W.E.B. Du Bois, born on this day in 1868, was a seminal American intellectual and socialist civil rights activist who co-founded both the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, also authoring texts such as "Black Reconstruction in America".

Du Bois grew up in the relatively tolerant and integrated community of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and, after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University in Georgia.

Among Du Bois's works are "The Souls of Black Folk", a collection of essays, and "Black Reconstruction in America", which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that black people were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. Du Bois was also a Pan-Africanist and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for the independence of African colonies from European powers.

Later in life, Du Bois was openly sympathetic to communist movements. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began to keep a file on Du Bois in 1942, and, during the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era, Du Bois was explicitly targeted by the state.

In 1951, Du Bois was indicted by the U.S. government for acting as an agent of a foreign state after he advocated for nuclear disarmament via the Peace Information Center (PIC). Although left-wing figures such as Langston Hughes and Albert Einstein came to his defense, the NAACP declined to support Du Bois during his trial, which ultimately failed to convict him.

Following the death of his wife in 1950, Du Bois married Shirley Graham the following year, they visited the Soviet Union and China, to much celebration. Du Bois later wrote approvingly of the conditions in both countries. Graham’s interest led Du Bois further into exploring communism, delving into the American Communist community and becoming known for his support of Joseph Stalin.

In 1961 Du Bois officially joined the American Communist Party. Around that time, he wrote: "I believe in communism. I mean by communism, a planned way of life in the production of wealth and work designed for building a state whose object is the highest welfare of its people and not merely the profit of a part." Before leaving the country to live in Ghana at the invitation of its president and becoming a citizen there.

Du Bois died on August 27th, 1963, in Accra, the capital of Ghana, at age 95.

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."

  • W.E.B. Du Bois

WEB Du Bois - The World and Africa and Color and Democracy :ture-fist:

BLACK RECONSTRUCTION :amerikkka:

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  • Dryad [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    big part of why I am that is because of how this society is handling COVID

    I'm there as well. I'm finally at a point in my life where I would definitely try hanging out at bars every now and again and just see where that gets me, but there is no fucking chance I'm ever going into a crowded indoor space in this country for the rest of my life. I gotta get to somewhere that people still believe in covid first, at least, if such a place still exists

    • gick_lover [they/them,she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'm kind of hoping that more alt scenes in my city start taking COVID more seriously. A lot of them are connected to leftist efforts, and local peeps in those leftist efforts are starting to get much better around COVID due to people speaking up on how fucked up it is to neglect implementing COVID safety measures. Some alt art spaces are already pretty good on COVID stuff here, but I would not be surprised if more of them get better due to pressure.

      I'm more of someone that likes to date people that I already know, and I think those spaces being better on COVID will make it easier for me to build more social connections.

      On a related note: even though a lot of leftists are currently pretty awful around COVID, I would not be surprised if COVID safety in this shithole country ends up being a thing that leftist and faux leftists take up broadly again within the next year. I just got a hunch judging from the direction of where I live and some of the neighboring cities.