W.E.B. DU BOIS Recent Titles in Greenwood Biographies Sacagawea: A Biography April R. Summitt Yo-Yo Ma: A Biography Jim Whiting Ellen DeGeneres: A Biography Lisa Iannucci Frida Kahlo: A Biography Claudia Schaefer John McCain: A Biography Elaine S. Povich Beyonce Knowles: A Biography Janice Arenofsky Jerry Garcia: A Biography Jacqueline Edmondson Coretta Scott King: A Biography Laura T. McCarty Kanye West: A Biography Bob Schaller Peyton Manning: A Biography Lew Freedman Miley Cyrus: A Biography Kimberly Dillon Summers Ted Turner: A Biography Michael O’Connor George Clooney: A Biography Joni Hirsch Blackman Will Smith: A Biography Lisa M. Iannucci W.E.B. DU BOIS A Biography Gerald Horne GREENWOOD BIOGRAPHIES GREENWOOD PRESS An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC Copyright 2010 by Gerald Horne All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horne, Gerald. W.E.B. Du Bois : a biography / Gerald Horne. p. cm. — (Greenwood biographies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-34979-9 (hard copy : acid-free paper)— ISBN 978-0-313-34980-5 (ebook) 1. Du Bois, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868–1963. 2. African Americans — Biography. 3. African American authors —Biography. 4. African American intellectuals—Biography. 5. African American civil rights workers —Biography. 6. Intellectuals —United States—Biography. 7. Civil rights workers —United States —Biography. 8. African Americans— Civil rights—History. 9. Pan-Africanism— History. I. Title. E185.97.D73H68 2009 303.48'4092 — dc22 2009031618 [B] 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Greenwood Press An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Series Foreword vii Preface ix Introduction xi Timeline: Events in the Life of W.E.B. Du Bois xvii Chapter 1 Beginnings 1 Chapter 2 Dr. Du Bois 17 Chapter 3 When Titans Collide 33 Chapter 4 Present at the Creation 49 Chapter 5 A New Path 65 Chapter 6 Confl icts 81 Chapter 7 Talented Tenths 99 Chapter 8 Divorces 115 Chapter 9 Wars 131 Chapter 10 Turning Point 147 vi CONTENTS Chapter 11 Trials 163 Chapter 12 Redemption 179 Selected Bibliography 193 Index 199 About the Author 213 Photo essay follows page 98 SERIES FOREWORD In response to high school and public library needs, Greenwood devel- oped this distinguished series of full-length biographies specifi cally for student use. Prepared by fi eld experts and professionals, these engaging biographies are tailored for high school students who need challenging yet accessible biographies. Ideal for secondary school assignments, the length, format and subject areas are designed to meet educators’ require- ments and students’ interests. Greenwood offers an extensive selection of biographies spanning all curriculum-related subject areas including social studies, the sciences, literature and the arts, history and politics, as well as popular culture, cov- ering public fi gures and famous personalities from all time periods and backgrounds, both historic and contemporary, who have made an im- pact on American and/or world culture. Greenwood biographies were chosen based on comprehensive feedback from librarians and educa- tors. Consideration was given to both curriculum relevance and in- herent interest. The result is an intriguing mix of the well known and the unexpected, the saints and sinners from long-ago history and con- temporary pop culture. Readers will fi nd a wide array of subject choices from fascinating crime fi gures like Al Capone to inspiring pioneers like viii SERIES FOREWORD Margaret Mead, from the greatest minds of our time like Stephen Hawking to the most amazing success stories of our day like J. K. Rowling. While the emphasis is on fact, not glorifi cation, the books are meant to be fun to read. Each volume provides in-depth information about the subject’s life from birth through childhood, the teen years, and adult- hood. A thorough account relates family background and education, traces personal and professional infl uences, and explores struggles, accomplish- ments, and contributions. A timeline highlights the most signifi cant life events against a historical perspective. Bibliographies supplement the reference value of each volume. PREFACE As even the most casual reader will readily detect, this biography stands on the shoulders of the previous prodigious labor of two scholars in par- ticular: Herbert Aptheker and David Levering Lewis. I— and indeed all those who seek to understand W.E.B. Du Bois — am in their debt. INTRODUCTION W.E.B. Du Bois was stunned. It was February 1951, and the diminutive—fi ve feet six inches tall— and balding, caramel-colored intellectual, was well into his ninth de- cade when he was taken to criminal court, fi ngerprinted, made to empty his pockets, frisked for concealed weapons, and handcuffed. This was a major setback for the man who had grown accustomed to being regaled because of his essential role in the founding of the NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), his diligent labor as the “ Father of Pan-Africanism,” his doctor- ate from Harvard, his pioneering research on the unlamented African slave trade, his trailblazing book on Reconstruction or the post–American Civil War era, his thought-provoking novels, his globetrotting, and his race for the U.S. Senate from New York — a race he had lost ignomini- ously, just before his arrest. But times had changed as Du Bois —who spoke in clipped, stentorian tones refl ecting his upbringing in New England — would be the fi rst to acknowledge. The Soviet Union, which had allied with the United States during the war against Hitler’s Germany and Imperial Japan in the war that had concluded in 1945, was now widely viewed as — to use xii INTRODUCTION the epithet that came to be popularized later — the “Evil Empire,” and Du Bois was now clamoring for friendship with Moscow, not least be- cause of the prospect that nuclear war between his nation and this emerging antagonist could obliterate humanity. Indeed, the criminal charge — and prison term — he faced, that could effectively have killed this aging man, was that he had failed to register as an agent of an un- named foreign power, which was presumed to the Soviet Union. Five years after the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, Du Bois assumed the leadership of the Peace Information Center, an international nonprofi t organization dedicated to banning nuclear weapons. Since the end of the Pacifi c War, tensions had risen between Moscow and Washington, both proud possessors of these weapons of mass destruction, and with the war that had erupted on the Korean pen- insula in June 1950 — where these two superpowers backed opposing sides — there was a real fear that a nuclear war could well ensue. So moved, Du Bois — who long had combined political and intellectual ac- tivism—took to the podium and the picket line as the leader of the Peace Information Center, as he expressed his alarm about this chilling turn of events. This vanguard role was nothing new for William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868, Du Bois grew up during the height of Reconstruction — the period that spelled hope for 4 million newly freed slaves of African descent. But this was to prove to be a false dawn as Du Bois —who ranks with Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frederick Douglass as, per- haps, the most important African American of all time — was to spend his life in a nation that was scarred indelibly by racial segregation or Jim Crow legislation and policies. Yet, virtually at the moment he breathed his last breath — he died August 27, 1963, in self-imposed exile in Accra, Ghana — a new era was beginning, as the March on Washing- ton, where Dr. King was to give his “ I Have a Dream” speech, was initi- ating a new era. In a perverse irony, Du Bois was unable to reap the harvest to which he had contributed so much, as he died before the passage in Washing- ton of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which changed the face of the nation. During his storm-tossed life, Du Bois pursued virtually every avenue available to bring about the INTRODUCTION xiii laws of freedom that did not materialize until he died. He embraced or fl irted with a variety of ideologies, including racial integration, Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Marxism, while pursuing alterna- tively vigorous activism and rigorous scholarship. After graduating from Fisk University, he matriculated at the University of Berlin (his facility in German was more than adequate) and Harvard University, emerg- ing as a leading scholar. He went on to pursue scholarship relentlessly at Wilberforce University and the University of Pennsylvania — it was there that he produced The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, one of the fi rst exemplars of the emerging fi eld of urban sociology. But Du Bois came to see that it was insuffi cient to produce sterling scholarship when the people whose cause he served were writhing in agony as lynchings, debt slavery, massive unemployment, and coruscat- ing racism were prevalent throughout the land of his birth.