Du Bois, 3

Media: Book
Title: W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race

Well, I remain fascinated with this book for the 3rd consecutive entry.

I feel a bit naïve at my level of shocked indignation toward the discrimination of and racist beliefs about African Americans at the beginning of the 20th century, revealed by Lewis in his biography. I supposed since I came of consciousness after the 1960s civil rights struggles it seems impossible that certain assumption which seem unquestionable, such as African-Americans should have “full citizenship rights”, were in fact radical ideas within the African-American leadership in 1905, not the mention the contempt and disgust many whites felt toward this idea. Lewis makes this point in the section on the 1905 Niagara Conference where Du Bois finally and dramatically broke from the leadership of Booker T. Washington (who did little to push for equal social and political rights for African-Americans).