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rev. March 2010 Black Patriarchy, Black Women, and Black Progress: An Analysis ofW.E.B. DuBois and Anna Julia Cooper

by Nneka Dennie

Neil Roberts, Advisor

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Africana Studies

WILLIAMS COLLEGE

Williamstown, Massacl1usetts

May 9, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ...... 2

Introduction Theorizing Black Progress ...... 3 The Evolution of Race and Racism ...... 5 Temporality, Afro-modernity, and Racial Progress ...... 7 Conceptualizing Intersectionality ...... 11 Du Bois, Cooper, and Intersectionality ...... 13 DuBois's Gender Progressivism ...... 17 Criticizing Du Boisian Pro-Feminism ...... 22 Prospectus ...... 2 7

Chapter One DuBois's Unreconciled Strivings ...... 30 Du Bois Through Time ...... 35 Identifying the "Negro Problem" ...... 39 The Meaning of Racial Progress ...... 42 Education ...... 44 Self-Consciousness ...... 49 Race Leadership ...... 52 Questioning DuBois's Feminism ...... 56

Chapter Two A Feminist Response to the Negro Question ...... 63 On Regeneration: The Importance of Black Women ...... 64 The Negro Problem Revisited ...... 72 Political Faith and Racial Progress ...... 79 Responsibility and Racial Regeneration ...... 82 Black Behavior...... 85 White Behavior...... 89 Enlightened and Repressed Intersectionality ...... 91

Chapter Three Revisiting Enlightened and Repressed lntersectionality ...... 93 Anna Julia Cooper and Enlightened Intersectionality ...... 97 Black Women and Racial Progress ...... 101 W. E. B. Du Bois Between Repression and Enlightenment ...... 105 Black Patriarchy and Racial Progress ...... 11 0 Enlightened Intersectionality and Racial Progress ...... 117

Conclusion A Wo1nan's Worth ...... 120

Bibliography ...... 127 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This year-long endeavor began in the Spring of 2012 and has continued with the help of several individuals. I am incredibly thankful to many people who helped me to transform an amorphous idea about Black women's intellectual exclusion into a focused senior thesis.

I extend the sincerest thanks possible to Neil Roberts, who has served as my faculty advisor and unofficial life coach since I entered Williams in the Fall of 2009. This thesis would not have been possible without his guidance, sense of humor, patience with several missed deadlines, and unrelenting willingness to intellectually push me to my wit's end. I could continue to describe how my thesis-writing process has been enjoyable in part due to Professor Roberts's positivity, good taste in music, and endless wisdom. Instead, I will simply say that it has been a pleasure and an honor to work with Professor Roberts. I cannot thank him enough.

My thesis was also made possible with the help of dedicated faculty members. For their mentorship throughout my college career and for welcoming my unexpected visits to their offices, I thank James Manigault-Bryant and Devyn Spence Benson. I will always be grateful to Professor Benson, in addition to Rashida Braggs, for introducing me to an author who I examine in my thesis. I would like to thank Leslie Brown and Rhon Manigault-Bryant for their energy, constant supply of relevant books, and eagerness to discuss my thesis. These scholars regularly inspire me to challenge myself and I cherish the knowledge that they have shared with me.

Many thanks go to my friends, fellow thesis writers, and library carrel neighbors for sharing laughs, joining me in study sessions, and continually ensuring that my sanity remained intact throughout my writing process. I am particularly thankful to Michelle Almeida, Viviana Benjumea, Jabulani Blyden, Maya Dennis, Kenny Jean, Jay Mehta, Njeri Ndungu, Nykeah Parham, Chris Simmons, and Charlotte Vinson for the joy that they bring me and all that they teach me.

Finally, I warmly thank my family for their constant encouragement and support. My parents have shared my frustrations and celebrated my triumphs with me, while my sisters were always prepared to have late-night conversations or offer comic relief. My family helped me to strike the ideal balance between work and play. For that, I am grateful.

Thank you all for your continued contributions over the past four years.

2 INTRODUCTION

Theorizing Black Progress

The Negro race, like all races, js gojng to be saved by Hs exceptjonal men. W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Talented Tenth"1

At any rate, as our Caucasjan barristers are not to blame jftheycannot quite put themselves In the da1* mans place, neHher should the dark man be wholly expected fully and adequately to reproduce the exact Voke ofthe Black Woman. Anna Julia Cooper, "Our Raison d'Etre"2

Widely regarded as one of the most inspiring and politically active

African-American thinkers ofhis time, W.E.B. DuBois (1868- 1963) is a canonical figure in Black Studies and is gradually gaining distinction in the field of political theory. Du Bois provided revolutionary interpretations of freedom and justice, and consistently offered visionary analyses of race and the relationship between Blacks and Whites. His critique of racism in the United States and compelling defense of Black rights contributed significantly to the ongoing fight against racial oppression. Yet, in arguing for the education, economic fi:eedom, social advancement, and political rights of African Americans, Du Bois's claims are largely applicable to Black men alone. He deployed a rhetorical and conceptual framework of liberation that was fundamentally masculine. This is nowhere more evident than in his oft-cited The Souls ofBlack Folks (1903). The

1 W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Talented Tenth," in Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West, The Future of' the Race (New York: Vintage Books, 1996 [ 1903]), 133. 2 Anna Julia Cooper, "Our Raison d'Etre" in Charles Lemert, A Voice From the South (New York and Oxford: Row man & Littlefield Publishers, 1998 [ 1892]), 52. Hereinafter referred to as Voice.

3 work stands as a powerful articulation ofDu Bois's theories for racial progress.

However, it is overwhelmingly silent on the ways in which racism has burdened

African-American women and how they too have constructed and embraced a series of resistance strategies to confront, negotiate, and ameliorate the terms of racial oppression within the USA. Though he briefly acknowledged the gendered manifestations of racism in Darkwater: Voicesfi'om within the Veil ( 1920), in much of his discourse, DuBois remained remarkably oblivious to the importance of Black women and the consideration of what racial freedom must provide to them.

Black-feminist educator and philosopher Anna Julia Cooper (1858 -

1964), a contemporary of DuBois, oilers comparable insight into the plight of

African Americans while remaining attentive to Black women's oppression, contributions, and progress.3 Cooper was not only among the first scholar- activists to theorize about how to overcome racial oppression in the United States, but she was also among the first Black feminists who academically engaged the unique social standing of African-American women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite their contributions, Cooper's texts regularly exist on the margins of contemporary African-American and feminist scholarship.

In her 1892 book, A Voice.fi'om the South, Cooper presents a theory of racial uplift that revolves around the advancement of Black women. According to

Cooper, "the vital agency of womanhood in the regeneration and progress of a race" necessitates the education of Black women, for the influence that women

3 Karen A. Johnson and Runoko Rashidi. "A Brief Note on the Lives of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Burroughs: Profiles of African Woman Educators." Afl"ican American Literature Book Club. . Accessed 16 April 2013.

4 exert over homes and families determines the character, and hence, the progress of a people.4 For Cooper, it is only through the uplift of Black women that the uplift of all African Americans will occur.

The Evolution of Race and Racism

It is necessary to examine the fluid nature of race and racism in order to consider the contemporary relevance of the anti-racist projects that Cooper and

DuBois presented. Today, the color of one's skin is often conflated with "race."

Membership in a racial group is not determined based on genetics, but on a variety of phenotypic characteristics. Race is socially ascribed by a community's consensus that an individual belongs or does not belong to a particular race.

However, race cannot be understood solely as a combination of physical traits that some persons are believed to share. Such a view provides an inadequate and incomplete description of race that neglects its ideological and structural functions in societies.5 Racialization, the process of constructing race, is not finished once a race has been assigned to an individual. Rather, racialization is "the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed."6 The reality of race is produced in its effects on social relations and economic, legal, and political systems. In practice, racialization does not only differentiate between persons based on their bodily

4 Cooper, Voice, 60. 5 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, "Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation," American Sociological Review 62 (3), 1997. 6 Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, (New York: Routledge, 1994), 55.

5 appearance, but also creates a racial hierarchy by elevating some races and jeopardizing others.

Because race is socially constructed, racial categories and their

significance are continually debated and subject to change. Racial distinctions are

constantly shaped through an ongoing process of redefinition, inclusion, and

exclusion. In the United States, laws, court cases, and governmental policies have

historically regulated the construction of various racial categories. 7 Racialization

also occurs through daily practices of identity formation, including self-

identification and social ascription. 8 Conceptions of race adapt in order to

challenge or maintain a particular social order; likewise, racism evolves as race

concepts transform. Racism emerges as a byproduct of and complement to

racialization. Specific racial ideologies become incorporated into facets of daily

life, leading to social and structural racial domination. Though it is at first

manifested as an ideology, racism becomes ingrained in institutions, transforms

into a central organizing principle of society, and creates racial hierarchies.9 The

nature of a racial hierarchy may vary, ranging from direct domination to covert

hegemony. 10

Because racism is simultaneously an ideological and a structural

phenomenon, anti-racist efforts must address the efTects produced by each

element of racism. They must also be compatible with the changing conceptions

of race and racism that may emerge. Anti-racist ideologies and actions need to be

7 Omi and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 57. x Omi and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 59-60. 9 Bonilla-Silva, "Rethinking Racism," 475. 10 Bonilla-Silva, "Rethinking Racism," 470.

6 malleable enough to transform with the needs of the time, and need to accommodate the redefinition of racial categories. As racial distinctions evolve to include persons who become raced and as racism transforms to exclude these persons from accessing certain rights and privileges, anti-racist theories must respond to these changes.

Temporality, Afro-modernity, and Racial Progress

Taking many forms, contemporary anti-Black racism in the United States does not pose the same challenges for African Americans that it posed during the

Reconstruction era. Accordingly, the meaning of racial progress for African

Americans has varied through time, transforming as conceptions of race and manifestations of racism evolve. Between the 1890s and the present day, African

Americans have faced challenges ranging from blatant legal and political discrimination, to horrific racial violence, to the unacknowledged perpetuation of social and economic inequalities. Due to the changing nature of racism, the meaning of "racial progress" depends on the expression of racism in a given area at a given time. It is the perpetual possibility of development that characterizes progress, allowing it to be a continual process of growth and improvement. Thus, for African Americans, racial progress necessarily encompasses a similar promise of constant, anti-racist development. Michael Hanchard's model of Afro­ modernity illuminates the connection between racism and racial progress, demonstrating that one must understand the racialized nature of temporality before understanding racial progress.

7 Han chard introduces Afro-Modernity as a means of interpreting racial difference, finding that it allows for "the cultural and political practices of

African-derived peoples to create a form of relatively autonomous modernity distinct from its counterparts of Western Europe and North America." 11 Afro-

Modernity involves historical reconstruction and a disruption of "temporal understanding[ s] of racial and colonial orders." 12 It locates and affirms the existence and contributions of Blacks as historical actors. Further, Afro-

Modernity grants sovereignty to Black peoples by differentiating between their racialized experiences of modernity and by calling attention to their exclusions from the nation-state. 13 Han chard's Afro-Modernist interpretation of history posits that racial progress must confront a concept that he terms "racial time" and defines as "the inequalities of temporality that result from power relations between racially dominant and subordinate groups." 14 According to Hanchard, racial inequality is shaped by delayed access to resources and by the inability to freely use one's time due to the "temporal constraints" of another. 15 Racial time poses an obstacle to the exercise of autonomy by imposing one race's cultural productions and sense of temporality on a subordinated race, thus perpetuating racial inequality.

For Hanchard, it is necessary to erase the disparities produced by racial time in order for racial progress to occur. He suggests that this be accomplished

11 Michael Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African Diaspora," Puh/ic Culture 11 (1), 1999:247. 12 Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity," 249. 13 l-lanchard, "Afi·o-Modernity," 248-249. 14 Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity," 252-253. 15 1-!anchard, "Afro-Modernity," 255-256.

8 through "time appropriation," the process through which group members claim the right to control their temporality and spur social change. Effective time appropriation, while it may take place on an individual basis, is most successful when it arises through collective action. 16 Hanchard finds that in challenging "the imposition of a time-structure that varies according to race" and in destroying a racialized conception of time, the subordinated race can attain equality. 17

Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. Du Bois engage in time appropriation through their critiques of the temporally produced exclusions of African-

American men and women. In Voice, Cooper affirms the distinctive experiences of African-American women by highlighting their triple exclusion hom civic life by White men, White women, and Black men. She discusses African-American women's centrality to shaping the nation and champions their potential to make academic and political contributions separate from domestic life. For Cooper,

Afro-Modernist discussions of race relations are incomplete if they do not acknowledge how racial time becomes gendered among African Americans. In

Souls, DuBois rewrites history by rejecting the popular characterization of

African Americans as subhuman entities. l-Ie describes the consciousness of

African Americans in an attempt to establish their existence as spiritual and intellectual beings, thus inserting himself and other Blacks into the discursive space denied to them by racial time. Like Cooper, DuBois challenges the dominance of Western modernity by interrupting racial time and promoting Afro-

Modernist thought.

16 Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity," 256. 17 Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity," 265.

9 Despite the temporal differences between contemporary racism and racism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, W. E. B. Du Bois and

Anna Julia Cooper presented theories of racial progress that are relevant today.

Each author speaks to racial issues that remain prevalent, such as economic inequality, sociopolitical recognition, and asymmetrical access to resources, enabling their political theories to otTer frameworks for understanding and combating contemporary forms of racism. Though Cooper and Du Bois were contemporaries advocating for similar principles-the education of blacks, the elimination of racial prejudice, and social equality- a close examination of both authors' seminal works reveals that there arc key di±Terences between them.

Cooper's arguments highlight DuBois's insufficient attention to Black women.

Most notably, DuBois's masculinist language and marginalization of Black women is problematic because of the exclusivity that it produces in Souls. While he oilers an insightful theory for racial progress, Du Bois only considered the

African-American male's experience, neglecting to discuss gendered variations in the racism faced by African-American women. Unlike Du Bois, Cooper saw the

Black female as an essential tool to attaining rights for all African Americans. A key element of the theory of racial progress that she presents in Voice, Cooper's discussion of Black women's agency is in stark contrast to DuBois's masculinist depiction of African Americans.

10 Conceptualizing Intersectionality

In Voice, Anna Julia Cooper promotes a way of knowing that locates the social position of the observer and the observed in order to connect theory to practice. For the author, one's standing in hierarchal systems of domination directly affects one's interpretations of social conditions. 18 Those in positions of power are only able to accurately assess social structures once they recognize that their privileged standing creates and perpetuates social injustice. However,

Cooper finds that one's social standing is determined by intersectionality, making it possible to simultaneously be oppressed in one sphere and be the oppressor in another. Law professor Kimberle Crenshaw introduced the term

"intersectionality" in order to define the convergence of multiple social categories in one individual. 19 Intersectionality provides a framework for understanding the multidimensional nature of identity. It describes the way in which race, gender, class, religion, and more might interact such that they marginalize a particular group. Intersectionality posits that systems of oppression are not mutually exclusive, but rather, serve to support and reinforce each other. Prefiguring

Crenshaw's conclusions by over a century, Anna Julia Cooper's analysis of Black womanhood not only expresses an understanding of intersectionality, but demonstrates how it shapes the point of view of the oppressor and the oppressed.

IX Vivian A. May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance: Why African Americans Must 'Reverse the Picture of the Lordly Man Slaying the Lion ... [and] Turn Painter,"' Phi/osophia Aji-icana 12 (1), 2009:45-47. 19 Kimberle Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Anti racist Politics," The University ofChicago Legal Forum 139, 1989, 139-167.

11 Cooper presents two opposing versions of intersectionality. The first is a concept that I term "enlightened intersectionality." Cooper suggests that intersectionality may provide members of an oppressed group with an enlightened consciousness that allows them to simultaneously understand the perspectives of a marginalized group and the perspectives of their oppressors. Enlightened

intersectionality grants oppressed persons access to unique insights about what truly constitutes justice. To Cooper, Black women are particularly progressive, open-minded, and just due to their enlightened intersectionality. Meanwhile, individuals who do not recognize their intersectionality are denied such consciousness. I coin the term "repressed intersectionality" in recognition of

Cooper's belief that intersectionality is key to understanding the condition of

Black women in the United States, but is often repressed in persons who are

simultaneously marginalized and privileged in society.

Repressed intersectionality is the inability to view one's own identity as

intersectional. It prevents dominant groups fi·om accessing the consciousness

developed by enlightened intersectionality. Repressed intersectionality obscures the existence of simultaneous marginalization and privilege that might be

produced by an intersectional identity. It leaves some persons ignorant to how they hypocritically deny rights and privileges to other marginalized groups. For

Cooper, repressed intersectionality is prevalent specifically among Black men and

White women. Black men have male privilege and are targeted by racism while

White women have white privilege and are targeted by sexism. The repressed

intersectionality of many Black men and White women allows them to use their

12 positions of privilege to oppress Black women. As shall be explained in Chapter

2, enlightened and repressed intersectionality have important consequences for

Black women, who are oft excluded from the categories "Black" and "woman."

DuBois, Cooper, and lntersectionality

W.E.B. DuBois's concepts of"second sight" and "double consciousness" are reminiscent of enlightened intersectionality. At a young age, Du Bois realized how salient racial prejudice was against African Americans. He gained a "second sight," which Robert Gooding-Williams defines as "an ability to see the world as it is disclosed to the sight of a social group different than one's own ... Gifted with second sight, the Negro can see reality as whites see it, and so can see himself as whites see him."20 Second sight produced in DuBois a "double consciousness" that he described as a "sense of always looking at one's selfthrough the eyes of others" as well as through the eyes of oneself. 21 To DuBois, this intersectionality is problematic for many African Americans for two reasons.

Firstly, according to Gooding-Williams, Blacks use second sight to form a

"false self-consciousness" by examining themselves through the eyes ofWhites.22

For DuBois, double consciousness creates an identity crisis of sorts because blackness and Americanity appear to be in opposition to each other. Opining that the African-American struggle "is the contradiction of double aims," Du Bois

20 Robert Gooding-Williams, "Imitations of Immortality and Double Consciousness," in In tlze Shadow ojDu Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 78. 21 W.E.B. DuBois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." In The Souls o{Biack Folk, (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997 [1903]), 38. 22 Gooding-Williams, In the Shadow ofDu Bois, 79.

13 asserts that Blacks cannot be fully invested in either aim. 23 Secondly, DuBois finds that double consciousness is detrimental to African-American spirit and wellbeing because the resultant efforts to "satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people ... and at times has even seemed about to make them ashamed of themselves."24 The effect of double consciousness-the ability to simultaneously see oneself from one's point ofview and from that of the oppressor-is comparable to the effect produced by enlightened intersectionality. However, Du

Bois describes double consciousness as a burden while enlightened intersectionality provides the oppressed with useful insights.

While Cooper uses her enlightened intersectionality to articulate a feminist, anti-racist argument, Du Bois occupies a neutral and sometimes contradictory space between enlightened and repressed intersectionality. In Souls, he represses his intersectionality and attempts to use it to his advantage when discussing Black women. Occasionally, Du Bois is aware that the oppression of

Black women is distinct from that of Black men. In these instances, he uses enlightened intersectionality to briefly examine the struggles of Black women.

However, in most of Souls, DuBois is blinded by his status as a Black man. He often presents Black women to his audience either as helpless victims or as idealized women. Further, much of his discourse only applies to Black men.

Overall, in Souls, DuBois fails to recognize how his rhetoric and arguments about racial uplift erase Black women's agency. However, because the absence of

23 Gooding-Williams, In the Shadow ofDu Bois, 39. 24 Gooding-Williams, In the Shadow o.f DuBois, 39-40.

14 enlightened intersectionality does not automatically indicate repressed intersectionality, DuBois's male normativity cannot be seen as an adequate representation of repressed intersectionality.

Later in his career, DuBois frequently champions Black women's rights.

It is in "The Damnation of Women," a chapter from his 1920 Darkwater: Voices ji·01n Within the Veil that he exemplifies his ability to use enlightened intersectionality to critique an oppression that is not his own. Du Bois provides a detailed analysis of the inequalities between Black women, White women, and

Black men. He is vocal in his support for Black women's economic independence and their reproductive freedom. In "Damnation," Du Bois embraces enlightened intersectionality; this is clear from his willingness to seek connections between racial and gender oppression.

Two key points about enlightened and repressed intersectionality can be made from examining DuBois's relationship to these concepts. First, one's use of enlightened and repressed intersectionality is not static. It is possible to use enlightened or repressed intersectionality at one point in time without using it at another. Du Bois does not regularly access his enlightened intersectionality in

Souls, and it was not until years later that he began to publish pro-feminist works.

Second, it is essential to note that enlightened and repressed intersectionality exist as two poles on a spectrum. While the concepts are opposites, they do not represent a rigid binary of intersectionality. lntersectionality may be enlightened or repressed, but these are not the only options that exist for characterizing intersectionality. There are endless possibilities for how enlightened or repressed

15 one's intersectionality may be. Cooper consistently uses enlightened intersectionality while Du Bois relies on a significantly less progressive version of intersectionality.

Cooper must be placed at the center of today's social justice conversations because of her awareness of how enlightened and repressed intersectionality atTect consciousness. As I detail in Chapter 2, Cooper demonstrates how the multifaceted aspects of one's identity influences one's relation to oppression.

Similar to, yet distinct from, the concept of "double consciousness" that Du Bois presents in Souls a decade later, enlightened intersectionality prompts Cooper to consider how the multiple and complementary forces of racism and sexism produce particular manifestations of gendered racism and racialized sexism. Her cognizance of the function of enlightened intersectionality in American society allows Cooper to present a theory of racial progress that promotes inclusivity of variations within the Black experience. Enlightened intersectionality enables

Cooper to articulate an argument for inclusivity that does not erase difference. In so doing, it creates the academic and philosophical space to acknowledge the existence and marginalization of all African Americans regardless of gender, class, and other aspects of identity that even Cooper herself does not identify.

Because Cooper creates an inclusionary space to confront racism, her arguments in Voice are more useful than DuBois's for not only identifying, but also actively resisting racial oppression.

Cooper and DuBois consider to different extents how Black women are atTected by racism and how Black women may contribute to racial progress.

16 While they are central to Cooper's political theory, Black women are minimally present in DuBois's work. Reading Voice and Souls as the writings most fundamental to Cooper and Du Bois's theories of racial progress, this thesis examines how the authors' varying levels of attention to Black women affect their discourse on racial progress. It will analyze the contemporary implications of their attention to gendered, racial difference in an attempt to reveal the value of locating Black women as key actors in the struggle for African-American rights.

This will enable a more rigorous interrogation of the intersection of gendered and race based perspectives in pursuit of racial equality within the United States.

DuBois's Gender Progressivism

Scholars continually debate the meaning of DuBois's engagement with

Black women. Literature regarding his feminism and/or sexism generally belongs to one of three popular schools of thought. The first contends that Du Bois was a progressive, feminist thinker who helped to lay the foundation for discourse on women's rights. Supporters of this position maintain that DuBois's conceptual contributions to feminism are more significant than his sexist language. The second acknowledges that DuBois's writings are dominated by male-centric language, but forgives his rhetorical exclusion of Black women. Those who ascribe to this belief deny that Du Bois had any sexist leanings that were uncharacteristic of his time period. The third and final stance criticizes Du Bois for his masculinism, finding that his insufficient attention to Black women and his masculinist language prevent him from being a feminist.

17 Lawrie Balfour's Democracy's Reconstruction argues that DuBois's

''Damnation of Women" initiates a critical examination ofwomen's rights.

Balfour acknowledges that in Souls, DuBois does not consider Black women to be leaders of the race. However, she maintains that Du Bois's analysis in

"Damnation" of Black women as members of American society raises key questions regarding who is eligible for full membership in the democratic citizenry.25 DuBois recognizes that race and gender are used as the bases of democratic exclusion, and responds by calling for a reexamination of Black women's citizenship. He does so by claiming that Black women must have reproductive freedom, must be educated if they so desire, and must be equipped with the tools to become economically independent. Finally, DuBois connects sexual violence against Black women to a desire for White political and economic supremacy. 26

Balfour finds one major contradiction in "Damnation." DuBois admires

Black women either for their resistance as victims or for their "delicacy and

beauty". 27 Thus, he is "torn between a radical conception of freedom and a

conventional ideal of 'uplift"' when discussing Black women. While Balfour

acknowledges that this tension is problematic, she does not think that it negates

DuBois's feminism. 28 Instead, she finds that DuBois's examination of Black

women is feminist because "even as he draws upon conventional gender and class

25 Lawrie Balfour, "Representative Women: Slavery and the Gendercd Ground of Citizenship," In Democracy's Reconstruction: Thinking Critically with W.E.B. DuBois, (New York: Oxford University Press, 20 I I), 98. 2 " Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction, I 03. 27 Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction, 99. 2x Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction, 99.

18 norms to describe his heroines, he undermines prevailing beliefs about the role of

African American women in American history".29 Balfour dismisses DuBois's limited views of Black women, choosing to praise his advocacy for women's reproductive freedom, women's economic independence, and Black women's citizenship. Because DuBois presents a new analysis of Black women's democratic citizenship and inclusion in "Damnation," Balfour determines that Du

Bois is a feminist. 30

Gary L. Lemons, like Balfour, overlooks DuBois's sexism. Though he references Joy James's Transcending the Talented Tenth and concurs with her claim that DuBois's writings are masculinist, Lemons maintains that DuBois's gender progressivism excuses his normalization of Black men as representatives of the race. Citing Souls (1903), The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911), and

"Damnation" ( 1920), Lemons finds that there were strong female influences in Du

Bois's life·that are evident 'in his work. According to Lemons, Du Bois consistently championed women's rights and critiqued Black women's oppression. 31 He demanded women's self-ownership and juxtaposed the strength of Black motherhood to the ideal of White womanhood . Du Bois praised maternal qualities while arguing that economic independence and motherhood should not be at odds. He also disapproved of "the refusal of men to accept

[Black] women as ... intelligent, productive individuals as well as ... mothers".32

29 Balfour, Dernocracy's Reconstruction, 102. 30 Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction, I 00. 31 Lemons, "W.E.B. DuBois, 'The Leading Male Feminist of His Time' and 'Most Passionate Defender of Black Women,"' In Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois, (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009), 56. 32 Lemons, Womanist Forefhthers, 58.

19 For Lemons, these particular arguments establish that DuBois was a profeminist thinker.

Lemons acknowledges that DuBois critiques Black women's oppression based on the women who were familiar to him as a child. This produces in Du

Bois an idealized notion of Black motherhood that prompts him to measure "black womanhood and femininity ... against the maternal in the text". 33 DuBois defended Black womanhood because of his idealization of the mother, but his work was not solely concerned with traditional notions of femininity. Because he was opposed to Black women's confinement to domestic labor, Du Bois also champions Black women's heroism and economic independence in

"Danmation".34 According to Lemons, DuBois constructs a very particular notion of Black womanhood and femininity; as a result, he attempts to mould his daughter into the ideal Black woman. Lemons asserts that this is evident in Du

Bois's "So The Girl Marries" (1928), a personal essay that recounts the marriage

of Yolande Du Bois and Countee Cullen. Lemons determines that this essay often

silenced DuBois's daughter and her mother, thus contradicting DuBois's pro-

feminism. Finding the implications of "So The Girl Marries" to be problematic,

Lemons argues that "Du Bois's public, woman-identified voice contradicts the

private one, which was articulated through a much more male-identified,

hegemonic discourse".35 Despite this contradiction, Lemons believes that Du Bois

was a feminist.

33 Lemons, Womanist Forefi:tthers, 59. 34 Lemons, Womanist Foref'athers, 60. 35 Lemons, Womanist Foref"athers, 79. 20 Farah Jasmine Griffin is also convinced of DuBois's feminism. Unlike the aforementioned authors, she does not deem any potential sexism in DuBois's work to be a conceptual failure. She instead argues that his male-centric writing

"of course, simply means that Du Bois is speaking the language of his time."

Because she believes that "gender as a category of analysis did not exist until the latter part of the last century," Griffin excuses DuBois's language. She contends that Du Bois devoted significant attention to Black women, but that "The Study of the Negro Problems" does not adequately represent his feminism. 36 She admires his gender progressivism, but acknowledges DuBois's sexism in order to demonstrate that he was subject to the dominant ideologies of the time despite of his efforts to oppose them. 37

Griffin finds two main contradictions in DuBois's writing. Firstly, she notes that Du Bois presents Black women as victims while advocating for their agency. Secondly, she recognizes that DuBois's descriptions of women often discuss their appearance at length despite his condemnation of female objectification. 38 These contradictions, for Griffin, arise as Du Bois attempts to heal Black women and the race at large. Du Bois uses the politics of respectability in order to achieve this end; he encourages conformity to standards that he deems respectable in an e±Iort to refute the popular image of Blacks as lazy and immoral.39 To Grif1in, DuBois's politics of respectability involve a promise to protect the women of the race. Black men's protection of women simultaneously

36 Farah Jasmine Griffin, "Black Feminists and DuBois: Respectability, Protection, and beyond." In Annals ofthe American Academy ofPolitica/ and Social Science 568,2000, 29. 37 Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois," 3 I. 3x Griffin, "Black Feminists and DuBois," 32-33. 39 Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois," 34.

21 "restores a sense of masculinity to black men while granting black women at least one of the privileges of femininity," but assumes Black women's victimization.40

While well-intentioned, this undermines Black female agency by encouraging dependence on men. The essay concludes with Griffin's suggestion that "despite

DuBois's contradictions, we ought to be grateful to him" for his pro-woman contributions, learn from his shortcomings, "and move on."41 Griffin contends that it would instead be more worthwhile to consider how Black feminism may inform and be advanced in contemporary intellectual discourse.42 She admires Du

Bois's work, determining that he provides a successful model for scholar-activists to follow. 43

Criticizing Du Boisian Pro-Feminism

Joy James and Hazel Carby are less forgiving ofDu Bois's male-centric writing than Balfour, Lemons, and Griffin. In Transcending the Talented Tenth:

Black Leaders and American Intellectuals, Joy James argues for the democratization of black intellectualism. Finding that race leadership derived from a talented tenth of Blacks excludes myriad voices from discourse on racial progress, James advocates for the inclusion of more persons, including women and non-elites, in the black intellectual tradition.44 Her critique of Du Bois's

411 Griffin, "Black Feminists and DuBois," 35. 41 Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois," 36. 42 Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois," 36. 43 Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois," 38. 44 Joy James, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American intellectuals, (New Y orlc Routledge Press, 1997), 1 1.

22 profeminism is essential to forming her argument for the reevaluation andre- imagination of black intellectualism.

For James, DuBois presents a contradictory form of gender progressivism. While he champions women's rights, he also "establishes the male as normative," thus reproducing male dominance. This, to James, is a display of masculinism that should not be misconstrued as patriarchy.45 Careful to distinguish between the two, James argues that masculinism is distinct fl.·om patriarchy in that it does not explicitly support male superiority and is not misogynistic. However, it is masculinist for Du Bois to treat the male body as normative because this assumes male dominance. According to Joy James, masculinism is distinct from patriarchy or sexism because it is not explicitly misogynistic nor does it advocate male supremacy. However, it remains an oppressive force because it erases the female experience and presumes male dominance.46 Thus, according to James, "without patriarchal intent. .. [Du Bois] may replicate conventional gender roles" and obscure Black female agency.47

Though she asserts that DuBois's masculinism is problematic, James does note his profeminist contributions. Later in his career, class and gender became central aspects of Du Bois's discussions of race. Using the term "profeminist" to describe men who are gender progressive and "feminist" to describe women who are gender progressive, James maintains that DuBois's activism for women's rights made him a pro feminist thinker. Yet, his pro feminism was contradictory; although DuBois argued for Black women's equality and denounced their

45 James, Transcending the Talented Tenth, 35. 46 James, Transcending the Talented Tenth, 35. 47 James, Transcending the Talented Tenth, 36.

23 subjugation, he did not necessarily support their political independence.48

According to James, Du Bois undermined Black female agency through his nonspecific discussion of Black females and through erasing Black female intellectuals such as Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells. DuBois did not only build upon their earlier work, but also refused to credit their intellectual contributions to his own work.49 By assuming male normativity and silencing his contemporaries while advocating for women's rights, DuBois "simultaneously condemn[ed] social injustice and reproduce[d] gender dominance."50 His masculinism and his profeminism were in constant competition as he assessed the needs of African Americans.

Hazel Carby also saw the troubling nature of Du Bois's masculinism.

Unlike Griffin, Carby does not dismiss DuBois's male-oriented language as a product of his time. Rather, she intends to show that his prescriptions for success in Souls applied to Black men who embodied masculinity as defined by Du Bois.

For Carby, DuBois's inability to conceptualize Black women as race leaders in

Souls is a "conceptual and political failure of imagination that remains a characteristic of the work of contemporary African American male intellectuals."51 Thus, in Race Men, Carby determines that black intellectualism is a gendered field that finds some of its roots in Souls. 52

4x James, Transcending the Talented Tenth, 37. 49 James, Transcending the Talented Tenth, 41. 50 James, Transcending the Talented Tenth. 39. 51 Hazel Carby, 'The Souls of Black Men," In Race Men, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), I 0. 52 Carby, Race Men, 12.

24 For Carby, DuBois's emphasis on Black men undermines attempts to advance Black women. Despite his advocacy for women's rights, Carby argues that Du Bois produces a gendered structure of thought in Souls. The implications of his masculinism for his work in particular and for the black intellectual tradition at large warrant examination. Finding it essential to "interrogate the ideological and political effects of the gendered nature of Du Bois's theoretical paradigms," Carby contends that it is necessary to investigate DuBois's construction of a Black community.53 She suggests that DuBois's organization of

Souls is gendered, allowing him to use Black women as symbols in the earlier half of his book as he assesses the weaknesses of the race. Black men, on the other hand, are used as symbols in the latter half of Souls when Du Bois evaluates the success and prospects of hope for the race. 54 He believes that Black men can be race leaders, but does not identify similar potential for Black women.

Carby reminds her readership that one of DuBois's primary preoccupations with race is that it excludes African Americans from full participation in the nation state. Noting DuBois's consistent advocacy for a capable manhood, she states that Du Bois attempts to use masculinity to navigate

5 the disjuncture between race and state. 5 Identifying himself as an embodied representative of Black success, DuBois emphasizes the importance of educating

Black men. However, he fails to place similar value on the education of Black women. This explains his double exclusion of Black women; because he does not imagine them as intellectuals, he does not imagine them as race leaders. In Souls,

53 Carby, Race Men, !6. 54 Carby, Race Men, 20-22. 55 Carby, Race Men, 30.

25 Du Bois conceptualizes the race leaders as educated males but fails to consider females beyond his limited, romanticized purview. For Carby, this significantly limits DuBois's ability to be considered a feminist.

My interpretation ofDu Bois's masculinism is more closely aligned with that of James and Carby, though it is distinctly different. Both authors are correct in condemning the contradictions evident in DuBois's racial-sexual politics. Du

Bois derives his sense of womanhood from the portrayal of women either as victims or as survivors, but he does not construct them as intellectuals or activists with political agency when creating a theory for racial progress. Though Du Bois demands Black women's education, rights, and inclusion, he deliberately excludes their voices from the discussion about their position in society. Finally, while Du

Bois makes revolutionary arguments for women's rights in some of his later works, he is blind to the relationship between race, gender, and racism until decades after Anna Julia Cooper makes similar claims. Thus, I contend that temporality is essential to reading and comprehending DuBois's feminism.

Du Bois became profeminist later in his career, but he did not devote adequate attention to Black women as he formulated a theory for racial uplift in

The Souls of Black Folk; when Du Bois considered how African Americans may advance the race, he did not consider Black women to play a meaningful role. It is not sufficient that Du Bois addressed Black women's oppression later in his career, for the effect of their exclusion in his early work on racial uplift could not be undone simply through advocating for their rights at a later point in time. Du

Bois's foundational theory of racial progress exists separately from his later work

26 on overcoming Black women's oppression; there is little temporal overlap when considering DuBois's profeminism. As such, it is only through the formation of a comprehensive theory of gender progressive, racial uplift that Black women may be wholly incorporated into anti-racist activism among African Americans.

Prefiguring Du Bois's profeminist work by thirty years, Anna Julia Cooper is able to form such a theory through her acute understanding of enlightened and repressed intersectionality.

Prospectus

In Chapter One, "DuBois's Unreconciled Strivings," I survey DuBois's work in order to position him as a masculinist thinker. The chapter focuses most centrally upon The Souls ofBlack Folk and "The Study of the Negro Problems"

(1898). DuBois's techniques for racial uplift are primarily directed towards Black men and his profeminist writings retain masculinist language. "The Talented

Tenth" (1903) promotes the education of Black men, and Souls, in addition to other speeches and writings published between 1897 and 1904, conceive of racism and Blackness only in relation to African-American men. In 1920, Du Bois published "The Damnation of Women," a chapter of Darkwater: Voicesfi'om within the Veil. This piece discusses the implications of Black women's economic freedom and household labor. Because of these writings, some argue that Du Bois was among the first Black male feminists. 56 I disagree. I contend instead that Du

Bois's masculinist language in his foundational works undermined the potential of

"Damnation" to promote equality among Black males and females, thus

56 Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction, 20 II; Lemons, Womanist Fore/others, 2009.

27 preventing Du Bois from truly being a feminist. He does not devote much of his attention to Black women, and therefore constructs a masculinist framework for

. . overcommg racism.

Chapter Two, "A Feminist Response to the Negro Question," explores

Cooper's political theory as it is presented in A Voice fi'om the South and other prominent writings. It establishes that for Cooper, Black women were central to struggles for racial liberation in America. She relied on Black women to be the catalysts of social and political progress, finding that their positions in the home were formative of the nation. Cooper faults the Christian Church for perpetuating the subordination of all women, but finds that regardless of this repression, Black women strongly influence the moral characters of their husbands, sons, and brothers. She found that African Americans must educate women and rely on their feminine virtues in order to overcome racial oppression. As it is significant to note that Du Bois was not averse to feminist thought, it is similarly important to acknowledge that Cooper was not free from patriarchal influences. She expected

Black men to be the primary agents in implementing the changes advocated for and instituted by Black women. Cooper certainly framed her arguments in a manner that might appear to be inconsistent with feminist ideals. Yet, given the wide acceptance of patriarchy, Cooper's claims were quite radical for her time.

For some, Cooper's masculinist language was not due to any belief in male

7 superiority, but due to her philosophical training. 5 Chapter 2 explores the

57 Cathryn Bailey, "The Virtue and Care Ethics on Anna Julia Cooper," in Philosophia Afi·icana 12 (I), 2009:5-19.

28 masculinist influences in Cooper's work, revealing that she, like DuBois, occasionally presented contradictory arguments.

In the final chapter, "Revisiting Enlightened and Repressed

Intersectionality," I examine the intricacies of each concept. They provide frameworks for understanding how racism interacts with other oppressions. I propose that Cooper's and DuBois's divergent usages of these concepts were central to how they imagined racial progress. I compare Cooper's use of enlightened intersectionality to DuBois's use of second sight and double consciousness in an attempt to demonstrate that Cooper's intellectual contributions and original concepts were not only comparable to, but at times, more complex than, those made by Du Bois. I evaluate and compare their theories for racial uplift by examining their notions of race leadership and the role that they believe individuals, particularly Black women, should play in advancing the race. For DuBois, Black women's contributions are closely connected to Black motherhood. Meanwhile, for Cooper, Black women's contributions are derived from their education and their position in the home not necessarily as mothers, but as feminine sisters, wives, and daughters as well. While Cooper and Du Bois publish fundamentally similar theories for racial progress, many of Cooper's arguments prefigure DuBois's by 20-30 years. "Damnation" performs a function nearly identical to that of Voice. Like Cooper, DuBois identifies Black women's political and economic oppression and suggests ways to overcome the problems.

However, the two theorists present different solutions due to their understandings of the relationship between racism and sexism. The conclusion, "A Woman's

29 Worth," conducts an examination of how the theories developed by Anna Julia

Cooper and W.E.B. DuBois can shape contemporary, anti-racist activism.

Together, their theories provide a timeless foundation for pursuing racial progress.

30 CHAPTER ONE

DuBois's Unreconciled Strivings

One ever feels his two-ness,-an Amerkan a Negro/ two souls, two thoughts, two unrecondled strivjngs/ two warring jdeals jn one dark bod~ whose dogged strength alone keeps H from being torn asundei: W. E. B. Du Bois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"Ss

The "other sjde "has not been represented by one who "Jjves there." And not many can more sensjbfy realjze and more accurately tell the wejght and the fret ofthe "long dull pain" than the open-eyed but Mtherto vokeless Black Woman ofAmerica. Anna Julia Cooper, "'Our Raison D'etre"'S9

W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington,

Massachusetts.60 Unlike African Americans in the South, who were likely to be the children of slaves or former slaves, Du Bois was born to free Blacks. He first experienced racial discrimination as a young boy in primary school when a White student rejected his offering during a card exchange. 61 This instance produced in him a profound realization that race was a controversial social issue that provided a basis for exclusion from White American society. After graduating as his high school's valedictorian in 1884, DuBois pursued his undergraduate degree at Fisk

University in Nashville, Tennessee. He then attended Harvard University, obtaining his Master's degree in 1891 and his Ph. D. in history in 1895.62 Du

Bois's non-exposure to slavery in his early life and his later confrontation with

58 W.E.B. Du Bois, In The Souls ofBiack Folk, (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997 [ 1903]), 38. Hereinafter referred to in the text as Souls. 59 Cooper, Voice, 52. 60 David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. DuBois, 1868-1919: Biography ofa Race. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993), 11-14. 61 Du Bois, Souls, 38. 62 National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, "NAACP History: W.E.B. Du Bois," http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois. Accessed 2 December 2012.

31 southern racism as a student at Fisk shaped his interpretations of race and racial progress.

Du Bois made prescriptions for political mobilization during the 1900s that continue to hold contemporary relevance. His insightful speeches and writings, in addition to his cofounding of the NAACP, allowed him to emerge as a race leader with significant influence at the turn of the 20th century. The Souls of

Black Folk and other works, including "The Conservation of Races" ( 1897), "The

Study of the Negro Problems" (1898), "The Talented Tenth" (1903), and "The

Development of a People" (1904) helped to establish African Americans and their cultural productions as legitimate subjects for study. In writing these pieces, Du

Bois sought to present models for Black education, self-consciousness, and leadership that he believed would solve the myriad problems faced by African

Americans. Throughout his career, Du Bois attempted to embody the ideals that he set forth. Over 100 years after his articulation of theories for racial progress,

Du Bois remains a prominent figure in African-American history and political thought.

Despite DuBois's many contributions, his "unreconciled strivings" limit the potential of his work to advocate for racial equality for Black men and women alike. DuBois's antiracism is at odds with his masculinism. While advocating for racial progress in his aforementioned foundational works, Du Bois normalized the

Black race as male. Because Souls and essays that were published between 1897 and 1904 are often hailed as exemplars of Du Boisian thought, their rhetorical exclusion of Black women has important consequences. By neglecting to address

32 how the oppression of Black women is at times distinct from that of Black men,

Du Bois created theories and participated in activism in the late 1800s and early

1900s that were unable to encompass the experiences of Black women. Du Bois's limited view of African-American females also perpetuated their oppression. As

Gary Lemons claims, Du Bois imagined Black women based on his experiences with the women in his family; they were generally mothers and rarely fulfilled Du

Bois's description ofrace leaders. Thus, from 1897-1904, DuBois employed a conception of Black womanhood that reinforced gender norms by valorizing female domesticity and overlooking their politico-economic dependence on Black men. DuBois's shortcomings in discussing the plight of Black women are crucial flaws in his seminal writings that present negative implications for his activism and current legacy.

DuBois's inadequate attention to and unditTerentiated representations of

Black women uphold their modern omission from anti-racist scholarship and activism. As a prominent race leader with a foundational position in African

American Studies, Du Bois unintentionally set a precedent for the exclusion of

Black women in contemporary anti-racist activism. If one is to accept DuBois's theories as written, difficulty arises in establishing Black women as race leaders, in incorporating Black Women's Studies into Black Studies, and in accepting

Black women's activism as an indispensable element of anti-racist activism. For example, in recognition of a "reluctance to produce new theory to guide new practice," Reiland Rabaka highlights the inefficacy of inserting Black Women's

33 Studies into Black Studies.63 Likewise, Elizabeth R. Cole and Nesha Z. 1-IanifT describe the complex relationship between Black feminism and Black antiracism, asserting that,

resistance has formed toward discussing black women's experiences of patriarchy and even victimization in their relationships with black men (Guy-Sheftal, in Hammonds 1997). Finally, movements for black liberation have frequently embraced the powerful metaphor of the race as family, as a means to convey connectedness, common interests, and shared values, but this powerful metaphor includes gendered baggage: acceptance of patriarchy as desirable and natural, an equation of black political crisis as a crisis of black masculinity (Gilroy 1992), and self­ censorship in the service of unity (Cole 1994).64

DuBois's writings and political action were early forms of the male-centric, exclusionary antiracism that Cole and 1-Ianiff identify. In evaluating the challenges faced by the Black race, Du Bois consistently described "the Negro problem" by identifying various inadequacies among African-American men.

While his wisdom was efTective at challenging White hegemony, DuBois often failed to address the manners in which Black and White patriarchal power over

Black women continued to subjugate all Ati:ican Americans. Given DuBois's simultaneous insights and oversights, it is necessary to reexamine his legacy by first exploring his relationship to past and present theories of race and then conducting further inquiry into the gendered limitations of his work.

13 ' Reiland Rabaka, Afhcana Critical Tlze01y: Reconstructing the Black Radical Tradition, .fi"om W.E.B. DuBois and C.L.R. James to Frantz Fanon and Ami/car Cabral (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009), 296. M Elizabeth R. Cole and Nesha Z. HanitT. "Building a Home for Blaek Women's Studies," Black Won1en, Gender+ Families I(!), 2007: 28.

34 Du Bois Through Time

The definition of race and process of racial formation that Du Bois presents in Souls are essential to understanding his theories for African-American progress and their modern implications. DuBois's commentary was revolutionary and greatly foreshadowed today's understandings ofrace. He disproved negative stereotypes and redefined the scope of studies on Blacks in America by criticizing earlier scholarship on African Americans and disputing the existence of scientifically validated racial superiority. Although Du Bois occasionally employed scientific arguments in describing race, he did not depend heavily on biological concepts. Instead, he developed a definition of race that simultaneously acknowledged that it is a social construct while positing that it is inherited genetically. In so doing, DuBois created a social, biological model of race that rejects the belief that some races may be scientifically inferior to others.

Contemporary notions of race are reminiscent of Du Bois's in that they tend to oppose the belief that racial difference corresponds to innate abilities or dispositions, but they depart most significantly from Du Boisian thought in explaining how racial formation occurs.

Biological race concepts were widely popular during the 18th and 19th centuries. Physical anthropologists and zoologists in particular argued that races could be scientifically classified by their biological and cultural distinctiveness.

Carl Linnaeus, Samuel George Morton, and Charles Darwin are among the proponents of various iterations ofbiological race theories. Linnaeus's 1767 taxonomy, Systema Naturae, is known for promoting binomial nomenclature as a

35 system for scientifically classifying plant and animal life. Linnaeus is critically acclaimed for the contributions that Systema Naturae continues to make to modern science, but the commentary on racial difference contained within the work is significantly less publicized. Linnaeus maintained that human races may be classified into discrete categories with natural behavioral characteristics.65 He differentiated between Homo afi'icanus, Homo asiaticus, Homo europeus, and

Homo americanus. According to Linnaeus, each race was classifiable by their temperament and their physical features, including skin color, hair texture, noses, and facial structure.66 In describing the characteristics of each race, Linnaeus made normative valuations of Africans, Asians, Europeans, and indigenous

Americans. In 1839, Morton published a scientific analysis of race in his book,

Crania Americana. Morton measured skulls in order to forge a connection between racial difference and intellectual capacity, determining that larger skulls indicated that individuals had larger brains and consequently, greater cognitive potential. Using biased evidence, Morton deemed that White Americans had the largest brains while African Americans had the smallest, and were therefore of inferior intellect.67 In his 1871 book, The Descent of Man, and Selection in

Relation to Sex, Darwin refuted the view that races may be conclusively identified as separate species. Nevertheless, he asserted that,

There is, however, no doubt that the races, when carefully compared and measured, differ much from each other,- as in the texture of the hair, the

65 American Anthropological Association, "Science: 1680s-1800s, Early Classification of Nature," Race Project. http://www.undcrstandingrace.org/history/science/early class.html. Accessed 2 December 20 12. (,(,Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Race and Racism: An Introduction. (Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2006), II. 67 Ann Fabian, The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America's Unburied Dead, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 20 I 0), 2.

36 relative proportions of all parts of the body, the capacity of the lungs, the form and capacity of the skull, and even in the convolutions of the brain ... Their mental characteristics are likewise very distinct; chiefly as it would appear in their emotional, but partly in their intellectual faculties. 68

Given the popularity of the aforementioned theories, DuBois's conceptions of race were significant departures for the time. Race, to Du Bois, was not solely based on biology and appearance, but also on metaphysical concepts that connect a people. His writings did not fully incorporate a scientific approach to race. Instead, they laid the foundation for understanding race as a social construct. In his 1897 "The Conservation of Races," Du Bois implies that there exist shared experiences and patterns of thought produced within a race as a result of physical attributes. He explains that similarities arise as a function of how race is created. Unlike modern theorists who argue that racial formation occurs through the social ascription of individuals into racial groups, Du Bois conjectures that races were formed through the collapse of geographical barriers and the subsequent interactions of peoples who were previously separated. The racial mixing that took place exaggerated and pronounced racial similarities within the locality, thus reinforcing racial and cultural differences observed among nonmembers of a regional community.69 DuBois identifies "eight distinctly differentiated races" organized by geography and language, and then defines a race as,

a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both

6x Charles Darwin. "On the Races of Man," In The Descent oj'Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex." 1871. http://www .infidels.org/library/historical!charles darwin/descent. of man/chapter 07.htinl. 69 Du Bois, Souls, 232.

37 voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals oflife.70

Du Bois acknowledges physical differences between races, but maintains that variances in "color, hair and bone go but a short way toward explaining the different roles which groups of men have played in human progress."71 Races, for

Du Bois, cannot be reduced to physical characteristics alone because some physical traits are found in multiple races. He deems race to be a multifaceted concept defined by kinship and shared experience, thus rejecting phenotype as its focal characteristic. Instead of using race to comment on the innate abilities, strengths, and f1aws of some persons as compared to others, Du Bois uses it as a foundation for explaining shared beliefs among members of a racial group. He argues that race relations shape civilization and contends that in order to understand race development, it is necessary to acknowledge rather than minimize racial ditTerence.

While Du Bois believes in biological divergences among races, he contends that "the deeper differences are spiritual, psychical, difierences- undoubtedly based on the physical, but infinitely transcending them."72 His claims about the metaphysical significance of race suggest that to Du Bois, it is both a biological and a social construct. Du Bois posits that it is essential for American society to accept the existence of the eight races that he identifies in order for each racial group to reach its fullest productive potential. He believes in the capacity for all races to make meaningful contributions to civilization, arguing

711 Du Bois, Souls, 230. 71 DuBois, Souls, 230. 72 Du Bois, Souls, 231.

38 that they must not assimilate if they wish to "work out in its fullness the great message [they] have for humanity."73 As such, DuBois seeks to enable African

Americans to reveal their unique, "great message" through fighting for racial equality. He determines that Blacks, like all races, are connected by "their race identity and common blood" as well as their "common history, common laws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving together for certain ideals of life."74 DuBois does not delineate the ideals to which he refers, but in stating that members of a racial group consciously, voluntarily, and/or involuntarily attempt to achieve a shared goal, he again alludes to his belief that all races have the inherent potential to offer significant lessons or cultural productions to civilization. This conviction fuels his commitment to anti-racist activism.

Identifying the "Negro Problem"

Du Bois deems it is necessary to identify the sources of the country's various "Negro problems" in order to pursue racial equality. Though there is general agreement among both Blacks and Whites that there exists a national problem amongst African Americans, they define the crisis inconsistently. The

"Negro problem," for some, is African Americans' allegedly undue desire for political and social equality. Yet, for others, it is the lack of rights for Blacks that constitute the imprecise "Negro Problem." Recounting the historical development of African Americans, Du Bois finds that the race does not face one singular challenge, but several derived from a shared Af!·ican ancestry. Because slavery

73 Du Bois, Souls, 233. 74 DuBois, Souls, 233.

39 produced disparate legal and social standings for Blacks and Whites in America, there exist "problems of social condition and caste" for African Americans that have not dissipated since Emancipation, but have changed over time since "all social growth means a succession of social problems."75 DuBois details the obstacles posed to African Americans in an 1898 essay published in the Annals o.f the American Academy o.f Political Science, "The Study of the Negro Problems."

For DuBois, the primary dilemma faced by Blacks and the United States at large is that "a definitely segregated mass of eight millions of Americans do not wholly share the national life of the people; are not an integral part of the social body."76 Black exclusion from American economic, legal, political, and social spheres is critically important to DuBois, for their omission inhibits the race's potential to fully realize their previously cited "great message" for civilization.

With limited access to the benefits of American life, the Black race suffered from a reduced ability to pursue their goals. As such, Du Bois seeks national, but not racial, assimilation for African Americans. He fights for Black incorporation into

American society while advocating for races to retain their cultural distinctiveness. Robert Gooding-Williams affirms DuBois's preoccupation with

Black exclusion, finding that DuBois "conceptualizes a group's social problems as its failure to realize its ideals" and interprets inclusion in American life as one ideal that African Americans cannot achieve.77

75 W.E.B. DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," Annals of the American Academy of Political Science II, 1898: 6. 76 DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 7. 77 Robert Gooding-Williams, "Politics, Race, and the Human Sciences." in In the Shadow ofDu Bois: Afi'o-Modern Political Thought in America, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 60. 40 Du Bois attributes the exclusion of African Americans to two causes.

Firstly, he hypothesizes that it occurs because Blacks "have not reached a sufficiently high grade of culture."78 Asserting that the race suffers from a cultural deficiency, Du Bois determines that African Americans as a whole are not satisfactorily cultivated nor liberally educated. This deficit restricts their group organization skills and capacity to identify race leaders, thus impinging upon

African Americans' ability to oppose White supremacy. Du Bois identifies a second source of Black exclusion in examining anti-Black prejudice. During the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, many White Americans shared the prevailing, unwavering belief that African Americans should not share fully in the nation's group life. The hostile, racially exclusive environment in the

United States contributed to the incidence of"poverty, ignorance and social degradation" among African Americans by promoting and reinforcing their

"backward development."79 White resistance to Black inclusion prevented

African-American participation in national life.

In "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," a chapter in Souls, Du Bois expands upon the issues that he raised in 1898 while focusing on how Black exclusion negatively impacted African-American spirituality and self-consciousness.

According to DuBois, before emancipation, Blacks had unwavering faith in

God's promise of salvation and their potential to be freed from slavery. Yet, decades after emancipation, they faced new, race-based struggles and required a

n Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 7. ?Y DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 7.

41 different kind of freedom. 80 Suffrage appeared to be one manifestation of freedom, but after becoming enfranchised, Blacks no longer saw voting rights as an end goal. Instead, it became a means to securing equality. 81 In their desire for liberation from racism, African Americans sought education, which allowed them to generate "self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect." As they gradually

"felt [their] poverty" and "the weight of [their] ignorance, -not simply of letters, but of life, ofbusiness, of the humanities," self-doubt emerged among Blacks.g2

Racial prejudice then reinforced insecurities felt by African Americans as they were denied political rights and could not achieve economic prosperity. As the nation evolved, so too did the problems of the Black race.

The Meaning of Racial Progress

According to Du Bois, Blacks' exclusion from American society created numerous "Negro Problems." Because anti-Black racism forced Af!·ican

Americans to confront economic, legal, political, and social marginalization, Du

Bois hypothesizes that the efiects of anti-Black racism could be ameliorated through securing equal rights, privileges, and social standings for Af!·ican

Americans. Therefore, his conceptualization of racial progress entails widespread movement towards racial equality. Du Bois proposed varied solutions to the multifaceted "Negro Problem." It is through encouraging education, self- consciousness, and race leadership that Du Bois aims to promote racial progress.

While each of the aforementioned elements independently advances the Black xo Du Bois, Souls 40. x1 Du Bois, Souls, 41 . x2 Du Bois, Souls, 41-42.

42 race, they sequentially support and reinforce each other. Du Bois believes that education provides a basis for the formulation of self-consciousness, which in turn allows race leadership to develop. Together, all aspects constitute racial progress.

Du Bois believes in using education as a tool for development that simultaneously advances individual and collective interests. The publication of nonracist, scholarly literature on "the Negro" and increased access to schooling for African Americans were crucial elements of acquiring racial equality. Du Bois opines that education has the capacity to drastically alter White perceptions of

African Americans for its ability to promote inquiry into questions of inequality, race, and racism in America. Education will also equip African Americans with the skills and knowledge necessary for upward mobility while strengthening the intellectual capacity of the race at large. It will then grant African Americans the opportunity to capitalize upon their productive potential while providing a foundation for conceiving racially aware self- and group-consciousnesses.

Identity formation is necessary for racial progress because it will resolve the inner conf1icts and problems of social standing that Du Bois believes are generated by double consciousness. Furthermore, the development of Black racial consciousness would promote Black unity and race leadership, which can combat

White supremacy and the exclusion of Blacks from American society. Du Bois expects that leaders who can govern the race will emerge once African Americans are educated and have developed racially aware identities. An analysis of his early work reveals that it was primarily through education, self-aware identity formation, and Black male leadership that Du Bois believed African Americans

43 could resolve the problem of Black exclusion from American life and aspire towards racial equality.

Education

In "The Study of the Negro Problems," DuBois describes the evolution of problems faced by African Americans and explains why they warrant academic inquiry. He encourages scholars to undertake sociological studies of African­

American life, critiques the current study of African Americans, and details what future research must entail. Intimating that an examination of Blacks can reveal universal truths, Du Bois argues that his prescriptions will allow intellectuals to seek answers to "questions that affect the very foundation of the republic and of human progress."83 He then lists three primary justifications for the rigorous study of African Americans. First, inquiry into the condition of African Americans will establish whether the Negro problem is one of Black ignorance, anti-Black prejudice, or both. To Du Bois, because many African Americans and White southerners disagree about the nature of the problems faced by the Black race, it is essential to question the differing perspectives on the causes of racial disadvantage. Second, a study of African Americans will allow greater understanding ofthe past development and future trajectory of the race. Finally, it will be worthwhile to study African Americans because it will advance scientific knowledge at large. Again, DuBois contends that the benefits to be gained from conducting a sociological analysis of African Americans is not confined to Blacks

x3 Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 9. 44 alone. 84 Making such a claim allows him to appeal to intellectuals regardless of their prejudices against African Americans.

Du Bois then argues that there is still much research to be done on African

Americans, despite previous studies. He identifies three primary flaws with existing research, all of which he believes stem from biased scholarship and the

"habit of studying ofthe Negro from one point ofview only."85 This tendency prompts authors to use opinion more than empirical evidence as the basis of their arguments. Du Bois first criticizes the depth of research that has been conducted, finding that a lack of "thorough knowledge of details" has resulted in "superficial work" that is cursory and potentially inaccurate. He then faults the procedures used to study African Americans. Du Bois asserts that the "unsystematic" and

"fragmentary" research that has been done on Blacks follows an unreliable process that fails to consider the causes and effects of the conditions of African

Americans. Finally, DuBois maintains there has been "uncritical" sociological analysis that does not give the study of Blackness in America its due diligence. 86

As such, he determines that the existing research on African Americans lacks appropriate levels of scholarly scrutiny and often misrepresents a part of the population as characteristic of the whole.

In establishing a scientific, sociological process for studying Blacks in

America, Du Bois makes prescriptions for future scholarship. He demands that writers remove bias from their research and reminds them that the ultimate goal of science is to discover truth. For Du Bois, this entails the use of valid evidence and x4 Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 10. xs Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 14. x6 DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 13.

45 rigorous methods. Scholars must also accept as true that Blacks are humans who are deserving of equal rights and have the capacity for moral and intellectual progression. 87 DuBois explicitly states that he does not believe that social reform should be a goal of research on African Americans, and instead contends that any sociological study on Blacks "has but one object, the ascertainment of the facts as to the social forces and conditions of one-eighth of the inhabitants of the land."88

To DuBois, the improved sociological study of African Americans will reveal the prejudicial causes and effects of racial inequality in the United States. Thus, it will debunk beliefs in the scientific superiority of some races and will provide greater support for understanding race as a social construct.

The study of African Americans can take two forms, according to Du

Bois. It can be the "study of the Negro as a social group" or it can be the "study of his peculiar social environment."89 The former entails historical study, statistical investigation, anthropological measurement, and sociological interpretation.

Minimally, this should include examinations of the Black body and examinations of African-American socioeconomic status over space and time. Once more, Du

Bois alludes to his belief in a scientific basis of race. The latter should examine anti-Black attitudes and the effects they have on the physical, mental, moral, social, economic, and legal conditions of African Americans.90 In making this claim, Du Bois once more expresses a belief in the socially constructed nature of race. Both forms of research on African Americans must be widely conducted by

X? Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 17. xx DuBois, 'The Study of the Negro Problems," 16-17. R'i DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 18. 90 Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 20.

46 the government and by universities, for they are the only institutions with the resources and skills to do so. As he concludes, Du Bois briefly discusses the importance of creating high-quality Black colleges that conduct sociological research. He believes that the creation of such colleges is "without doubt the first effective step toward the solving of the negro question."91

Not only did Du Bois believe that studies of African Americans would challenge prevailing conceptions of Blackness, but he also hoped that through engaging in discourse about African Americans, Black intellectuals would be able to persuade White America of the humanness and intellectual capabilities of

African Americans. In a chapter of Souls, "Of the Training of Black Men," he explains the need for education among African Americans. For DuBois, there is no question of the necessity of educating African Americans; Blacks should be educated because it is honorable and humane.92 He believes that education will produce labor without brutality or exploitation and is confident that it will advance the cause of f):eedom. 93

Du Bois cites the growing numbers of African American graduates who enter academia, the clergy, medicine, and more as proof that Black education is indeed beneficial to society. He also speaks of the good nature of educated Black men and praises their contributions in their professions. Defending the education of African Americans, Du Bois unequivocally claims that he has never "met men and women with a broader spirit of helpfulness, with deeper devotion to their life- work, or with more consecrated determination to succeed in the face of bitter

91 DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 22. 92 DuBois, Souls, 91. 93 Du Bois, Souls, 92. 47 difficulties than among Negro coilege-bred men."94 He believes that not only the

Black race, but also the entire nation wiii benefit from the future education of

African Americans.

Arguing that racial cooperation is central to the future development of the country, Du Bois states that national progress "wiii demand broad-minded, upright men, both white and black, and in its final accomplishment American civilization wiii triumph."95 The United States cannot advance "with the Negro as an ignorant, turbulent proletariat," but the contributions of educated African

Americans wiii ultimately benefit the country.96 In order to reconcile past wrongs with the growing demand for Black education, Du Bois encourages his audience to focus on the future advancement and industrial potential of the nation. The country must solve "problems ofwork and wages, of families and homes, of morals and the true valuing of the things of life" if African Americans and the

United States at large are to progress.97 With this in mind, DuBois asserts that,

The function of the Negro college, then, is clear: it must maintain the standards of popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of problems ofrace contact and co­ operation. And finaiiy, beyond all this, it must develop men.98

In his 1903 "The Talented Tenth," DuBois articulates similar ideals. After explaining his expectations for public education, Du Bois undertakes three tasks.

He intends to demonstrate that a talented tenth of African Americans is "worthy of leadership," explain "how these men may be educated and developed," and

94 Du Bois, Souls, 98. 95 DuBois, Souls, 99. 96 DuBois, Souls, 99. 97 Du Bois, Souls, I 0 I. 9X Du Bois, Souls, I 0 I.

48 "show their relation to the Negro problem."99 DuBois proceeds to argue for the education of an elite portion of the population, finding it to be beneficial to the entire race if select individuals were equipped with the necessary tools to promote upward mobility for al1. 100 As shall soon be detailed, DuBois desired the education of Black men because he imagined them as the leaders of the race; it was not simply a suggestion, but an imperative for Du Bois that the Talented

Tenth "furnish this race from within its own ranks with thoughtful men of trained leadership." 101

Self-Consciousness

Racially aware identity formation is a process that Du Bois argues will advance the race due to its ability to empower Blacks and grant them access to the sublime. As was previously stated, Du Bois contends that African Americans have a "second sight" that provides them with "double consciousness." He believes that Blacks are able to see themselves from the perspectives of Whites and from their individual points of view, but experience inner conflicts due to their competing identities of "Black" and "American." Du Bois accuses second sight of creating detrimental, false consciousnesses among African Americans.

Second sight produces feelings of inferiority and inadequacy that are reinforced by anti-Black racism. DuBois believes that double consciousness prompts

African Americans to internalize self-hatred, which then presents obstacles to

99 W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Talented Tenth," In Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West, The Future of' the Race, (New York: Vintage Books, 1996 [ 1903]), 134. 100 Du Bois, "The Talented Tenth," 139. 101 Du Bois, "The Talented Tenth," 150.

49 racial progress. Therefore, he advocates the development of African-American self-consciousness as one path to equality.

It is only once Blacks have identified the causes of their oppression and are equipped with the means to overcome them that Du Bois believes the race may advance. A racially aware self-consciousness is requisite for Black progress to occur. According to DuBois, African Americans must cease to ask themselves if Blackness and Americanity are compatible, for their doubt prevents progressive action. In "The Conservation of Races," Du Bois asserts that Blacks are indeed

American "not only by birth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals, our language, our religion." After establishing that Blackness is not at odds with an

American nationality, Du Bois calls for Black solidarity and leadership in response to racial prejudice. He demands such changes not necessarily "for positive advance" towards freedom and equality, but "for negative defense" against racism. 102 In so doing, DuBois connects a reafTirmation of Americanity and a renewed Black self-consciousness to racial progress. He implies that a willingness to assimilate into American culture while retaining racial pride will enable African Americans to eliminate prejudice and seek equality. Du Bois opines that self-consciousness can promote race unity and Black acceptance of

American society. Because he believes that prejudice is "friction between different groups of people" who strive for disparate and/or competing ideals, Du

Bois identifies Black self-consciousness not only as a means to empowering the race, but also as a tool for resolving differences in racial ideals and minimizing prejudice.

102 DuBois, Souls, 235.

50 In advocating for Blacks to assert their Americanity, Du Bois encourages them to use their self-consciousness to participate in American national life. He does not reject African-American culture nor does he desire racial assimilation, rather, Du Bois wants Blacks to experience the sublime. Dolan Hubbard, in

"W.E.B. DuBois and the Invention of the Sublime in The Souls ofB/ack Folk," explains that the notion of the sublime arose during the Enlightenment. It emerged as a Eurocentric concept that Hubbard identifies as "an aesthetic value in which the primary factor is the presence or suggestion of transcendent vastness or greatness." 103 The sublime is the culmination of various ideals that create civilized societies according to European standards. Strong communication skills, knowledge, nobility, and power are among the most notable elements of the sublime. European cultural bias established African Americans as racial "others" who could neither access nor fulfill sublime ideals. 104 Racial restrictions on the sublime upheld beliefs in White racial superiority and Black inferiority.

Therefore, Du Bois wanted Black self-consciousness to challenge American conceptions of racial difference by manifesting the sublime.

Education provides a foundation for the development of African-American self-consciousness. It enables the origination of Black ideals, the re-presentation of Black history, and the creation of Black cultural productions. All were vital for ameliorating the injurious effects of double consciousness and reshaping the

103 Dolan Hubbard, "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Invention of the Sublime in The Souls o/Biack Folk," In Souls ofBiack Folk One Hundred Years Later, (Columbia: University of Mississippi Press, 2007), 300. 104 Hubbard, "W.E.B. DuBois and the Invention of the Sublime in The Souls qfB/ack Folk," 308.

51 African-American aesthetic. 105 DuBois evidences his belief in the capacity for education to alter one's self-awareness in "Of the Coming of John." In this chapter of Souls, Du Bois describes how a young African-American man became more acutely aware of racial oppression and underwent a personal transformation in his self-consciousness after attending college. "Of the Coming of John" demonstrates how education promotes racial self-awareness while providing

Blacks with skills for upward mobility and by displacing feelings of racial inferiority. Hubbard maintains that DuBois must invent the sublime in order for

Whites to view African Americans as human. It is through education and self- consciousness that Blacks may exhibit that they are capable of experiencing the sublime.

Race Leadership

For Du Bois, education, self-consciousness, and the sublime are all able to create race leadership. As he describes in "The Talented Tenth," education will prepare an elite segment of the Black population to generate upward mobility and assert power for African Americans, thus allowing the race to advance. Likewise, self-consciousness enables racial progress. However, it does not always lead directly to the development of race leadership. Du Bois believes that self- consciousness encourages individuals to manifest character traits that are necessary to effectively lead the race. He views the Black race as a governable population in need of leadership and guidance by the smartest and most talented

African Americans, prompting him to turn to Black elites as the leaders of the

105 Hubbard, "W.E.B. DuBois and the Invention of the Sublime in The Soufs ofBlack Fofk," 311- 312.

52 race. 106 Du Bois calls upon them to assume responsibility for the condition of all

African Americans, for he believes they may aspire towards they ideals that he sets forth for the race.

Du Bois develops a model of race leadership that stems from his desire for

African-American self-governance. He seeks to provide Blacks with "the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, [and] the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty,-- all these [they] need, not singly, but together." 107

It is only through constructing African-American politics that Du Bois believes the race may attain various liberties. He looks to Black elites to be not simply political leaders, but rulers who may govern the race by socializing all African

Americans and fighting White prejudice. To Du Bois, "It need hardly be argued that the Negro people need social leadership more than most groups; that they have no tradition to fall back upon, no established customs, no strong family ties, no well defined social classes." 108 Arguing that educated African Americans must govern the race, DuBois establishes that "the college-bred Negro ... is, as he ought to be, the group leader, the man who sets the ideals of the community where he lives, directs its thoughts and heads its social movements." 109 As such, elite rule is justifiable. Black elites must determine the trajectory of the race's development and they must continue to identify with African Americans in order for their talents to benefit all members of the race at large. 110

106 Robert Gooding-Williams, in In the Shadow ofDu Bois (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 23. 107 DuBois, Souls, 43. lox Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West, in The Future oj'the Race (New York: Vintage Press, 1996), 149. 109 Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West, The Future of the Race, 149. 110 Robert Gooding-Williams, In the Shadow of'Du Bois, 35.

53 In a chapter of Souls titled "Of the Faith of the Fathers," Du Bois notes that "one can see in the Negro church to-day, reproduced in microcosm, all that great world from which the Negro is cut off by color-prejudice and social condition." 111 According to DuBois, African-American life revolves around the church. It is the location for many community meetings and a popular site for hosting cultural activities. The church also provides aid, job opportunities, and disburses information. Du Bois asserts that "this social, intellectual, and economic centre is a religious centre of great power," for it guides African Americans and provides support to families. 112 Declaring that some churches "are really

governments of men" for their ability to direct individuals and serve as the social

centers of their communities, Du Bois admires the political potential of the Black

Church. 113 Because it is home to a Black community free from racial oppression,

the Church offers a reliable model of African-American politics and group

leadership.

Du Bois creates parallels between church leadership and race leadership.

He establishes similar restrictions for determining who is eligible to become a

leader within Black churches and within the race at large. Notably, he excludes

Black women from his conceptions of church and race leadership. Du Bois wants

vocal, talented, African-American men to emerge from within the race to ensure

both spiritual and racial progress. He expects church and race leaders to deliver

directives to African Americans that will teach lessons about self-improvement

and provide hope. Where preachers offer spiritual redemption, Du Bois believes

111 Du Bois, Souls, 151. 112 Du Bois, Souls, 150. 113 Du Bois, Souls, 151.

54 that Black elites offer salvation from racial oppression. Thus, DuBois's race leadership emulates some aspects of church leadership due to the Church's ability to guide African-American lives and manage Black progress.

DuBois finds that the American Negro Academy is an organization comprised of Black elites that must assume responsibility for promoting racial progress. Describing the governing that he believes the Academy should conduct,

Du Bois details his conception of African-American politics in "The Conservation of Races." He argues that African-American progress will be unstoppable if

Blacks are "honest, earnest, inspired and united people." 114 DuBois maintains that these qualities are absolutely necessary in order to advance the race, and as such, wants the American Negro Academy and its members to exemplify these traits. He suggests that the Academy should be "representative in character" of the best qualities of African Americans, "impartial in conduct" such that it holds

Blacks to a high standard, and "firm in leadership" to provide direction to the race. 115 He strongly believes that African Americans must overcome their own

"cultural backwardness" before confronting Black-White race relations. As such,

DuBois recommends that the American Negro Academy "seek[s] to gather about it the talented, unselfish men, the pure and noble-minded women, to fight an army of devils that disgraces our manhood and our womanhood." 116 As he concludes, he suggests that the Academy creates a Creed asserting that: Blacks can make important contributions to the world; racial identity should be retained; racial groups can live together harmoniously and without prejudice; and that the race

114 Du Bois, Souls, 235. 115 DuBois, Souls, 236. 116 DuBois, Souls, 237.

55 problem "lies in the correction of the immorality, crime and laziness among the

Negroes themselves, which still remains as a heritage from slavery." 117

As Robert Gooding-Williams states,

the early DuBois's political agenda is precisely correlated with his social theoretical treatment of the Negro problem, for where his social theory postulates two obstacles to inclusion and assimilation (again, backwardness and prejudice), his politics is a two-dimensional attack on those obstacles. 118

In "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others," a chapter of Souls, Du Bois identifies the two-pronged response that Gooding-Williams identifies. Du Bois states that Black race needs "freedom and assimilation", but must first "[assert] the manhood rights of the Negro by himself." 119 Therefore, the model of race leadership that he proposes relies on empowered Black men to catalyze racial progress by improving Black behaviors and correcting White attitudes.

Questioning Du Bois's Feminism

In 1920, Du Bois published a semi-autobiographical work, Darkwater:

Voices.from within the Veil. He included in this book an essay titled "The

Damnation of Women" in which he criticized the economic and social oppression of Black women. Noting how their condition difTered from those of African-

American men and White women, Du Bois argues that Black women faced particular challenges due to both their race and their gender. Positing that African-

American women should be free to be financially independent, be educated, or be mothers ifthey so choose, DuBois condemns Black women's economic status for

117 DuBois, Souls, 237. 11 x DuBois, Souls, 63. 119 DuBois, Souls, 66.

56 its deterioration of Black womanhood. As Black men are victimized by racism and are denied access to economic opportunities, African-American women are forced to seek labor. 120 Their work is problematic to DuBois for it prevents them from embodying what he believes are the ideals of true womanhood; it jeopardizes their "delicate sense of beauty and striving for self-realization" while destroying Black families. 121

DuBois explains that African-American women cannot fully experience motherhood nor be delicate if they must seek economic independence. Further,

White Americans do not treat Black women with respect because of their race and gender. Du Bois contends that African-American womanhood has been degraded through White men's sexualization of the Black female body. 122 Their devaluation of Black women greatly contrasts with their admiration and protection of White women. As a result of misogyny and anti-Black racism,

African-American women cannot always reap what DuBois perceives as the benefits ofwomanhood. He determines that the true damnation of women is that

"only at the sacrifice of intelligence and the chance to do their best work can the majority of modern women bear children."123 Thus, Du Bois laments Black women's status because their labor prevents them from meeting traditional standards of White femininity.

120 W. E. B. DuBois, "The Damnation of Women," In Darkvvater, Voices.fiYJ/11 within the Veil. (London: Oxford University Press, 2007 [ 1920]), 86. Hereinafter referred to in the text as "Damnation." 121 Du Bois, "Damnation," 85-86. 122 Du Bois, "Damnation," 82. 123 Du Bois, "Damnation," 79.

57 Some authors claim that Du Bois was among the first male feminists

because he calls for Black women's economic independence and the improvement of their social conditions in "Damnation." However, DuBois's masculinist

language in his foundational works and his construction of Black women in

"Damnation" undermined the essay's potential to promote equality among Black

males and females, preventing him from truly being a feminist. Du Bois's

portrayal of African-American women continued their subjugation and hindered

racial progress by reinforcing gender norms and neglecting to consider how they

too may advance the race. His analyses of the "Negro problem" and race

leadership in his early work were flawed because they identify the race's struggles

as crises of Black masculinity. As such, Du Bois does not envision Black women

as race leaders and instead looks to Black men as the saviors of the race. He

normalizes "the Negro" as a masculine figure in many of his works. DuBois does

not do so in a purely symbolic sense, but does so in order to present a model of

African-American education, self-consciousness, and leadership that revolves

around the Black male. It is evident from the rhetoric and content of Souls and

several works published between 1897 and 1904 that Du Bois constructs a

masculinist framework for overcoming racism.

The race problem, while it partially describes Black women's oppression,

primarily applies to Black men as a result of patriarchy within White supremacy.

It is important to Du Bois to secure the inclusion of Black men in American

national life because White male power was, and remains today, a central element

of the country's social ordering. By subverting White male dominance and

58 overcoming the strongest political force in the United States, Du Bois believed that African-American men could guarantee racial equality. Therefore, Black men's inadequacy was among the most significant contributors to the "Negro problem." Their lack of education and damaged self-consciousnesses posed obstacles to formulating race leadership. Racism prevented Black men from reaching their fullest potential, further hindering their ability to become race leaders. To Du Bois, the destiny of the race is inevitably determined by the condition and empowerment of Black men, and any dilemma among Black men is injurious to all African Americans. As such, Du Bois aims to resolve crises of

Black masculinity in order to solve the race problem. It is through educating

Black men, repairing their self-consciousness, and preparing them for race leadership that he believes racial progress will occur.

In "The Talented Tenth," which was published in the same year as Souls,

W.E.B. Du Bois critiques the American public school system, finding that it unsuccessfully educates the Black race. In order to correct the system, DuBois calls upon the nation's most gifted Black men. Stating at the beginning and end of

"The Talented Tenth" that "the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men," he seeks to emphasize how the education of talented Black men will contribute to the moral and economic advancement of the entire race. 124

According to Du Bois, the purpose of education is not simply to teach wage­ earning or technical skills; it is to make men. It is imperative to "make manhood the object of the work of the schools" for this will develop in students

"intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the

124 DuBois, "The Talented Tenth," 133.

59 relation of men to it." 125 For DuBois, education serves two purposes. Firstly, it

prepares Black men for intellectual and economic success. Secondly, it aiTirms

their agency. As he states in "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," "the black man's

turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very

strength to lose effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, [and] like weakness." Black men's self-consciousness harmed them, but education will

enable them to formulate renewed and empowered self-consciousnesses. 126

Among DuBois's solutions to the "Negro problem" is the realization of a

racially aware identity. DuBois opines that "the Negro is a sort of seventh son,

born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,-a world

which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself

through the revelation of the other world." 127 Because "the history of the

American Negro is the history of this strife,-this longing to attain self-conscious

manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self," African Americans

must rid themselves of the sense of inferiority that double consciousness produces

in many members of the race. 128 If Black men accomplish this task and no longer

view their Blackness and their Americanity in opposition to each other, they can

begin to ameliorate the negative efiects of the exclusion of the Black race.

Because self-consciousness allows for race leadership to emerge, it will be

possible for African-American men to become race leaders if they consciously

resolve their individual crises of Black masculinity.

125 DuBois, "The Talented Tenth," 133. 126 Du Bois, Souls, 39. 127 Du Bois, Souls, 38. 128 DuBois, Souls, 39.

60 According to Du Bois's 1898 "The Study of the Negro Problems," race leadership is necessary because "the great deficiency of the Negro ... is his small knowledge of the art of organized social life ... He finds himself, therefore, peculiarly weak in that nice adaptation of individual life to the life of the group which is the essence of civilization."129 Self-consciousness prompted elite,

African-American men to accept the responsibility of assimilating Blacks into

American national life and catalyzing racial progress. Witnessing the deleteriousness of anti-Black racism, "some men began to see in this development a physical, economic and moral danger to the land, and they busied themselves with questions as to how they might provide for the development of white and black without demoralizing the one or amalgamating with the other." 130 Du Bois later affirms in a chapter of Souls titled "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and

Others" that "it is the duty of black men to judge the South discriminatingly." 131

He holds Black men responsible for determining the future of the race and looks to them for race leadership.

DuBois identifies the "Negro problem" as one that is profoundly molded by Black men. He cites anti-Black prejudice as one reason for the race's exclusion from group life in the United States, but holds African Americans moderately responsible for their fate. A lack of education, false consciousness, and a deficit of race leadership among African-American men all produce crises of Black masculinity that Du Bois believes create problems for the race at large. He looks to an elite class of African-American men to generate racial progress but in so

129 DuBois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 8. 130 Du Bois, "The Study of the Negro Problems," 5. 131 Du Bois, Souls, 70.

61 doing, neglects to explore Black women's oppression, how his antiracism reinforces it, and how it upholds White power. For DuBois, the "Negro problem" is essentially a result of flawed Black masculinity. For his contemporary, Anna

Julia Cooper, attacks upon Black femininity are at the foundation of the "Negro problem" in the United States. This key diflerence in their interpretations ofrace and racism provides the basis for further departures in their theories for racial progress.

62 CHAPTER TWO

A Feminist Response to the Negro Question

Perhaps even hjgher than strength and art loom human sympathy and sacnfice as characteiistjc ofNegro womanhood W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Damnation of Women" (1920) 132

Only the BLACK WOMAN can say, 'when and where I ente1~ h1 the quje0 undisputed djgnky ofmy womanhoocl wkhout vjolence and wkhout suh1g or spedal patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me. Anna Julia Cooper, "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race" (1892) 133

In 1858, Anna Julia Cooper was born to a slave and her master in North

Carolina. Despite customs that attempted to limit Cooper's potential for upward mobility, she was one of few distinguished African-American women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who overcame the barriers to accessing higher education. After receiving a primary and secondary school education at St.

Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, Cooper attained a Bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1884. She earned a Master's degree in mathematics in 1887, became a teacher at theM Street School in Washington,

D.C., and was later promoted to be the principal. While employed, Cooper engaged in activism through Black and women's conferences and organizations. 134 She began a doctorate in history at Columbia University that she completed subsequently at the University of Paris- Sorbonne in 1924. Cooper

132 W. E. B. DuBois, "The Damnation of Women," in Darkwater: Voices ji-cJm within the Veil. (London: Oxford University Press, 2007 [1920]), 85. 133 Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice From the South, reprinted in Charles Lemert, ed., The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1988 [ 1892]), 63. Hereinafter referred to as "Voice." 134 http://coopcrprojcct.org/about-anna-julia-cooper/. Accessed 27 February 2013.

63 would ultimately champion an early form of Black feminism that lasted until her death in 1964. 135

As an intellectual who believed in Black women's agency, Cooper determined that African-American women were central to advancing the race. She posited that their standing in the racial hierarchy of the United States, their positions in the home, and their roles as mothers, daughters, and sisters provided them with unique insights about the relationship between race, gender, morality, equality, and justice. According to Cooper, because women have the distinctive capacity to inf1uence men, and thus, determine the trajectory of the nation, Black women's education is vital to the advancement of the race and the country at

large. As I explore throughout this chapter, Cooper argues that antiracism will only be successful if it fully advocates for the liberation of Black women while

incorporating them into racial activism. Through promoting Christian morality for all Americans and calling for Black women's education and political participation, Cooper attempts to demonstrate how their advancement would enhance Black and American development.

On Regeneration: The Impot·tance of Black Women

In her central publication, A Voice from the South ( 1892), Cooper relies on

Black women as powerful agents for overcoming racial oppression. She describes their significance in her introductmy chapter, "Womanhood: A Vital Element in

the Regeneration And Progress of A Race." In this piece, Cooper conjectures that

" ... the position of woman in society determines the vital elements of its

135 Charles Lemert in Voice ofAnna Julia Cooper (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1998). 64 regeneration and progress ... because it is she who must first form the man by directing the earliest impulses of his character." 136 In this assertion, Cooper affirms men's ability to govern American society. Though she does not grant similar power to women, she contends that it is through exercising their influence on men that women are able to make manifest their visions for the race and the

country. Cooper discusses women's domestic power over men, but ultimately

looks to them to be reliable actors in the public sphere. Paradoxically, as she affirms women's influence, she is forced to work within patriarchal norms that

restricted Black women's access to political rights, privileges, and resources.

Cooper locates all women's regenerative power in their ability to be

mothers and homemakers. Arguing that motherhood is a God-given responsibility

that is indispensable to shaping society and advancing civilization, Cooper

encourages her readership to acknowledge women's power to determine the

future of the nation. She argues in a later chapter, "Woman versus the Indian,"

that women are in control of certain aspects of society and that men cannot

dispute decisions made in the women's realm. According to Cooper, women

determine accepted codes of conduct. "The American woman then is responsible

for American manners" because the nation takes its social and behavioral cues

from women. 137 They are central to shaping civic life and ending racism due to

the far-reaching consequences of their teachings, in addition to their capacity to

"reinforce the good or the evil elements of the world." 138 It is clear to Cooper that

136 Cooper, Voice, 59. 137 Cooper, Voice, 90. m Cooper, Voice, 60.

65 women are the catalysts in societal progress; she believes that this has major consequences for African Americans in particular.

Positing that "the fundamental agency under God in the regeneration, the retraining of the race, as well as the ground work and starting point of its progress upward, must be the black ~woman, " 139 Cooper maintains that it is only with the guidance of Black women that the race may repair itself and then continue to develop. Throughout this chapter, Cooper reiterates the necessity of

"regenerating" the race. Her word choice implies that African Americans were once powerful, but lost their strength and now need to be revitalized. Cooper suggests that racism impaired Black civilization not primarily by creating crises of masculinity among African-American men, but through hindering Black women's capacity to act as agents of change. Because women are catalysts in societal progress, African Americans must uplift their women in order to

"regenerate" the race. Once Black women become empowered, African-American civilization can continue to develop.

For Cooper, "civilization" is the ability to form cultural productions that advance the common good. Black civilization therefore has the potential to improve the welfare of all African Americans in addition to that of the nation at large. Their exclusion from the resources necessary to be able to do so is one problematic element of racism. Cooper describes the necessity of developing

Black civilization in order to demonstrate that racism does not hurt African

Americans alone, but is also injurious to Whites and the entire country. Black civilization is further inhibited by sexism within the race. As racism limits

139 Cooper, Voice, 62.

66 national progress, so too does sexism restrict racial progress. White racism and

Black sexism both present obstacles to developing a successful Black civilization.

Therefore, Cooper argues that the elimination of both systems of oppression are necessary to promote racial equality.

Cooper has faith in "the vital agency of womanhood in the regeneration and progress of a race" because Black women raise Black men, who she also calls upon to affect social change. It is not solely due to their domestic roles that

Cooper determines Black women's progress is important to the entire race; she asserts that African-American women must be able to develop fully in order for racial liberation to occur. 140 Black civilization must be able to flourish if

American civilization is to flourish; similarly, by strengthening Black womanhood, it will become possible to advance the race and the nation. Stating that Black women are "so full of promise and possibilities, yet so sure of destruction," Cooper attempts to persuade her audience that "there is material in

[Black women] well worth your while, the hope in germ of a staunch, helpful, regenerating womanhood on which, primarily, rests the foundation stones of our future as a race." 141 With this impassioned plea, she attempts to demonstrate the necessity of developing a womanhood capable of self determination. For Cooper,

Black women must be free to be mothers, intellectuals, or political actors if they so choose. It is only once Black women have such power over their conditions that racial progress can take place.

14°Cooper, Voice, 60. 141 Cooper, Voice, 60-61.

67 Racial reform, according to Voice, will not occur unless women are involved. Cooper believes that education, philanthropy, and religion are essential to elevating African Americans, but that such efforts "cannot but prove abortive unless so directed as to utilize the indispensable agency of an elevated and trained womanhood." 142 She explains, "A race is but a total of families. The nation is the aggregate of its homes. As the whole is sum of all its parts, so the character of the parts will determine the characteristics of the whole." 143 Two points are clear from this assertion. First, Cooper connects marginalization based on the internal ditTerences within a group to political wrongs that are committed against a larger subset of the same population. When applied to African Americans, Cooper implies that the character of the Black race will determine that of the country. If

African-Americans oppress Black women, one can reasonably expect similar injustices to be reproduced among Black and White Americans as well. The sexism of African-Americans, who Cooper identifies as "part" of the national population, reflects an acceptance of oppression and contributes to anti-Black racism hom White Americans, who represent the "whole." Second, Cooper asserts that there is an important link between domestic life and national character. Homes are important sites for instilling morality and Christian values in families. As such, Cooper contends that the influence that women exert over families and homes determines the spirit and the progress of any nation.

Because of women's unique role in furthering civilization, Cooper finds that men are incapable of being "regarded as identical with or representative of

142 Cooper, Voice, 62. 143 Cooper, Voice, 63.

68 the whole." 144 It is necessary to recognize differences within populations in order to avoid homogenizing and misconstruing the varied experiences of a group. By acknowledging difference instead of deeming African-American men to be iiiustrative of all African Americans and by noting further points of discontinuity in the experiences of Blacks in the United States, it wiii be possible to understand the most effective method of advancing civilization. Through celebrating difference and promoting gendered equality, Black civilization will develop more fully. Consequently, African Americans wi11 make racial progress.

Cooper's work a11udes to her belief in inherent gender difference. She expands upon the benefits that civilization may reap fl.·om equaily respecting masculinity and femininity throughout the text. In the section of Voice entitled

"The Higher Education of Women," Cooper details the potential benefits of educating the women of the American South. To some, education and femininity are at odds because academia can draw women away from their domestic roles. 145

However, Cooper opines that a co11ege education will allow women to give "a deeper, richer, nobler, and grander meaning to the word 'womanly' than any one- sided masculine definition could ever have suggested or inspired." 146 She believes that women must be granted the power to define femininity for themselves and that women should not be required to conform to standards of femininity that are established by men. For Cooper, women are characterized by an inclination towards sensitivity, emotionality, and care-giving. Yet, contrary to many male thinkers of the time, she does not believe that such traits are antithetical to

144 Cooper, Voice, 63. 145 Cooper, Voice, 72. 146 Cooper, Voice, 73.

69 intellectualism and activism. Instead, she argues that women's education can "add to the civilized world" by allowing women to provide new interpretations of world affairs. 147

While Cooper defies many patriarchal norms by arguing for women to participate in traditionally masculine realms, she conforms to them in her acceptance of a masculinist belief in inherent gender difference. Cooper works within a masculinist framework by identifying purportedly innate traits of men and women. In stereotypically describing women as nurturing, tender beings,

Cooper reproduces patriarchal thought. Nevertheless, she uses her conceptions of femininity and masculinity to argue for nontraditional gender roles that would strive towards gendered and racial equality. Rather than calling for women's domesticity based on their gentle nature, Cooper demands women's education.

Because she believes that there are inherent differences in male and female thought patterns, she anticipates that "you will not find the law of love shut out from the affairs of men after the feminine half of the world's truth is completed." 148 Cooper hopes that women's capacity to feel and ability to shape men will prompt them to incorporate femininity into discourse on sociopolitical and economic matters generally restricted to men. She concedes that men are indeed able to exhibit some traditionally feminine traits, such as compassion, but argues that men's performance of femininity is only possible due to the influences

147 Cooper, Voice, 75. 14x Cooper, Voice, 77.

70 oftheir mothers and sisters. 149 Women's embodiment ofmasculine traits is possible due to their observations of men's public afiairs.

As Cooper stresses her belief in gender difierence, she also emphasizes the need for gendered cooperation in stating, "All I claim is that there is a feminine as well as a masculine side to truth; that these are related as ... complements in one necessary and symmetric whole. That as the man is more noble in reason, so the

0 0 woman IS0 more qwc0 k m sympath y. ,150 c ooper does not argue t1 1at mascu 1'Imty IS0 superior to femininity nor vice versa, but instead, equalizes the value of masculine and feminine traits. She hypothesizes that there will be mutual growth, learning, and progress between men and women if women are to be educated, allowing young boys to "supplement their virility by tenderness and sensibility," and allowing young girls to "round out their gentleness by strength and self- reliance." 151 Similarly, Cooper posits that races need the influences of men and women in order to advance, and that races must cooperate in order for national civilization to further develop.

Cooper concludes the chapter by rejecting the belief that marriage and women's education are incompatible. She alleges that education will not only provide the aforementioned benefits and make women "less dependent on the marriage relation for physical support," but it will also be spiritually fulfilling and allow women to become better mothers, housekeepers, cooks, and mediators. 152

Once she has established that there are domestic as well as political benefits to be

149 Cooper, Voice, 77. 15°Cooper, Voice, 78. 151 Cooper, Voice, 78. 152 Cooper, Voice, 68,72.

71 reaped from women's education, Cooper states that man must now "develop his

God-given powers as to reach the ideal of a generation of women who demand the noblest, grandest and best achievements of which he is capable." 153 As I explain later in this chapter, Black men play an important role in assisting African-

American women in their efforts to act as regenerative agents for the race.

The Negro Problem Revisited

W.E.B. Du Bois confronts the "Negro Problem" in The Souls o.lBlack

Folk and much of his later work, describing it as a series of crises of Black masculinity produced by racism. Prior to the publication of DuBois's major works, Cooper defined the Negro Problem along three dimensions: anti-Black prejudice, the inhibition of African-American potential, and gender inequality within the race are central to her conceptualization of the obstacles to racial progress. Racist ideologies prevent African-American access to various resources, including but not limited to education and fair wages. Such injustices are further manifested in the conditions of Black women as compared to Black men, and cumulatively, they obstruct progress in Black civilization.

Cooper alleges the Negro Problem in the United States has international roots. She explains in "Has America a Race Problem? If So, How Can it Best be

Solved?" that slavery in Europe created a race problem that later led to cultural diversity. 154 Since emancipation, there has been "the promise of perpetual progress" in Europe because the continent has championed liberty. European nations t1ourished because they lacked the group "exclusiveness and selfishness"

153 Cooper, Voice, 70. 154 Cooper, Voice 125.

72 that are "suicidal to progress," but are present among White Americans. 155

Various racial civilizations were able to develop, allowing for the continent's civilization to be successful as well. In the United States, there is not the same national or racial mixing that is found in Europe. Instead, White exclusionists attempt to prevent persons of different nationalities and races from accessing

American rights and privileges. 156 Alleging that "there was never a time ... when there were not more than one race, more than one party, more than one belief contending for supremacy" in the United States, Cooper chastises the entire country for abandoning the themes upon which it was founded: "Compromise and concessiOn,. l"b1 era 1·1ty an d to 1eratwn. . " 157 T o C ooper, racism . represents t1 1e convergence of values that she deems are in opposition to country's most fundamental principles. 158 Anti-Black attitudes contribute to the Negro Problem for they encourage prejudice, which contradicts the political premises of

America's founding and hinders the progress of the entire nation.

The misrepresentation of African Americans in art and in literature compounds the Negro Problem by reproducing and popularizing anti-Black racism. Arguing that art and literature have perpetuated stereotypes, Cooper believes that misrepresentations of African Americans have encouraged Whites to draw false conclusions about Blacks. 159 In "The Negro as Presented in American

Literature," situated within Part II of Voice, Cooper comments on the tendency among authors who discuss race in the United States to make broad

155 Cooper, Voice, 126. 156 Cooper, Voice, 127. 157 Cooper, Voice, 128. 158 Cooper, Voice, 128. 159 Cooper, Voice, 156.

73 generalizations about the nature of African Americans. She asserts that it is impossible to understand an entire race from limited observations and interactions with members of a particular racial group, and laments the undue characterizations about race that constantly appear in literature about African

. 160 A men cans.

Cooper opines that the only individuals qualified to write on race are those who are sufficiently knowledgeable of the ditierences that exist among Blacks.

"Those whose acquaintanceship is so slight that he cannot even discern diversities of individuality, has no right or authority" to speak of or characterize African

Americans. 161 The art and writings created by persons ignorant of variations within the race travel worldwide, thus recreating negative impressions of African

Americans around theglobe. White familiarity with differences among Blacks is essential for fostering racial progress. By the same token, Black men must acknowledge the range of experiences and identities that exist among Afi:ican

Americans in general and Black women in particular if Black civilization is to advance.

Cooper posits that White women are critical actors in reproducing anti-

Black behavior and providing opposition to the development of Black civilization.

In "Woman versus the Indian," from Part I of Voice, she analyzes the role that

White women play in perpetuating racism. Cooper does not necessarily charge them with holding racist beliefs, but reprimands them for condoning racism and

16°Cooper, Voice, 149. 161 Cooper, Voice, 149. 74 allowing their husbands, brothers, and children to be racist. 162 She accuses White men of turning Blacks against each other, condemns southern White women's poor logic, and criticizes the South for its racist behavior. 163 Cooper interprets racism simultaneously as an injustice and as one of the highest manifestations of poor manners. Because she believes that women are responsible for cultivating good behavior and general courtesy in society, she entreats women to "institute a reform by placing immediately in our national curricula a department for teaching

GOOD MANNERS," such that racism may cease to be a divisive force in the

United States.

As she encourages Black and White women alike to cultivate good manners within their families and the nation, Cooper appeals to them to comply with the politics of respectability. Black women's self-determination, for Cooper, must take place within the bounds of respectable, Christian behavior so that they may reach the fullest potential of Black women's civilization. According to Farah

Jasmine Gritiin in "Black Feminists and DuBois: Respectability, Protection, and beyond," African-Americans originally used the politics of respectability to create a highly regarded Black aesthetic that challenged popular representations of

African Americans as lazy and immoral. 164 She finds that,

paradoxically, as black leaders attempted to counter racist discourse and their consequences, the politics of respectability also ret1ected an acceptance and internalization of these representations. The politics of respectability seeks to reform the behavior of individuals and as such takes

162 Cooper, Voice, 93. 163 Cooper, Voice, 97-101. 164 Farah Jasmine Griffin, "Black Feminists and Du Bois: Respectability, Protection, and beyond." In Annals of" the American Academy of Political and Social Science 568, 2000, 34.

75 the emphasis away from structural forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, and poverty. 165

It is true that Cooper's emphasis on the politics of respectability attempts to correct individual behaviors. However, in demanding that all American women behave tastefully and ensure that their families do so as well, Cooper simultaneously discourages sexism and racism among Blacks and Whites. To

Cooper, the politics of respectability is a tool to present positive depictions of

African Americans while encouraging them and their White counterparts to embrace certain values that are beneficial to any civilization. She does not use the politics of respectability in order to draw focus away from racism, sexism, and poverty, rather, she does so in order to demonstrate how individual Black and

White behaviors cause the collective production and perpetuation of structural oppression. Cooper reframes the politics of respectability such that it does not blame individuals for their victimization, but blames their oppressors for explicitly and tacitly endorsing racism, sexism, and poverty.

In placing the responsibility for controlling prejudice on those who are both consciously and unconsciously racist, Cooper implies that the treatment of

African Americans may contribute to the Negro Problem whether it is intentionally or unintentionally oppressive. She cites White southerner's calls for social equality among races as one example of how presumably antiracist action may be insufficient for promoting racial progress. She rejects social equality, claiming that it is meaningless, "forced association." 166 Instead, Cooper calls for

Blacks to share in the same rights and privileges as all other human beings. Racial

165 Griffin, "Black Feminists and DuBois," 34. 166 Cooper, Voice, 101. 76 progress is incomplete if it does not address political wrongs. Therefore, Cooper wants the Black man to have the freedom and power to "live his own life, in his own world, with his own chosen companions, in whatever of comfort, luxury, or emoluments his talent or his money can in an impartial market secure," and wants

Black women to have similar powers of self-determination and independence. 167

Their inability to do so is the second component of the Negro Problem.

According to Voice, anti-Black prejudice oppresses African-American men and women by limiting their potential to advance Black civilization. Their

inability to develop the race stems from the existence of Black Codes and by

extension, the racist denial of access to education and labor opportunities. Due to

the prevalence of racial prejudice, African Americans cannot succeed in a variety

of occupations; they are less able than Whites to profit from their work. Black

male and female laborers are both in disadvantaged positions because they do

disproportionately difficult work for minimal wages, and inevitably struggle to

earn enough money to sustain themselves and their families. There is little

opportunity for social mobility, and Black voices are silenced by accusations of

racial inferiority. 168

Cooper alludes to Michael Hanchard's previously cited notion of racial

time as she conjectures that although African-American labor has become more

productive since emancipation, Black civilization remains centuries behind White

civilization. 169 Hanchard describes racial time as the injustices that are produced

167 Cooper, Voice, 102. 16x Cooper, Voice, 208-209. 169 Cooper, Voice, 21 0-211.; Michael Hanchard, "Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African Diaspora," Public Culture II (I), 1999: 247.

77 by the belated conferral of rights and privileges to oppressed races. For Cooper, the obstruction of Black civilization is a consequence of racial time. African

Americans have the potential to make meaningful physical, moral, and mental contributions to American society, but are prevented from doing so as a result of anti-Black racism. 170 Stating that "the Negro Question in America today is [sic] the white man's problem-Nay it is humanity's problem," Cooper acknowledges how Black disadvantage simultaneously damages African Americans and White

Americans. For Cooper, defened progress in African-American civilization poses universal problems of injustice and inequality. 171

Patriarchy among African Americans further obstructs racial progress.

Cooper claims that "the average man of [the Black] race is less frequently ready to admit the actual need among the sturdier forces of the world for woman's help or int1uence" than White men. 172 She posits that their disinclination to acknowledge Black women's regenerative power nor advocate for their rights is caused by a tendency among Black men to be more preoccupied with the racial and political problems that directly affect them than those that affect African-

American women. Cooper simultaneously implies that Black men should emulate

White men's treatment of White women and suggests that Black women are not being used to their fullest potential. By identifying African-American men's failure to recognize Black women's regenerative power as one of the fundamental elements of the Negro Problem, Cooper implies that Black men must accept

Black women's power in order for it to allow racial progress. She does not make

17° Cooper, Voice, 213. 171 Cooper, Voice, 212. 172 Cooper, Voice, 113.

78 such an assertion in order to argue that Black male validation alone will empower

Black women. Instead, she seeks to demonstrate that gendered cooperation within the race and the recognition of Black women's regenerative power by all African

Americans are essential to advancing Black civilization. African Americans' inability to conceptualize Black women as agents of racial progress is central to the Negro Problem.

Political Faith and Racial Progress

Cooper's 1902 essay, "The Ethics ofthe Negro Question," is an abridged

version of a speech delivered at the General Conference of the Society of Friends.

In this address, Cooper explores the history of Blacks in America and explains

why they deserve the same treatment as White Americans. Cooper observes that

African Americans do not live in the United States by choice. She describes their

arrival in the country in order to demonstrate the country's hypocrisy. While

colonists drafted documents "embodying principles of universal justice and

equality," they simultaneously violated the rights of Africans and African

Americans; to Cooper, this was not only a political, but also a religious wrong. 173

As such, she simultaneously presents a political and a religious model for racial

progress.

Religion is central to how Cooper understands race and racism. She

supports religiosity because she contends that without faith, there would be no

173 Cooper, Voice, 207.

79 motivation to better oneself or assist others. 174 For Cooper, faith is necessary so that individuals will believe in the goodness of humanity. It is only confidence in the benevolence of the human race that can allow for moral and societal progress.

Because "there cannot be heroism, devotion, or sacrifice in a primarily skeptical spirit," Cooper opines that humans "must believe in the infinite possibilities of devoted self-sacrifice and in the eternal grandeur of a human idea heroically espoused." 175 Acknowledging that individuals create various versions of the truth when processing information, Cooper claims that all persons must live by whatever is true to them. Because "religion must be life made true; and life is action, growth, development-begun now and ending never," Cooper urges her audience to act based on what they believe to be true. 176 As such, she believes that religion has a political nature and is essential for combating racism, for it will equip African Americans to develop according to their racial realities. Cooper encourages Blacks to actively "live [their] creed" ifthey "believe that the God of history often chooses the weak things of earth to confound the mighty, and that the Negro race in America has a veritable destiny in His eternal purposes." 177 She has faith that it is God's will for Blacks to attain racial equality, and encourages other African Americans to establish a connection between their religion and the politics of race in the United States.

Because "the hand of God is leading [the country] on" and because newer nations have produced more successful civilizations than their predecessors,

174 Cooper, Voice, 196. 175 Cooper, Voice, 193. 176 Cooper, Voice, 194. 177 Cooper, Voice, 194.

80 Cooper is convinced that in the United States, there will be "the last death struggle of political tyranny, of religious bigotry, and intellectual intolerance, of caste illiberality and class exclusiveness. And the last monster that shall be throttled forever methinks is race prejudice." 178 Upon stating that America does indeed have a race problem, she states that she intends to "let it alone and mind

[her] own business." 179 Because "it is God's problem and He will solve it in time," Cooper recommends that all persons live their lives according to God's will. 180 Although "Anglo Saxon America is in danger of forgetting how to deal justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with its God", Cooper maintains that Black suffering is part of God's plan for African Americans. 181 She believes that ultimately, Blacks will develop a "stronger truer, purer racial character" despite anti-Black racism. 182

Cooper deems that African Americans can best be helped through

"Christian Education," or in other words, through exposure to "the efficacy of

Christian teaching and preaching." 183 As noted earlier, Cooper believes that living a virtuous, Christian lifestyle and having faith in God's healing powers will promote racial progress. She opines that Christian education will be no less effective for African Americans than for White Americans because there are

"some criminal, some shiftless, some provokingly intractable and seemingly uneducable classes and individuals among blacks as there are still unless I am

m Cooper, Voice, 131, 130. 179 Cooper, Voice, 131. 10°Cooper, Voice, 131. 101 Cooper, Voice, 214. 1x2 Cooper, Voice, 214. 1x3 Cooper, Voice, 212.

81 misinformed, also among whites."184 Blacks are equally deserving of Christian

education because they too are God's children and because their oppression affects all humanity. 185 Cooper contends that African Americans can make

meaningful physical, moral, and mental contributions to American civilization,

but can only do so by actively attempting to make manifest God's will. Due to

their God-given regenerative power, Black women in particular must receive

Christian education, for it will allow them to impart their knowledge to their

families and direct the development of the race and the nation. 186

Responsibility and Racial Regeneration

Women in general and Black women in particular are central in catalyzing

racial regeneration. As Cooper explains in "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the

Regeneration and Progress of a Race," mothers are responsible for training their

children to act justly. Due to their fundamental roles in the household, women

must recognize their societal influence and their ability to establish national

standards of morality. 187 Cooper requires Black women to promote racial

progress, whether it is by fulfilling domestic roles or through their political

participation. She declares that "the fundamental agency under God in the

regeneration, the re-training of the race, as well as the ground work and the

starting point of its progress upward must be the black woman" in order to stress

that they must abandon the peripheral spaces they occupy in Black civilization

1x 4 Cooper, Voice, 212. IXS Cooper, Voice, 212. Jxc, Cooper, Voice, 62. 1x7 Cooper, Voice, 59-60. 82 and instead emerge at the forefront of African-American race leadership. 188 Black women's racial duties, to Cooper, are monumental. They are both necessary to and partially responsible for ensuring racial progress. Cooper expresses her awe at the tasks before African-American women, exclaiming, "What a responsibility then to have the sole management of the primal lights and shadows! Such is the

colored woman's office. She must stamp weal or woe on the coming history of this people. May she see her opportunity and vindicate her high prerogative." 189

Cooper is confident that Black women's action will significantly alter power

relations and the course ofhistory. She identifies Black women's regenerative

power as a critical component of advancing all African Americans, but also holds

Black men accountable for elevating Black civilization.

Cooper entreats African-American men to further the cause of racial justice by acknowledging the important role that Blacks may play in the history of

the world and then working towards the end that they identify. However, it is

Black men's duty to first recognize the challenges that face the race, primarily

through understanding that sexism and patriarchy among African-American men

contributes to Black women's racialized and gendered struggles. 190 In discussing

the activism that Cooper wants the Black man to participate in, she determines

that racial progress notably "depends on his own right comprehension of his

responsibility and rising to the demands of the hour. .. how best to use [Black

manhood] so that the structure of the future shall be stronger and higher and

brighter and nobler and holier than that of the past, is a question to be decided

188 Cooper, Voice, 62. 189 Cooper, Voice, 117. 19° Cooper, Voice, 61. 83 each day by every one ofus."191 Again, Cooper speaks ofthe necessity of gendered cooperation, racial solidarity, and self-determination. She also highlights the relevance of jointly using race and gender to uplift African

Americans. In establishing various responsibilities for Black men and Black women to embrace separately, Cooper draws distinctions based on her beliefs in innate differences between men and women. However, there remain universal duties that Cooper assigns to Black men and women alike in order to promote racial progress.

Throughout Voice, Cooper contends that all African Americans must contribute to racial progress to the best of their abilities. In the first chapter, she posits that "the individual is responsible, not for what he has not, but for what he has; and the vital part for us after all depends on the use we make of our material." 192 Similarly, the penultimate chapter of Voice, titled "What Are We

Worth?" suggests that "if improvement is possible, if it is in our power to render ourselves valuable to a community or neighborhood, it should be the work of the earnest and able men and women among us, the moral physicians and reformers, to devise and apply a remedy." 193 Thus, Cooper grants all oppressed persons- regardless of the extent of their privilege or marginalization-the capacity to contribute to the development of Black civilization. She holds African Americans collectively responsible for conducting historical analyses of their oppression and building solidarity within the race. 194 Unless anti-racist efforts seek to benefit all

191 Cooper, Voice, 61. 192 Cooper, Voice, 166. 193 Cooper, Voice, 171-172. 194 Cooper, Voice, 61-62.

84 members of the race, Cooper deems them to be insufficient. Therefore, internal cooperation and unified resistance to racism are essential for regenerating Black womanhood and Black civilization.

Acknowledging that racial progress necessarily involves the ending of oppressive actions, Cooper briefly speaks of American responsibilities in the

preface to Voice, "Our Raison d'Etre." She contends that because Americans valorize justice, they are all responsible for eliminating sociopolitical

domination. 195 As Cooper describes who is responsible for various elements of

racial progress, she establishes that certain Black behaviors will be more

conducive for advancing the race than others. She also cites White behaviors that

perpetuate racial oppression. Cooper connects her notions of racial responsibility

to behavioral trends in order to describe what she perceives as the most effective

form of anti-racist action.

Black Behavior

Cooper argues in "Has America a Race Problem?" that peace can be

acquired through the suppression of opposition or through behavioral adjustment.

In the first case, the opposing force dies or departs. In the second, the opponent

alters its thoughts and actions. 196 For Cooper, adjustment is the optimal way to

live peacefully because it is unnatural for opposing forces to disappear. Arguing

that disagreement is essential to flourishing civilizations, Cooper rejects the

notion of a conflict-free society. She opines that it is not healthy for conf1ict to be

195 Cooper, Voice, 52. I% Cooper, Voice, 121.

85 resolved as a result of suppression because conflict maintains societal equilibrium and encourages progress. She uses this argument to condemn racial separatism and subsequently call for changes in Black and White behavior.

Cooper describes two primary modifications to Black civilization and behavior that must occur in order to regenerate the race. Her two-pronged method mandates that African Americans improve gender relations within the race and use the Christian Church to foster racial progress. Citing M. Guizot's argument in

''History of Civilization" that societies failed when ruled by one powerful group,

Cooper makes a case against "race tyranny and exclusiveness." 197 According to

Guizot, whenever a unified, dominant group isolates itself and exercises control over a civilization, it produces sameness of thought and inevitably causes the downfall of society. Cooper determines that Guizot's argument has important implications for resolving the Negro Problem. Firstly, it demonstrates that White

Americans must abandon their racial prejudices. It is necessary for them to intermingle with Blacks and other racial minorities so that all races may share in the ruling forces of society. Secondly, it establishes that Black men need not exercise complete control over Black civilization, and must instead incorporate

Black women into their efforts to advance the race. Because Cooper values intellectual diversity and believes that there are different masculine and feminine patterns of thought, she judges that it is beneficial to Black civilization for men and women to participate in both domestic and public spheres.

In order for Black women to become fully involved with political afiairs, they must become educated. Yet, Cooper fears that most African-American men

1 ~ 7 Cooper, Voice, 123. 86 do not recognize the value of women's education. She therefore calls for the

Black race to allow for Black women's intellectualism in two ways. Cooper first wants African-American men and women to teach Black women that they are essential to the progress of the race and that "the world needs and is already asking for their trained, efficient forces." 198 She suggests that African Americans may accomplish this goal if Black men protect "every weak, struggling, unshielded girl" and if Black women be "so sure of their own social footing that they need not fear leaning to lend a hand to a fallen or falling sister." 199 African-

American men and women must actively cooperate to advance Black women, who can then become the agents of regeneration for the entire race. Collaborative

action will allow Blacks to heed Cooper's second recommendation for how to

advance Black women. She suggests that scholarship funds be raised specifically

to allow young Black women to attend colleges with the same ease of young

Black men. Both of the aforementioned tasks are necessary so that African

Americans can support "not the boys less, but the girls more" and solve the

problems of the Black race. 200

Finally, Cooper looks to the Christian Church to advance African

Americans. Because Christianity is central to Cooper's conceptualization ofracial

progress, she determines that Black churches are necessarily political institutions

that must advocate for the uplift of the entire race. Cooper contends that they are

unable to do so in part due to the lack of African-American clergymen throughout

the country and due to the Christian Church's unwillingness to confront Black and

198 Cooper, Voice, 78. 199 Cooper, Voice, 64. 20° Cooper, Voice, 79. 87 Black women's oppression.201 Cooper urges the few Black ministers who exist to remain in African-American churches instead of joining predominantly White religious institutions. Their abandonment of the race, to Cooper, creates a deficit of religious guidance directed specifically towards African Americans who are in need of a political faith that Black civilization will continue to develop. Black churches are necessary due to White churches' inadequacy in condemning racial injustice, respecting Black manhood, and incorporating African Americans into conversations about race relations.202 Nevertheless, they are not free from gender prejudices; Cooper condemns Black and White churches alike for their failures to elevate women.

Cooper determines that Christianity has been one of the primary creators of ideal perceptions of women, yet, it does not work to advance Black women.

Comparing womanhood worldwide, Cooper finds that, "respect for woman, the much lauded chivalry of the Middle Ages, meant what I fear it still means to some men in our own day-respect for the elect few among whom they expect to consort."203 It thus follows that given race relations in the American South, such an understanding of respect for women disrespects African-American women, who are marginalized because of their race. Though Cooper expects the Christian

Church to support "reverence for woman as woman regardless of rank, wealth, or culture," she argues that it has failed Black women.Z04 She continues that it has condoned the unequal treatment of women, although it contradicts Christ's

201 Cooper, Voice, 65. 202 Cooper, Voice, 3 7, 40. -?()3- Cooper, VOice,• 55. 204 Cooper, Voice, 56. 88 teachings to do so. The strongest accusation Cooper makes of the Church is that it has been poor at "training, protecting, and uplifting our colored womanhood."205

She believes that the Church must help to progress the race, but that it cannot do

so until it advances women. It must prepare African-American women "in head,

heart, and hand for the duties and responsibilities that await the intelligent wife,

the Christian mother, the earnest, virtuous, helpful woman," allowing them to be

"at once both the lever and the fulcrum for uplifting the race."206 Black women's

involvement in the Church is crucial to advancing Afl:ican Americans.

White Behavior

Cooper advocates for changes in White behavior that mirror those that she

demands from African Americans. Where she calls for Black men to recognize

Black women's power, she encourages Whites to acknowledge the humanity of

all African Americans and cease to hold prejudices against the Black race. As she

suggests for Blacks, Christianity is again among Cooper's solutions to the Negro

Problem. It is clear from Voice that Cooper believes that eliminating prejudice

and encouraging Christian behavior will advance Black civilization and

consequently, American civilization at large.

Given that anti-Black prejudice is a central cause of Black economic,

legal, political, and social disadvantages, Cooper holds that its removal from

White America will allow Blacks to develop more fully. She hypothesizes that if

African Americans are treated as human beings who are able to enjoy the same

205 Cooper, Voice, 69. 206 Cooper, Voice, 70.

89 rights and privileges as all other races, they will no longer suffer from inhibited potential. As such, Black civilization will advance and the pursuant racial progress will promote growth for the entire country.207 Cooper opines that it will benefit Whites for Blacks to be "intelligent and self-respecting citizen[ s ]" because they could then make greater contributions to American civilization.208 By framing Black progress as a possible reality that will be profitable to the entire nation, Cooper universalizes the potential rewards to be reaped from abandoning racism.

Cooper identifies specific spheres that perpetuate racial oppression by positing that American civilization will not thrive until its art, science, literature, and more are free from prejudice. She then speculates that the absence ofbias in the cultural productions of the United States will allow Americans to incorporate more truth into their work and become nearer to God?09 Cooper determines that racial prejudice can be eliminated if Whites choose to "depend instead on religion and common sense to guide, control, and direct [them] in the paths of purity and right reason."210 Once more, she offers Christian morality as a solution to the

Negro Problem and encourages her audience to strive towards manifesting God's will. As I have established throughout this chapter, to Cooper, a politically- oriented Christian faith is essential to correcting individual behaviors and ultimately solving the Negro Problem.

207 Cooper, Voice, 120. 20 R Cooper, Voice, 157. 209 Cooper, Voice, 104. 21 °Cooper, Voice, 157. 90 Enlightened and Repressed Intersectionality

The changes in Black and White behavior that Cooper advocates for all

involve a rejection of repressed intersectionality and an acceptance of enlightened

intersectionality. At their most basic level, Cooper's solutions to the Negro

Problem encourage solidarity and cooperation wherever commonalities may be

found. Cooper examined Black women, who she believed occupied the lowest position in the United States, and advocated for their empowerment in order to

advance the nation as a whole. She implores all Whites to recognize their shared

humanity and Americanity with Blacks, urges White women to see connections

between their femininity and that of Black women, and entreats Black men to

understand that Black women's empowerment will benefit the entire race. In so

doing, she advances a more nuanced argument about how enlightened

intersectionality allows individuals to see connections between various

hegemonies and societal progress. Enlightened intersectionality provides a

framework for groups that are simultaneously dominant and marginalized to

understand why it is necessary to renounce their power over a subjugated group in

order to offer common opposition to a higher, oppressive authority. In

encouraging powerful groups to reconcile their dominance with larger struggles

for equality, freedom from injustice, and group development, Cooper presents a

visionary interpretation of solidarity and allied activism. For this reason, her

insights are crucial to disrupting contemporary systems of oppression. As I detail

in the following chapter, Cooper's usage of expressed intersectionality overlaps

with but remains distinct from that ofDu Bois. Their divergent approaches to

91 intersectional thought are decisive in shaping how they understand the role that

Black women play in promoting racial progress.

92 CHAPTER THREE

Revisiting Enlightened and Repressed Intersectionality

The colored woman feels that woman s cause js one and unjversal... not till the unjversal tdle ofhumandy to Jjfe, Jjberty, and the pursud ofhappi11ess js conceded to be ajjenable to all; not tjJJ then js womans Jesson taught and woman s cause won-not the whde woman s, nor the black woman 5, nor the red woman 5, but the cause ofeve1y man and ofevery woman who has wJithed sjjently under a mjghty wrong. Woman s wrongs are thus J!Jdjssolubly linked wdh all undefended woe, and the acquirement ofher "rights" wj]j mean the flnal trjumph ofall rjght over mjght, the supremacy of the moral forces ofreason, and justi"ce, and Jove jn the government ofthe natjons ofearth. Anna Julia Cooper, "The Intellectual Progress of Colored Women in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation" (1893) 211

As I look about me today In thjs vejjed world ofnvne, despjte the nojsjer and more spectacular advance ofmy brothers, I jnstJ"nctJ"vely feel and know that jt js the !Jve mJJJjon women ofmy race who really count W. E.B. DuBois, "Damnation ofWomen" (1920)212

Enlightened and repressed intersectionality represent two opposite manifestations of an acceptance or rejection of intersectional analysis. Anna Julia

Cooper and W.E.B. Du Bois, in their foundational works, promote these concepts to different extents. Ultimately, their enlightened and repressed intersectionality are formative of the theories that they present for racial progress. Enlightened intersectionality is the ability to acknowledge connections between oppressions; it confers unique insights about the relatedness between efforts to subvert injustice.

By encouraging members of a marginalized group to combat multiple oppressions

211 Anna Julia Cooper, "The Intellectual Progress of Colored Women in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation," reprinted in Charles Lemert, cd., The Voice a/Anna Julia Cooper (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1988 [ 1892]), 63. Hereinafter referred to as "Voice." 212 W. E. B. DuBois, "The Damnation of Women," in Darkvvater: Voices/rom within the Veil. (London: Oxford University Press, 2007 [ 1920]), 85.

93 in their struggle for justice, enlightened intersectionality is able to oppose a

variety of injustices as it opposes a particular system of domination. It enables marginalized persons to be conscious of their own perspectives and those of

persons who belong to socially dominant groups. Furthermore, it allows both the

oppressors and the oppressed to understand the political implications of certain

identities. Enlightened intersectionality encourages members of a marginalized

group to acknowledge how internal differences may cause in-group oppression

and further restrict the progress of that population. Because it identifies hypocrisy

within movements against sociopolitical hierarchies, it enables a critique of how

activism may perpetuate some injustices while opposing others. By recognizing

that the oppression of some causes injury to all, enlightened intersectionality

allows persons who are simultaneously marginalized and dominant to confront

their power and privilege as they are exercised in the subordination of a segment

of a population. It is particularly useful for theorizing racial progress, for it

considers how the intersection of race and other identifiers may be used as a basis

for discrimination and hinder a racial group as a whole.

In contrast, repressed intersectionality is the inability to understand how

one's own identity is intersectional. It prevents individuals from realizing that the

experience of marginalization is not unilateral across an oppressed population,

and it obscures the recognition of internal differences within a group that suffers

from sociopolitical domination. Repressed intersectionality, when used by

activists, limits their potential to advance a cause from an intersectional

standpoint. It prompts individuals to be blind to the nuanced manifestations of

94 oppression that depend upon the intersectional identities of members of that group. As such, it perpetuates injustice and fails to uplift all individuals within a population. Efforts to combat injustice through using repressed intersectionality cannot fully encompass all persons within a group that requires liberation. It does not consider how a diverse range of experiences of oppression might exist, nor coexist. Repressed intersectionality restricts the capacity to understand that systems of oppression support and reinforce each other, and does not acknowledge that resistance to one form might be strengthened by finding linkages to another. Because persons with repressed intersectionality do not comprehend the relationship between various oppressions, they cannot successfully promote solidarity within a specific group nor build alliances with similarly marginalized peoples. When applied to racial progress, repressed intersectionality inhibits the capacity to oppose racism because it does not also refute domination based on race in conjunction with class, gender, sexuality, religion, and more.

Together, enlightened and repressed intersectionality hold significant value. Because they exist as two poles on a f1uid spectrum, it is possible to identify different levels of intersectional activism at different points in time.

Enlightened and repressed intersectionality are critical in examining oppression and resistance, for they encourage oppressed groups to acknowledge that individuals may be simultaneously marginalized and privileged. These concepts allow dominant populations to confront their power by viewing their own societal progress as connected to that of a marginalized population. Enlightened and

95 repressed intersectionality enable activists to recognize that successful attempts to

overcome injustice must be developed such that they are able to liberate all

members of the oppressed population rather than its most privileged members

alone. They promote multidimensional analyses of attempts to advance social justice by providing insight about the accessibility and limitations of activism. In

recognizing the validity and relevance of intersectional manifestations of

oppression, enlightened and repressed intersectionality enable etTective action in

the face of injustice.

Anna Julia Cooper's use of enlightened intersectionality and W.E.B. Du

Bois's use of repressed intersectionality impacted the theories that they presented

for racial progress. Their divergent perspectives on intersectional thought and

their resultant recommendations prompted them to incorporate Black women in

their etTorts to foster racial equality to different extents. Thus, their disparate

inclusion of questions of gender when discussing racial progress influenced the

applicability and efficacy of their anti-racist work. For Cooper, it is through the

widespread acceptance of enlightened intersectionality that racial progress will

occur. Conversely, DuBois embraces repressed intersectionality in order to

oppose White supremacy. An examination of enlightened and repressed

intersectionality in A Voice_Fom the South and The Souls of Black Folk provides a

framework for understanding the contributions that enlightened intersectionality

may make to racial progress and social justice.

96 Anna Julia Cooper and Enlightened Intersectionality

In A Voicefi'om the South, Cooper analyzes Black women's

marginalization from an intersectional perspective. She uses enlightened

intersectionality to relate African-American women's struggles to social and

political injustices committed against other oppressed populations. For Cooper,

racism and sexism are wrongs with deep connections to other systems of domination. As such, she deems that African Americans and women must be

dedicated to combating all oppressive power structures in order to advance

themselves. Cooper's enlightened intersectionality is also evident in her 1893

speech, "The Intellectual Progress of Colored Women in the United States since

the Emancipation Proclamation." Speaking on behalf of the women of her race,

Cooper encouraged solidarity between Black and White women. She pleads,

Let woman's claim be as broad in the concrete as in the abstract. We take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life, and the unnaturalness and injustice of all special favoritisms, whether of sex, race, country, or condition. If one link of the chain be broken, the chain is broken. 213

Cooper actively draws connections between various oppressions and through her

enlightened intersectionality, she is able to understand that in order to successfully

confront one injustice, activism must take a stand against multiple forms of

marginalization.

Cooper's usage of enlightened intersectionality allows her to consider how

individuals may simultaneously experience social dominance and marginalization,

which in turn prompts her to reflect on the viewpoints of persons in positions of

213 Cooper, "The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation," 204.

97 power and disadvantage. She demonstrates how enlightened intersectionality allows the oppressed to understand the oppressor and explains how dominant groups do or do not find connections between themselves and marginalized populations. Vivian May explicates Cooper's critical theorization process in

"Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy ofResistance: Why African Americans Must

'Reverse the Picture of the Lordly Man Slaying the Lion ... [and] Turn Painter."

As May explains, Cooper believes that women may understand society from men's point of view, but that most men are unable to share women's gendered perspectives.214 Men's inability to comprehend women's plight can be attributed in part to their repressed intersectionality, or in other words, their incapacity to grasp how women's oppression is related to their own. Because enlightened intersectionality provides unique insights about the relatedness of various injustices, it enables mutual understanding between members of dominant and marginalized groups. In her essay, May provides a description of Cooper's political theories that offers links to enlightened intersectionality. She writes,

Cooper suggests that to develop adequate theories of freedom and more dimensional analyses of systems of oppression, past and present, it is both necessary to examine domination from the point of view of the oppressed and to break persistent silences about slavery, colonization, and domination.215

For Cooper, enlightened intersectionality is essential to accomplishing the above- cited task, for it valorizes the perspective of the oppressed and generates discourse

214 Vivian May. 2009. "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance: Why African Americans Must 'Reverse the Picture of the Lordly Man Slaying the Lion ... [and] Turn Painter."' In Philosophia A/i'icana 12 (1), 2009: 45. 215 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 48.

98 about domination with the oppressor. Such dialogue is necessary in order to subvert sociopolitical hierarchies.

Cooper arrives at her unique understanding ofrace and gender relations in the United States through examining lived experiences. She does not rely on scientific analysis nor quantification in knowledge, and instead draws upon alternative ways of knowing that emphasize self-determination and one's ability to articulate concerns for oneself. She is able to cite Christianity as a solution to the race problem due to her valorization of individualized knowledge. 216

According to May,

Rather than having the meaning of reality, the pathways to knowing, or the nature of the self be named by others, Cooper pushes for the right of all humans to participate in creating and defining new paradigms of knowing and being that draw upon the race- and gender-specific particularities of lived experience, of cultural memory, and of complex legacies of resistance. 217

Cooper rejects the notion that there exist universally applicable, metaphysical generalizations that can explain oppression. As such, she is able to distinguish between how racism and sexism impact Black men, White women, and Black women. Instead of citing quantitative evidence, Cooper uses reasonable and rational deductions based on the lived experiences of Black women to justify why their empowerment is necessary for racial progress to occur. For her, knowledge must incorporate experiences in order to validate the relationship between theory and practice.218 Enlightened intersectionality allows Cooper to consider how

Black women's oppression departs from that of Black men and White women due

216 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance,"44. 217 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 41. 21 x May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 54.

99 to her intellectual emphasis on examining the lives ofher subjects. She is acutely aware of the necessity of studying and representing the varied realities faced by members of an oppressed population. Therefore, Cooper actively incorporates

Black women, who she believes occupy the lowest position in the United States, into her assessment of racial and gendered progress.

Cooper connects biography and social position to knowledge, noting that the former informs the latter. She views objectivity as a concept that is established from a position of power, thus allowing her to advocate for the use of subjectivity in analyzing racism in the United States.219 Subjectivity is central to enlightened intersectionality because it enables individuals to reject homogenous portrayals of oppressed populations. It is through embracing subjective analysis that Cooper is able to recognize Black women's intersectional existence and critique their marginalization. She cherishes African-American women's experiences, positing that they can make meaningful contributions to the existing body of knowledge about racism and sexism. As May observes, "in refuting philosophical and narrative conventions of the purportedly raceless and sexless knower as exemplary, Cooper upholds the salience of experiences, know ledges, and bodies that are normatively ruled out as meaningless."220 It is precisely due to their lack of power that Cooper values the unique insights of Black women, for she opines that they may provide knowledge that "illustrate[ s] how hierarchical thinking is institutionalized, and [highlights] systematized domination."221 The aforementioned tasks are among the goals of enlightened intersectionality, for

219 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 42-43. 220 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 46. 211 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 43.

100 they seek to oppose oppressive systems and the biased knowledge that they create

through establishing new paradigms for understanding power relations and group

marginalization. Cooper's enlightened intersectionality, in conjunction with her

valorization of lived experiences, allows her to create an unconventional

discursive space for Black women. Through critiquing racism and racialized

sexism, Cooper accurately represents African-American women's voices and

opposes their marginalization.

Black Women and Racial Progress

Cooper recognizes African-American women's ability to affect change in

multiple contexts. She respects and values Black women's contributions as

homemakers with significant power in domestic spheres, and similarly champions

their political involvement in the public realm. Cooper recognizes Black women's

agency and embraces enlightened intersectionality, prompting her to accept

various manifestations of Black femininity and revere women's ability to self­

determine. She explains her perception of women at large and African-American

women in particular in a chapter of Voice, "The Status of Women in America."

Ultimately, through her enlightened intersectionality, Cooper determines that all

women's uplift, but specifically that of Black women, is critical for national and

racial progress.

Writing of the condition of Black and White women in the United States,

Cooper discusses the role that women can play in American society as the nation

gradually generates wealth. She contends that with the growth of capitalism,

101 women's influence is more necessary than ever before so that they may "bring a heart power into this money getting, dollar-worshipping civilization" and "bring a moral force into the utilitarian motives and interests of the time."222 She relies on women to maintain a balance between ethical behavior and profitable behavior.

Tracing the social position of women, Cooper states that they were previously viewed as objects, but by 1892, were seen as capable of doing work that is helpful to men. Cooper determines that increased labor opportunities alone are insufficient for providing gendered equality. Alternatively, she calls for women to be the dominant rather than subordinate actors in the realm of public affairs

"because ofthe nature of[women's] contribution to the world."223 Women offer guidance by fostering morality and good virtue. To Cooper, women are not physically powerful, but retain social power. As such, they will not rule through force but instead "must always stand for the conservation of those deeper moral forces which make for the happiness of homes and the righteousness of the country. In a reign ofmoral ideas she is easily queen."224 Therefore, Cooper argues that women should actively use their power in order to shape society and promote justice.

After addressing the status of all women in America, Cooper turns to the intersectionality of race and gender. She notes that both factors affect the status of

Black women in America, finding that they must confront discrimination due to both identifiers but are not completely acknowledged among women nor African

222 Cooper, Voice, Ill. 223 Cooper, Voice, l 12. 224 Cooper, Voice, 112.

102 Americans. 225 Cooper judges that Black women are not being used to their fullest potential. Because they frequently witness political affairs, Cooper believes that they would be well-equipped to provide opinions on various matters. She suggests that the voices of Black women in particular should not be ignored because they have made many observations that can benefit the race. 226 Cooper concludes with two main points. First, she maintains that women must "keep intelligently and sympathetically en rapport with all the great movements of [their] time, that

[they] may know on which side to throw the weight of [their] influence."227

Finally, she acknowledges the unique status of Black women in America and speaks of the vast possibilities that are before them. Cooper's arguments in "The

Status of Women in America" reflect her enlightened intersectionality, her admiration of Black women, and her belief that they have the capacity to be strong leaders of men and women alike in public and domestic spheres.

Throughout Voice, Cooper champions Black women's agency and portrays them as potentially influential political actors. It is necessary to end their oppression if all African Americans are to make racial progress, for it is only once

Black women are capable of becoming race leaders that Black civilization may flourish. To Cooper, enlightened intersectionality enables the uplift of African-

American women, and consequently, all African Americans. In recognizing that the oppression of Black women by Black men reduces the entire race's capacity to gain equality, Cooper calls for African-American women to assume positions of leadership within the race. Due to her enlightened intersectionality, Cooper

225 Cooper, Voice, 112-113. 226 Cooper, Voice, I 15. 227 Cooper, Voice, 117.

103 wants Black men to embrace the concept as an essential element of ending

African-American women's marginalization and promoting racial progress. She demands that Black men actively work towards empowering African-American women, and believes that Black women's uplift will only be successful if all members of the race understand the value of liberating women from racism and sexism. Cooper encourages women to take the necessary steps towards educating

themselves and seeking gendered equality, but places some responsibility for

eliminating sexism with the men of the race. She does so because she holds both

the oppressed and the oppressors accountable for using enlightened

intersectionality to eliminate injustice.

Cooper believes that marginalized populations could mobilize against a

hierarchy through utilizing an enlightened, intersectional approach. Their

resistance alone is insufficient for providing equality; Cooper also argues for

dominant groups to use enlightened intersectionality to end oppression. In

Reconstructing Womanhood, Hazel Carby notes that Cooper "replaced the

patriarchal emphasis on how men regarded intellectual women with the assertion

that higher education made women more demanding of men. It was a challenge

that men, not women, had to face" because it is through confronting patriarchy

that Cooper sought racial progress. 228 Carby continues,

Cooper felt that the only counter to patriarchal abuse of power was the feminine factor, which had to be developed through the education of women. Education, she argued, would empower women so that they could shape an alternative course to a future society which would exercise sensitivity and sympathy toward the poor and oppressed?29

__''K , Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood, 99. 229 Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood, I 02.

104 Black women, in their marginalization, could not use their feminine, regenerative power to the fullest benefit of the race and the nation. 230 As such, Cooper seeks to enable them to exert their influence as effectively as possible. Cooper "makes

African American women's desires to exercise their much-lauded civilizing influence in 'problems of national import' sound as natural and proper as their attending to illness or other distresses within their families" in order to support

Black women in all paths to racial progress that they may pursue.231 Cooper's enlightened intersectionality prompts her to cherish various manifestations of

Black femininity. She acknowledges the differences that exist among Black women in addition to the variety ofbenefits to be reaped from their self- determination. As such, Cooper understands that African-American women's contributions to Black civilization may be obtained through their domesticity but also through their education and political participation. She therefore deems it necessary to promote their ability to be race leaders in both domestic and public spheres.

W.E.B. Du Bois Between Repression and Enlightenment

Unlike Cooper, DuBois's usage of enlightened intersectionality did not fully examine Black women's oppression as he wrote Souls. Instead, his repressed intersectionality prompted him to normalize Black male's experiences as reflective of all African Americans. He was blind to his rhetorical and conceptual exclusion of Black women, and contributed to their oppression as he sought racial

23 °Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood, I 04. 231 Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood, 83.

105 progress. DuBois's failure to address Black women's marginalization inhibited his anti-racist efforts and evidenced his repressed intersectionality. He saw Black patriarchy as one solution to the Negro problem without recognizing that it fl1rther subordinated members of the very group that he attempted to advance. Although

Du Bois created concepts that are similar to enlightened intersectionality, throughout Souls, he consistently uses repressed intersectionality as a tool for generating racial progress.

Du Bois explains how racial oppression impacts African Americans through introducing the "veil," "second sight," and "double consciousness."

According to Du Bois, a metaphorical veil separates Blacks from Whites and affects their worldview. Once the veil is removed, African Americans are granted

"second sight," which is the ability to interpret society from the standpoint of a

member of a different social group. Second sight then creates a "double

consciousness" in African Americans that prompts them to see themselves as both

Blacks and Whites see them. To DuBois, double consciousness is a hindrance

because it prompts African Americans to internalize racism. Du Bois uses the

veil, second sight, and double consciousness to explain the efiect that White

prejudice has on Blacks, but due to his repressed intersectionality, he cannot use

similar concepts to understand the effect that Black men's patriarchy has on

African-American women.

Second sight is similar to enlightened intersectionality in its ability to

provide an unfamiliar point of view. Unlike the model of enlightened

intersectionality that Cooper presents, second sight only permits oppressed

106 persons to understand society from the perspective of one's oppressor.

Conversely, enlightened intersectionality enables both the powerful and the marginalized to create cross-cultural connections. Enlightened intersectionality is distinct from double consciousness because the former is valuable where Du Bois describes the latter as burdensome. Enlightened intersectionality further differs from double consciousness because DuBois's concept explains how marginalized peoples view themselves from the perspectives of the powerful while enlightened intersectionality simultaneously enables upwards and downwards understanding.

Both Cooper and Du Bois provide similar descriptions of the structural efTects of racism in the United States. Each theorist argues that White prejudice provides a basis for Black exclusion, which in turn generates racial inequality.232

Cooper and Du Bois both identify education, political representation, and economic disparities between Blacks and Whites as important sites for racial progress. Du Bois departs most notably from Cooper in contending that African­

American cultural backwardness constitutes a main element of the race problem and in failing to recognize that Black women's oppression is distinct from that of

Black men. The scholar-activists differ in their interpretations of the relevance of gendered oppression and enlightened intersectionality to the race problem.

In Souls, as Cooper does in Voice, DuBois examines lived experiences in order to present a critique of racism. However, because he normalizes the race as a masculine conglomerate throughout the text, he understands racism in relation to its efTects on Black masculinity. African-American women were largely absent from his work, for he deemed Black men to be representative of all racial

232 Du Bois, Souls, 7; Cooper, Voice, 126.

107 struggles. DuBois universalizes African Americans as predominantly male and is thus unable to analyze the nuanced lived experiences of Black women, nor fully comprehend how their oppression is distinct from that of African-American men.

Repressed intersectionality impairs his analysis of racism in the United States and prevents him from encouraging social change for all Blacks. Consequently, he presents strategies for racial progress that focus centrally upon empowering

African-American men alone.

DuBois's 1920 "Damnation ofWomen" highlights a significant shin in his work, for he embraces enlightened intersectionality and confronts women's marginalization?33 His transition away from repressed intersectionality demonstrates that there exists a spectrum of acceptance of enlightened intersectionality. Further, it illustrates that one's ability to use enlightened intersectionality for an allied cause is not static. As Ange-Marie Hancock observes in her essay, "W.E.B. DuBois: Intellectual Forefather of lntersectionality?" Du Bois's "Damnation" is helpful for explaining power dynamics within an identity group. 234 His conceptual usage of enlightened intersectionality allowed him to understand Black women's empowerment as a vital component of racial progress. In "Damnation," Du Bois emphasizes the strength and resilience of Black women in a manner very unlike his portrayal of

African-American women in Souls. He discusses their economic condition and their need for sexual freedom. Furthermore, he does not attach their potential racial contributions to their role as mothers alone. Instead, he recognizes that

233 Hereinafter referred to as "Damnation." 234 Ange-Marie Hancock, "W.E.B. DuBois: Intellectual Forefather of Intersectionality?", Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, 7:3-4, 76.

108 Black women's work, whether domestic, political, or otherwise, may promote racial progress. He rejects African-American women's exclusion from the public sphere, and in so doing, renounces some of his earlier perceptions of Black women. However, because Souls is a seminal and influential work in DuBois's scholarship, its conceptual shortcomings continue to hold contemporary relevance.

Du Bois's repressed intersectionality is detrimental to his anti-racist efforts because it prompts him to formulate theories that are not applicable to all members of the race. He ignores intersectional oppression among African

Americans and does not view Black women's empowerment as a necessary element of his own. DuBois determines that education, self-consciousness, and race leadership will promote racial equality among Black men and White men.

Because he seeks to gain inclusion into a patriarchal White America, Du Bois adopts similarly patriarchal principles for African Americans. He strives for collective advancement, but is limited in his assessment of potential solutions to the race problem due to his repressed intersectionality and the resultant homogenizing of unique and multifaceted African-American experiences.

Du Bois perceives and attempts to create conformity to various ideals that he describes in Souls in order to allow African Americans, like their White counterparts, to experience the sublime.235 Due to his repressed intersectionality and disregard for internal differences, DuBois requires uniformity in the standards that Black men must meet. As he attempts to solve the problem of

235 Dolan Hubbard, "W.E.B. DuBois and the Invention of the Sublime in The Souls oj'Black Folk," In Souls of' Black Folk One Hundred Years Later, (Columbia: University of Mississippi Press, 2007), 300.

109 Black exclusion from American national life, DuBois promotes a certain degree of assimilation and seeks to subsume some differences within the race. By erasing difference, he encourages his audience to focus on their Black identity alone without considering how their oppression might be inf1uenced by gender, class, and other social identifiers. In urging African Americans to aspire towards the sublime, Du Bois advocates for Blacks to strive for Eurocentric principles. l-Ie offers Black male education and self-consciousness as two means for experiencing the sublime as it was defined by White Americans. Yet, he does so without acknowledging that he tacitly encourages Blacks to assimilate into White culture. Du Bois is blind to how he aspires to expectations defined by Whites in attempting to recreate the sublime. Because his conception of the sublime is shaped primarily by European understandings of the concept, by calling for

Blacks to fulfill subliminal ideals, DuBois wants African-American self­ consciousness to embody White values without sacrificing racial and cultural uniqueness. He further seeks to achieve Black male inclusion into American life by emulating White patriarchy and valorizing Black women's gentle domesticity.

Black Patriarchy and Racial Progress

Because DuBois defined the Negro problem in relation to crises of Black masculinity, he was less privy than Cooper to embrace Black women's dual liberation from racism and sexism as a fundamental component of racial progress.

Repressed intersectionality permitted DuBois to conceptualize racial equality by considering the status of Black men alone. It prevented him from seeing the

110 elimination of racialized sexism and internal patriarchy as being linked to racial uplift. Had he sought racial progress through using enlightened intersectionality,

DuBois would have understood that Black women's empowerment was, and continues to be, necessary for African-American men and the race at large to advance.

As Barbara McCaskill conjectures in her essay, "Anna Julia Cooper,

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization ofDu Bois's

Discourse," DuBois's limited views of Black women inhibited his own capacity to imagine African-American women as race leaders. Du Bois adopts a paternalistic stance as he simultaneously admires and pities Black womanhood. 236

The Black female characters that he presents in Souls are predominantly struggling, weak, physically attractive women who are nevertheless able to support Black men. McCaskill notes that, "paradoxically, African American men were impressed into a patriarchy that disclaimed women's equality to men in the political and professional spheres while simultaneously mythologizing this same sisterhood's moral and domestic superiority over their brothers."237 As such, Du

Bois himself was complicit in upholding Black male dominance over Black women.

In Souls, DuBois's portrayal of African-American women was largely one-dimensional. This may be attributed to his repressed intersectionality, for it fails to adopt a sufficiently subjective perspective in examining the sociopolitical

236 Barbara McCaskill. 2003. "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of Du Bois's Discourse." In The Souls of Black Folk One Hundred Years Later, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 70-84. 237 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of Du Bois's Discourse," 73.

Ill status of another. It is clear from his descriptions of them that for Du Bois, women belonged in the home. His understanding of Black femininity revolved around domestic life and women's moral power over men. 238 As DuBois normalizes the race as male and presents his interpretations of racism in relation to Black men, he "homogenizes African American womanhood," thus silencing them and neglecting the distinctiveness of their oppression.239 DuBois's portrayal of African-American women is not representative of all women within the race.

Despite his later adoption of pro-feminism, in Souls, there exists little room for

Black women to exist unless they adhere to DuBois's construction of African-

American women. Similar to his desire for Black men to experience the sublime

as defined by Eurocentric standards, DuBois wanted African-American women

to abide by certain feminine principles that were more appropriate for urban, rich,

White women than the average Black woman, who was generally poor and resided in rural areas. 240 Though it was revolutionary to want Black women to be

able to be delicate, gentle, respectable individuals rather than hypersexualized

laborers, to restrict Black women to such standards remains problematic. Again,

Du Bois attempts to apply organizing principles of White patriarchy to African

Americans. In so doing, he denies Black women's agency and attempts to restrict

their freedom to express their femininity as they so desire.

m McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization ofDu Bois's Discourse," 75. 239 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization ofDu Bois's Discourse," 75,80-81. 240 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of DuBois's Discourse," 73.

112 Rather than taking pride in the versatility of Black females and their ability to be race leaders, Du Bois confines his discussions of them to private spheres. He does not reference intellectual nor politically powerful Black women.

While there were very few, Du Bois willfully ignores Black female activists, such as Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells. For example, in his 1920 "Damnation of

Women," DuBois deliberately silences Cooper by quoting her work and attributing it to an anonymous source. 241 DuBois cannot fathom an alternative to

Black female domesticity due to "his premise of their disinvolvement, invisibility, and silence" in political affairs. 242 Therefore, when writing Souls, he understands the value of Black womanhood strictly in relation to the home. Later in his career,

"the maternity Du Bois idolizes is that of women whose power is expressed both

through the keeping of homes and raising of children and through their critical role as leaders and participants in African public life."243 However, this assertion

is not true of Du Bois when writing Souls in 1903. Instead, Black maternity "is

connected to how his male characters succeed in defining their maleness in a hostile, antagonistic white world."244

Throughout Souls, African-American women represent moral goodness

and bring peace to Black males. In "Of the Coming of John," DuBois tells the tale of a charismatic young man, John, whose interpretation of race relations

transformed after he traveled to the North to attend college. John's mother

241 DuBois, "Damnation of Women," 83. 242 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the Afi-ican American Feminization ofDu Bois's Discourse," 75. 243 Lawrie Balfour. 20 II. "Representative Women: Slavery and the Gendered Ground of Citizenship." In Democracy's Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W.E.B. DuBois, New York: Oxford University Press, I 09. 244 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of DuBois's Discourse," 78.

113 remained supportive of his education despite the widespread disapproval of their community members. After remaining in the North for seven years, John returned home. Upon his arrival, he became disenchanted with life in the South and more critical of racism. John gradually came to pity his mother and sister. Upon facing significant discrimination as an educator and finding his sister being sexually assaulted by a White man in the forest, John returns to the North. In "Of the

Coming of John," Black women symbolize "the idea that the integrity and courage of African American men in a racist, public world controlled by whites must rely upon the virtues women tender in the 'organized' African American home."245 Black women are valuable for their ability to manage stable households and reassure men of their capabilities.

Josie, a character in a Souls chapter titled, "Of the Meaning of Progress,"

provides further evidence ofthe above and ofDu Bois's portrayal of Black women as weak and distressed. In "Of the Meaning of Progress," Du Bois

searches for work as a teacher and encounters a family with whom he develops a

close bond. He describes the family's eldest daughter, Josie, as "the centre of the

family." She had "the shadow of an unconscious moral heroism that would

unwillingly give all of life to make life broader, deeper, and fuller for her and

hers."246 Despite Josie's desire for a formal education, her familial responsibilities

to her parents and nine siblings eventually took precedent. A decade after Du

Bois's departure from the town, he returned and discovered that Josie was dead.

He explains that "Josie shivered and worked on, with the vision of schooldays all

145 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization ofDu Bois's Discourse," 77. 146 DuBois, Souls, 75.

114 f1ed, with a face wan and tired,- worked until, on a summer's day, some one [sic] married another; then Josie crept to her mother like a hurt child, and slept-and sleeps."247 McCaskill explains that Josie, due to her domestic labor and eventual death, represents Black women's failures. 248 The "conditions Josie shares with many African American women of 1903-malnutrition, undereducation, impoverishment, prejudice-lead to her death and the disintegration of her family."249 The family, and by extension, the race, suffer without Josie's domestic guidance. Du Bois locates women as important actors in the home for their ability to support and maintain families, but does not acknowledge their ability to perform meaningful work in other spheres.

"Of the Coming of Jolm" and "Of the Meaning of Progress" also reiterate the notion that Black womanhood is fragile and must be protected. As McCaskill notes, although Du Bois offers a "positivistic blueprint" for how Black women may contribute to racial progress through their domestic work, "implicit in the outcome of 'The Coming of John' is that the African American woman's viability and power in the great national debates about race and gender may be limited by the vulnerability of her physical body, however strong her intuition and ethics may be."250 DuBois reminds readers that despite women's intellect and morality, they remain subject to physical threats and fragileness that can impinge upon their ability to foster racial progress. He encourages Black men to emulate American

247 Du Bois, Souls, 78. 24x McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of DuBois's Discourse," 79. 249 McCaskill, "Anna .Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of DuBois's Discourse," 79. 250 McCaskill, "Anna .Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization ofDu Bois's Discourse," 79.

115 culture in order to secure full inclusion, and to him, that entails the shielding of

Black women from harm. White patriarchy was "an essential prerequisite of respectability, civilization, and progress" in the United States. It could be achieved through subordinating Black women, looking to them for support, and protecting them from dangers imposed by Whites. 251 Because DuBois viewed

White male domination as a formidable threat facing Black women and because he encouraged Black men to secure racial inclusion through becoming patriarchs, he believed that it was through protecting Black womanhood that racial progress could occur.

DuBois encouraged Black men to combat Black women's oppression by protecting them, for it would simultaneously shield them from racism and strengthen Black patriarchy. Yet, protection alone was insufTicient for encouraging racial progress because it assumed African-American women's frailty and perpetuated gender inequality within the race. Du Bois's theories were unable to fully uplift Black women because they did not seek to empower them.

Unless African-American women expressed their femininity as imagined by Du

Bois, his theories were at odds with African-American women's autonomy.252 Du

Bois's approach to advancing Black women ultimately limited the efTectiveness of his efforts to promote racial progress. In presuming gendered homogeneity, Du

Bois presented a strategy for advancing Black women that could only be successful for those who required protection. He did not expect them to promote

251 McCaskill, "Anna Julia Cooper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and the African American Feminization of DuBois's Discourse," 78. 252 Gary Lemons. 2009. Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. DuBois, Albany: SUNY Press, 79.

116 racial progress through political activism, but rather, saw them as objects whose protection would foster racial equality by conforming to Eurocentric, patriarchal

ideals. DuBois's inability to recognize the centrality of Black women's empowerment, and not simply their protection, to racial progress was a crucial conceptual failure. His conflicting allegiances to enlightened and repressed

intersectionality account for his oversight.

Enlightened Intersectionality and Racial Progress

Cooper and Du Bois both note that internal progress must occur amongst

African Americans in order for the race to advance, but the theorists differ significantly in their understandings of how to best achieve racial progress. Du

Bois deems that it is necessary to repair damaged racial consciousness among

Black men; meanwhile, Cooper seeks to gain gender equality and strengthen

Black womanhood by reaffirming their potential to all members of the race. For

Du Bois, repressed intersectionality will most effectively ameliorate the effects of racism and guarantee racial equality. Cooper disagrees and advances enlightened

intersectionality as the most suitable approach to racial progress. The authors'

portrayal of Black women and subsequent conceptions of race leadership evidence their usage of enlightened and repressed intersectionality. Because

Cooper readily acknowledges African-American women's agency and cherishes their feminine influence, she uses enlightened intersectionality to present them as capable and essential race leaders. Du Bois, on the other hand, advocated for racial progress through using repressed intersectionality. He only valorizes

117 women's domestic influence and dismisses the possibility that they may serve as race leaders in a capacity similar to Black men.

Cooper and DuBois's divergent approaches to intersectional thought are

decisive in shaping how they understand and promote racial progress. In 1903, the year that The Souls of Black Folk was published, Du Bois used second sight and

double consciousness to interpret race relations in the United States. His repressed

intersectionality inhibited his ability to connect Black women's status to racial

progress. Cooper's usage of enlightened intersectionality in A Voice.fi·om the

South provided a more comprehensive analysis of racism and sexism in the

United States. Her work emphasized the importance of liberating the lowest

members of a group in order to advance a larger population. Enlightened

intersectionality remains important for continuing to pursue racial progress and

social justice. In writing Voice, Cooper stresses that activism can never be solely

about one cause, for it must confront a variety of oppressions and injustices in

order to be fully effective. She "insists on thinking holistically and maintains that

liberation will never be achieved via an either/or binary approach: it can only be

realized through models of coalition and solidarity that are not grounded in norms

of sameness."253 While DuBois's theories presume the existence of a generally

homogenous group of Blacks, Cooper acknowledges and celebrates differences in

racial identity. For this reason, she is able to advocate for a politics based on the

advancement of a collective body while supporting diversity within a given

population. It is due to her visionary interpretations of in-group difierence,

253 May, "Anna Julia Cooper's Philosophy of Resistance," 56.

118 intersectionality, and alliance-building that Cooper must be located at the center of contemporary social justice discourse.

119 CONCLUSION

A Woman's Worth

"We must as individuals compare our cost with what we are able to give. The worth of a race or a nation can be but the aggregate worth of its men and women."254· Anna Julia Cooper, "What Are We Worth?" (1892)

" .. .if this unusual and dangerous development is to progress amid peace and order .. .it will demand broad-minded, upright men, both white and black, and in its final accomplishment American civilization will triumph." W. E. B. DuBois, "Of the Training of Black Men" (1903)255

Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. DuBois assessed the "Negro Problem"

during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In so doing, they

presented theories for Black progress that laid the foundation for Black feminism

and anti-racist activism. Cooper's A Voicefi'om the South and several later

writings articulated an intersectional analysis of racism in the United States that

considered how race and gender jointly endanger African-American women. For

Cooper, the Negro Problem involves anti-Black prejudice, the inhibition of

African-American potential, and gender inequality within the race. She

determines that Whites are responsible for creating the race problem, but that it

has been perpetuated by Blacks and Whites alike. To Cooper, White women in

particular are pivotal actors in fostering discriminat01y beliefs and behavior due to

the inf1uence that women have over their families and the nation. As Hazel Carby

accurately summarizes in Reconstructing Womanhood, "Cooper's argument was

254 Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice From the South, reprinted in Charles Lemert, ed., The Voice()[ Anna Julia Cooper (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1988 [ 1892]), 178-179. Hereinafter referred to as "Voice." 255 W .E. B. Du Bois, In The Souls of Black Folk, (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997 [ 1903]), 99. Hereinafter referred to in the text as Souls.

120 that women had an arena in which power could be exerted, but, as we shall see,

Cooper also pointed to this early social influence as a critical factor in the perpetuation of racism for which white women could be brought to account."256

Cooper does not fault White women alone; she further identified African-

American men as implicit perpetuators of racism, arguing that their oppression of

Black women limited women's capacity to regenerate the race. Cooper suggests that Black men deny Black women's agency, which inhibits women's potential to combat racism and ultimately hinders racial progress for all. As she employs enlightened intersectionality, Cooper interprets the race problem as one that is fully intertwined with crises of Black femininity. Americans cannot answer the

Negro question without examining the status of African-American women; therefore, their uplift was a necessary component of racial progress. Because

Cooper focuses on incorporating the least privileged members of the race into her analysis of racism, she creates an inclusionary space that can promote Black progress for all.

W. E. B. Du Bois, in The Souls ofBlack Folk and other prominent works published between 1897 and 1904, primarily confronts the Negro problem through evaluating the downfalls of Black masculinity. Like Cooper, he identifies anti-Black prejudice and Black exclusion as two primary aspects of the Negro

Problem. Du Bois determines that education, self-consciousness, and race leadership among African-American men will promote racial equality among

Blacks and Whites. While his definition of and solutions to the Negro problem

256 Hazel Carby. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afi·o-American Woman Novelist (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 98.

121 bare a semblance to Cooper's, there exist notable divergences in their work that produce and are produced by their interpretations of the relationship between

racism and sexism. Du Bois strives for collective advancement, but is limited in

his assessment of potential solutions to the race problem due to his repressed

intersectionality and homogenizing ofthe African-American experience. DuBois

is unable to consider what racial freedom must provide to Black women and

consequently overlooks the marginalization of a substantial portion of the race.

DuBois's 1920 "Damnation ofWomen" provided a critical assessment of

Black women's social and economic positions that recognized differences

between their condition and that of African-American men. Nearly thirty years

after Cooper proposed that Black women's empowerment should be central to

racial progress, Du Bois adopted a similar stance. Yet, Souls continues to exert

significant inf1uence on anti-racist activism and continues to overshadow his later

scholarship. As a result, DuBois's masculinist language in works that theorized

racial progress between 1897 and 1904 undermine his later attention to gender

and his ability to promote equality between Black men and women. His version of

racial uplift is not accessible to all members of the race; Black progress must be

gender progressive in order to more fully liberate African Americans from their

oppression. Recognizing Black women's worth, allowing for their self­

determination, and valuing their leadership in domestic and public spheres will

benefit the entire race. In 1892, Cooper readily proposes theories for racial

progress that satisfy these conditions. It is not until 1920 that Du Bois adopts

similar principles.

122 Cooper and Du Bois demonstrate that there are significant implications of using enlightened and repressed intersectionality. While Cooper consistently uses enlightened intersectionality to encourage racial progress, Du Bois seeks to accomplish similar tasks through repressed intersectionality. Evidenced by A

Voice from the South, enlightened intersectionality promotes racial progress by recognizing the various, intersecting forces that may marginalize members of a racial group. Though Cooper's enlightened intersectionality largely focuses upon race and gender, the concept is broadly applicable. It can be effective for confronting oppression based on sexuality, class, religion, and more. Enlightened intersectionality may provide social justice to a specific population by encouraging members to cease in-group oppression in order to resist subjugation by a dominant social group. In so doing, enlightened intersectionality ensures that uplift will occur for all members of a subjugated group, rather than for the most privileged members of the group alone. Additionally, it seeks to forge connections between oppressions as a means to present common opposition to all hegemonies.

Enlightened intersectionality does not universalize oppressions nor portray them as identical, but in simultaneously acknowledging elements of difference and sameness, promotes joint action to eliminate particular injustices. Therefore, it offers a starting point for building strong alliances between activist movements.

Enlightened intersectionality is attentive to the multiplicity of social groupings that may shape an individual's intersectional identity and oppression, and understands that it is necessary to confront all forms of oppression to resist a specific societal wrong.

123 Repressed intersectionality, in denying the benefits to be gained from examining and eradicating multiple oppressions, limits the efficacy of efforts to promote racial progress and social justice. As it is manifested in Souls, repressed intersectionality does not view the identities of its members as multifaceted.

Resultantly, it fails to fully liberate all persons from the burdens of racism and perpetuates other forms of domination. Repressed intersectionality, in other contexts, encourages activists to neglect the diverse experiences and various manifestations of oppression that might be exacted upon persons who face injustice. By homogenizing entire populations and normalizing one experience above all others, it is unable to effectively confront the marginalization of individuals who are jeopardized due to their intersectional identities. Therefore, it prompts activists to perpetuate some forms of oppression in combating others.

Repressed intersectionality poses potentially damaging threats to those who depart t1·om the normative conception of members of a marginalized group, for it neglects the multifaceted nature of their plight.

The scope of this study was bounded by geography, race, gender, and era.

It explored the work of two African-American thinkers who commented on

Black/White racial politics in the United States between 1892 and 1907. Their discussions of gender-or lack thereof-at a particular period in time, were the focal points in this examination of Black progress. Sexuality, class, religion, non­

Blacks, non-Whites, and persons living outside of the United States were not the subjects of this research. Nevertheless, Cooper's and DuBois's works continue to be influential for contemporary theorists. Regardless of space and time,

124 enlightened and repressed intersectionality remain concepts that are malleable enough to explain and combat injustices based on class, gender, sexuality, age, physical ability, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, national origin, and other potential discriminations not examined in this thesis.

Where there is a need for social justice activism, there exists the possibility that enlightened intersectionality may inform more fully the discourse surrounding the work at hand. The ability to recognize and oppose repressed intersectionality may allow individuals to avoid its harmful effects and strengthen their anti-oppression efforts. If these concepts are to be introduced into public consciousness, they may highlight the validity of multiple and intersecting identities, thus facilitating both in-group and cross-cultural understanding of various elements of marginalization. Enlightened and repressed intersectionality, if incorporated into legal work and public policy, may provide policymakers with a keener sense of how political systems and institutions might produce and/or perpetuate oppressions. In so doing, they would mitigate the structural effects of racial and social injustice.

Enlightened intersectionality is most notable for its ability to foster inclusivity in activism. It allows for the creation of inclusionary spaces when confronting sociopolitical domination. By recognizing various manifestations of marginalization, acknowledging the relatedness of systems of oppression, and deeming it necessary to liberate members of a historically oppressed group from intersecting hierarchies, persons who use enlightened intersectionality are able to offer resistance that does not reproduce the very injustices that they oppose.

125 Furthermore, they are able to create a broad base of support for a specific cause through their commitment to appealing to persons who face intersectional oppress1on.

Anna Julia Cooper and W. E. B. Du Bois, through employing enlightened and repressed intersectionality, offer critical insight into the gains and losses of each concept. Using enlightened intersectionality in 1892, Cooper presents a visionary model for racial progress that proves, at times, to be more complete than that of DuBois in 1903. By using repressed intersectionality, DuBois fails to understand the necessity of empowering Black women, and thus perpetuates their marginalization. As Cooper demonstrated, enlightened intersectionality can begin the undoing of a convergence of oppressions while forging ties between the least privileged and most privileged members of a group. It follows, then, that enlightened intersectionality holds the key to building stronger alliances and undoing centuries of racism and sexism.

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