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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    • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      There’s a reason why revolutions have historically been successful first in the countryside.

      I imagine there are myriad neglected urban communities that share your sentiment. It’s not true for all American cities, just the major ones, and even then only if you belong to a certain economic stratum. If you’re from like Springfield MA or Troy NY, or slinging coffee in San Francisco your outlook is probably not so different.

      The problem is how fucking brain poisoned people here are. The cognitive dissonance is just so powerful. A poor conservative will simultaneously decry the greed of the bankers, the pharmaceutical companies, the landlords, but will claim that what we need is even LESS regulation!

      Who can blame them. Liberals openly despise them (guns and religion, basket of deplorables) and never deliver MATERIAL gains. At least if a chud comes in and kicks out all the Mexicans some jobs open up for people who look like you. Nevermind that they’re exploitative and underpaying.

      There’s no solidarity, whatsoever. The outlook is really fucking bleak.

    • bigboopballs [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      There is nothing for you. There are no jobs, no place to interact with anyone, a complete lack of any urban planning, no public transportation. There are no buses, and the roads themselves are horrific. If someone is an hour away, then they mine as well be on the other side of the country. Your life is meaningless and boring. There is no greater purpose and America is specifically designed to keep you there, with no upward economic mobility.

      I live in a small Canadian city (population ~80,000), and all of that shit is true