a philosophy of accommodation, urging blacks to accept 
discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard 
work and economic gain, thus winning the respect of whites. DuBois 
believed that Washington's strategy, rather than freeing the black man 
from oppression, would serve only to perpetuate it.
  Two years later, in 1905, DuBois led the founding of the Niagara 
Movement; a small organization chiefly dedicated to attacking the 
platform of Booker T. Washington. The organization, which met annually 
until 1909, served as the ideological backbone and direct inspiration 
for the NAACP, founded in 1909. DuBois played a prominent part in the 
creation of the NAACP and became the association's director of research 
and editor of its magazine, The Crisis.
  Indeed, DuBois' Black Nationalism had several forms. The most 
influential of which was his advocacy of Pan-Africanism; the belief 
that all people of African descent had common interests and should work 
together in the struggle for their freedom. As the editor of The 
Crisis, DuBois encouraged the development of Black literature and art. 
DuBois urged his readers and the world to see ``Beauty in Black.''
  Due to disagreements with the organization, DuBois resigned from the 
editorship of The Crisis and the NAACP in 1934 and returned to Atlanta 
University. He would devote the next 10 years of his life to teaching 
and scholarship. He completed two major works after resuming his duties 
at Atlanta University. His book, Black Reconstruction, dealt with the 
socio-economic development of the nation after the Civil War and 
portrayed the contributions of the Black people to this period. Before, 
Blacks were always portrayed as disorganized and chaotic. His second 
book of this period, Dusk of Dawn, was completed in 1940 and expounded 
his concepts and views on both the African's and African American's 
quest for freedom.
  In 1945, he served as an associate consultant to the American 
delegation at the founding conference of the United Nations in San 
Francisco. Here, he charged the world organization with planning to be 
dominated by imperialist nations and not intending to intervene on the 
behalf of colonized countries. He announced that the fifth Pan-African 
Congress would convene to determine what pressure to apply to the world 
powers. This all-star cast included Kwame Nkrumah, a dedicated 
revolutionary, father of Ghanaian independence, and first president of 
Ghana; George Padmore, an international revolutionary, often called the 
``Father of African Emancipation,'' who later became Nkrumah's advisor 
on African Affairs; and Jomo Kenyatta, called the ``Burning Spear,'' 
reputed leader of the Mau Mau uprising, and first president of 
independent Kenya. The Congress elected DuBois International President 
and cast him the ``Father of Pan-Africanism.''
  This same year he published Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace, 
and in 1947 produced The World and Africa. DuBois's outspoken criticism 
of American foreign policy and his involvement with the 1948 
presidential campaign of Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace led 
to his dismissal from the NAACP in the fall of 1948.
  During the 1950's DuBois's continuing work with the international 
peace movement and open expressions of sympathy for the USSR drew the 
attention of the United States government and further isolated DuBois 
from the civil rights mainstream. In 1951, at the height of the Cold 
War, he was indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938. 
Although he was acquitted of the charge, the Department of State 
refused to issue DuBois a passport in 1952, barring him from foreign 
travel until 1958. Once the passport ban was lifted, DuBois and his 
wife traveled extensively, visiting England, France, Belgium, Holland, 
China, the USSR, and much of the Eastern bloc. On May 1, 1959, he was 
awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in Moscow. In 1960, DuBois attended the 
inauguration of his friend Kwame Nkrumah as the first president of 
Ghana. The following year DuBois accepted Nkrumah's invitation to move 
there and work on the Encyclopedia Africana, a project that was never 
completed.
  On August 27, 1963, on the eve of the March on Washington, DuBois 
died in Accra, Ghana at the age of 94. Historians consider DuBois one 
of the most influential African Americans before the Civil Rights 
Movement of the 1960's. Born only six years after emancipation, he was 
active well into his 90's. Throughout his long life, DuBois remained 
Black America's leading public intellectual. He was a spokesman for the 
Negro's rights at a time when few were listening. By the time he

[[Page E2511]]

died, he had written 17 books, edited four journals and played a 
leading role in reshaping black-white relations in America.

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