Militant Activism

Militant Activism

It's easy to criticize the loudest voice. W. E. B. DuBois was a very loud voice in the early stages of Black advancement. He is criticized for being a militant propagandist whose methods sometimes worked against the Black cause. He is known for embedding the idea that the whites are always oppressors, and the blacks are always victims. I think most of this criticism is centered on his activities as founder-editor, (1910- 1934), of Crisis Magazine, a program of the N.A.A.C.P. This was the platform he used to point to specific happenings in race relations. He would personally comment on any number of issues, from those that pleased him to the more numerous issues that angered him. As shaky as it may be for anyone to use absolutes to describe the roles of whites and blacks, I believe there are few occasions relevant to society which demand their use. Is it the case that Blacks are always victims today? Certainly not. But even the educated, well-socialized DuBois at times fell victim to racist policies and mindsets. DuBois may have been loud, and even stubborn, but the advancement of his theories necessitated it. First, DuBois is a sociologist, second, an activist. Regardless of his propagandist approach, his ideas are based in sound observation and reasoning. The Souls of Black Folk is widely considered a sociological work, rather than a literary one. It is in this collection of essays that his sound ideas and balanced observations come across without the grating tone of indignation.

While there are many beautiful cultural themes in The Souls of Black Folk, such as reference to the slave songs in The Sorrow Songs, "They are the music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways," (DuBois XIV, 6), the more relevant material lies his examination of race as it relates to class. Even after Blacks were "free" to work for wages and own property, they were still cheap, exploited labor, and the path to ownership was long and troubled. Without slave labor, white capitalists relied on low wages to maintain their cash flow. (Green, 264) The whole Western economy was based on free labor, and now that it couldn't be had, how was capitalism to continue? In Of The Black Belt we find out. "Until last year he had good luck renting; then cotton fell, and the sheriff seized and sold all he had. So he moved here, where the rent is higher, the land poorer, and the owner inflexible; he rents a forty-dollar mule for twenty dollars a year. Poor lad!--a slave at twenty-two," (DuBois VII, 25). In that chapter he expresses the idea that things are looking up. In reality, the whites were still capitalists dependent on cheap labor, and the vast majority of blacks were still laborers. What was looking up, DuBois later clarifies was that "the occupational differences of American Negroes show at least the beginnings of differentiation into capitalists and laborers," (Green, 267). The Souls of Black Folk marks his initial steps in relating the Black condition to the development of capitalism.

Later on, as editor of Crisis Magazine, he used his pulpit to begin disseminating his ideas, and offering advice to his readers: mainly literate blacks and sympathetic whites. It was Crisis that some of his more memorably absolutist quips were printed. Lines like "Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest," highlight the voice of protest that characterizes much of his editorial work for the magazine. (Rudwick, 217) Although he provided much valuable content, much of his reputation is based on his history of being at odds with the N.A.A.C.P. DuBois used Crisis to promote things like integrated labor unions, which, according to the Association board, were not really part of their agenda. The Association several times found itself issuing statements and adopting policies that were indirect apologies for DuBois, and