A TI LUTH
Tit_ Cne'", .1 If reu tltliv,rtCl by ob" lAU".' Dr.
i" •• , CAm __ H.1l i" NnJ Yorl Ci'y. IdruGry 2J. 1
liOft ,It_ '"'nft.,io"al Cultural £v,"in, .ponsor,d b, WAYS
M., .. l" •• " ,It. JlOtla bir'latlay of D . J. . B. Du Bois and launclai"
HI"' .,' I r. rOO (1 61) hono"n, his lift Gntl orls. This is " ••
w' ""'lor I ,cia 01 Dr. Kin, ""or, his as sina,ion.
To. ICHT we ssemble here to P' y tribute to one of the
rno t remarkable men of our time.
Dr. Du Boi as not only an intelle tual gi nt explor-
ing the frontiers of nowledge, he w in the fir t place
a te her. He ould have w ntcd his life to teach UI
somethin bout our t k of em ncipation.
One idea he insistently taught was that black people
have n kept in oppre ion and depriv tion by a poison-
ous of lies that depicted them as inferior, born defi-
cient nd deservedly doomed to . ervitude to the grave.
So iduou Iy has this poison been injected into the
mind of America that its disease has infected not only
whit but many Negroes. So long as the lie was believed
the brutality and criminality of conduct toward the Negro
w e y for the con ience to bear. The twisted logic ran­
if the bl ck man was inferior he was not oppr ed-his
place in society was appropriate to his meager talent and
intellect.
Dr. Du Bois recognized that the keystone in the arch
of oppression w the myth of inferiority and he dedicated
his brilliant talents to demolish it.
There could ar ely be a more suitable per on . for such
a monumental task. First of all he was himself unsur- ...
passed as an imellc t and he was a Negro. But beyond
this h onately proud to be black and finally he
had not nnly genius and pride but he had the indomitable
fighting spirit of the valiant.
To pursue his mission, Dr. Du Bois gave up the sub- .
stantial privileges a highly educated Negro enjoyed living
in the North. Though he held degrees from Harvard
�d the �niver ity of Berlin, thou h he had more aca-
... , U I < J I I' l � � I
ernie creaen ia, han mos � leanS, ac f hltc,
he. moved South where a majority of Negroes then lived.
He deliberately chose to share their daily abuse and hu­
miliation. He could have offered himself to the white
rulers and exacted substantial tribute for selling his genius.
There were few like him, Negro or white. He could have
.amuaed riches and honors and lived in material splendor
. and applause from the powerful and important men of
his time. Instead, he lived part of his creative life in the
SouUt-mOlt of it in modest means and some of it in
poverty, and he died in exile, praised sparingly and in
many circles ignored.
tell ctual ont r ibuu n . B: ck in (he nin te nth c ntury
he laid out a progllll1l () 1 Y ai f rudy of pr hlcm
affecting Am ri an 1 'gro and work d tircle Iy ( irn-
plement it.
Long b f iolog was a science he , as pioneering
in the field of .ial rudy . egro lif and ompleted
works on health. cduc at ion, employm nt, urb n ondi­
tions, and reli i n. Thi wa at a time when s ientific in­
quiry. of gro I if' w: . () unbel iev bly nc le ted that
only a single univ rsit in the entire nation h d uch a
program, and it wa (und d with 5.000 for ..,e T' ork.
Against uch odd, Dr. Du 80j. produced two enduring
classics b fore the tw nti th century. Hi uppressioll of
the African lave- Trade. written in 1 96, i Volume I in
the Harvard Hi tori al tudies. Hi study The Philadel­
phia Negro, cornpl t d in. 1 99. is till u ed today. Illu -
traring the pain taking quality of his s ientifi meth d,
to do this work Dr. Du Bois per nally visited and inter­
viewed 5,000 people.
He soon realized th ( . tudies w uld n v r adequately
be pursued nor <. h. ng r < liz d with ut th mas inv lv .
ment of Negr c . The . chol: r then became an rganizer
'Hist�ry had taught him t I no enough for people to be
- h supreme task is to organize and unit
r becomes a transforming force... .
peopl
ngry
oth t th ir
n
But he was an exile only to the land of his birth. He
died at home in Africa among his herished ancestors,
and -he was ignored by a pathetically ignorant America
'r ut .not by history.
History c nnot ignore W. E. B: Du Bois. Because his­
tory has to reflect truth' and Dr. Du Bois. was a tireless
explorer and a, gifted discoverer -of social ,truths. His
singular reatness It\y In III que t for truth bout his own
people. Th l e were \'1 Y few sci 10 I 'rs wh c n erned
themselves with hone t tudy of the bla k man and he
sought to fill thi imm n \' id. Th degree to which he
succeeded di5 In e� th glcal dimcll ion f the man.
Yet he had more tho 11 , VOid t hll. He had to de I with
the army of white prop" 31ldi ts-th myth·mak�rs of
gro history. Dr. Du BOI lOok them 11 on in battle. It
would be imp. sible to kct h th whol range of his in-
and with th rs Iounded til' N. A .P. At til .un t un
he be arne aware t'l. t til l':-"P n ion of imp riali TlI wac;
a threat to the em 'I g nee of .\ft i .
He reco nizcd til import an of til bond bctw n
Ameri an gr< .• net til I;llld () th ir an tor, alld
h extended hi . nivitirc; to \fri ;tIl • ffair,�, After World
Wa r I hall dr, n· A f r i ( a 11 Co It g-t II1 1 ( 1 �. I 92 I ,
and 1923, alarm,ing ,imI ri.lli l III II (llntri and di .
concerting N gro 1Il0 ITI Am ri'a who were afr.licl
of this restie , milit. n(. k g nil! .
R turning t th t Illtcd . t,ll' from abr ad, h fUlInd
hi pion ring agitati n fm Negr tudi s was b . ring
fruit and a beginning' . 'i TTl, de (0 hr ad n gro high r
education. He tllr w him If into th I, k £ rai ing til
intellectual I vel 'f thi. work. Mll< h ). t r, in 1940. h
participated in th tahli hill nt of th fir t N gr hol­
arly publication, Phylo1l. A( thc ame time he stimulat I
Negro coil ge t (II b through, nnual ollf r n c
ti n Ii, nd I v, t· thc quality of
their academi tudi s.
hut these activiti . nOli h "to b rk for t n
men, were far from (he ll1ll f hi hi v ment . In (It
six years betwc n l' nd 1 41 he pr du d the monu-
mental seven-hun·.ll I-pa \'oilim n Black Reco1l truc-
tion in A merica, t me tim writing many rti I
and es ays. Black R o1l5lrurtiotl wa . i year in writin
but was thirty-thr' y, r in pr p. r, ti n. n it puhli­
cation, one riti id: "It rown the lon, un lfi hand
brilliant car r of 1. I II Boi . It i - mparable in lar­
ity, originality and importan tp th B arcts· R, e 01
American Civjliznli071." 1'!zc New rork Timts aid, "It
is beyond qu tion th and th r ugh
study ever m d of the gr p To in n till ti n,"
and the New York Herald rrilnwt' pr I im d it .. lid
hi tory of tht.: p ri onomi t1 ti , phil phi I
di u ion, a m, w rk (f rt all r 11 dint
,
gro
of
c of
e d eply
or
rid and
his de d
onnt
f Is hood
abl __ - ... �-
o
•
o
ct on. '
To understand why hi study of the Reconstruction wa
a monumental achievement it i nece ary to ee it in con­
text. White historians had for a century crudely distorted
the Negro' role in th Reconstruction year. It was a
conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the
stakes were high. The Reconstruction was a period in
which black men had a small measure of freedom of ac­
tion. If, as white historians tell it, Negroes wallo ed in
corruption, opportunism, displayed spe tacular stupidity,
were wanton, evil, and ignorant, their case was made.
They would have proved that freedom was dangerous in
the hand of inferior beings. One generation after another
of Ame�icans were assiduously taught the e falsehoods,
and the collective mind of America became poisoned with
racism and stunted with myths.
Dr. Du Boi confronted this pow rful tructure of his­
torical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before
anyone el e and more than anyone el e, demolished the­
lies about Negro s in their most important and creative
period of hi tory. Th truth he reve led arc not yet the
property of 11 American but they h ve been recorded
and arm us for our contemporary battles.
In Black Reconstruction Dr. Du Bois dealt with the
almost universally ace pted concept that civilization vir­
tually collap ed in the South during Reconstruction be­
cause Negroes ha� � measure of political power. Dr. Du
Bois marshalled irrefutable eviden e that, far from col­
lapsing. the outhern e onomy was recovering in' the e
years. Within fivc y an the cotton cmp had been restored,
and in the suc�eeding five years had exceeded pre-war
levels. At the same time other economic activity had as­
cended so rapidly the rebirth of the South was almost
compl red.
Beyond this he restored to .Iight the most luminous
achievement of the Reconstruction-it brought free public
education into existence not only for the benefit of the
Negro, but it opened hool doors to the poor whites, He
documented the sub tantial body of legislation thar was
socially so useful it was retained into the twentieth cen­
tury even though the Negroes who helped to write it were
brutally. disenfranchised and driven from political life.
He revealed that, far from being the tragic era white his­
torians described, it was the only period in which democ­
racy exi ted in the South. Thi stunning fact was the
reason the hi tory books had to lie because to tell the
truth would have acknowledged th� Negroes' capacity to
govern and fitness to build a finer nation in a creative
relationship with poor whites.
With the completion of his book Black Reco,utruction,
despite its towering contributions, d�spite his advanced
age, Dr. Du Bois was till not ready to accept a de erved
r�st in p aceful r tir�ment. His d�dication to freedom
drove him on as relentlessly in his eventies as it did in
his twenties. He had already encompas ed thre� careers.
Beginning as a pioneer ociologist, h� had becom� n
activist to further mas. organization. The activist had
th�n transformed him elf into an hi torian. By the mid­
dle f th t\ IlU til ·ntllry. wh n imp riali. m n . w r
ro one 100 • to ".11 peri I hum nity, he b am ape
ICe: d r. II' � 'I v·d.1 h irman f the Pace Informati Il
Bur all and, It the Rev. Willi m Sloan .offin < nd Dr.
B nj mill p< I.. of t d y. he fund him elf indi t I by
th g v rnmcl1t .Hld II 11 i d h r cti nt ri . Indaunt d
by Ild 1 cpr ion, \ ith hi hare forti.
tude h( Oil. FJn Ily in 1961 with
p nd n l bll lwei, n pportunity 0
writin r �n Afll<' n .n y'l P dia, and in hi nin ty.
third y Illigr. LIt b in n w int II
tu 1 lab >r. .
r mark II III It
thi III t
.th, t h will be r m mb red f r his
ntnl>lIl I II no r nizati nal attainments.
These m nUlllenl .11' imp ri h ble. ut th re w re hu-
m n qu liti I s. imm di. t ly vi i Ie th t r no I
imp ri h bl .
Tob
cont nued next week ...