The Life of William Edward Burghardt Dubois - Research Paper Example

 The life of William Edward Burghardt Dubois Introduction William Edward Burghardt Dubois was one of the most powerful black leaders of the first half of the twentieth Century. He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868. In 1896, Dubois became the first African-American to get a PhD from Harvard University. He conducted several studies of black humanity in America, between 1897 and 1914, and published sixteen research documents. Dubois also participated in initiating the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, where he served as editor of its magazine, "Crisis," and its director of research until 1934. As he commenced his scrutiny, he believed that sociology could supply answers to race problems and with time, he found out that demonstration and complaint was the only approach that could achieve social change in a climate of powerful racial discrimination (Chew, 1996). Chew (1996) adds that Dubois moved gradually to the political left all through his profession and remained compassionate to Marxism in all his life. By the year 1905; Dubois was drawn to communist thoughts. He upheld interaction and fair privileges for all, irrespective of their race. However, his judgment frequently exhibited an amount of propensity towards black separatist-nationalist. Dubois became very disappointed with the US in 1961, which made him join the communalist Party in Ghana renouncing his American Citizenship a year later. Dubois used up a fraction of the summer in the German town of Eisenach. The mishandling of blacks in the United States rekindled him after integrating freely with the whites in Europe. He was eventually cut off from the rest of the society due to his religious ideas. In spite of this, he was able to put the time he had to himself to good use. The association linking whites and blacks experienced a remarkable transformation during his European travels where he came across women and men, as he had never met them previously. Dubois had learned to admit the predictability of racial segregation at Harvard. However, the people he came across in Europe made him to alter his views on racism altogether and to see discrimination and bias under a new light (Stafford & Daverport, 2005). His new understanding did not discourage him and he made it his lifestyle to find a way of attaining consistent personhood for blacks in America and eliminating discrimination based on race. Dubois had it in his nature to assert himself as an issue of course, which made him just the appropriate person for the job. He was a brave and a daring youth who was prepared to fight for himself and for his peers. All through his life, he assumed without uncertainty the right to fairness of all people since he was self-assertive and was not hostile (Morse, 2008). As Dubois became more forthright concerning racial prejudice, he grew to find Booker Taliaferro Washington’s course unbearable and was constantly involved in conflict with him. Washington was an American political leader, orator, author and educator and was a central figure in the United States’ African American community. Dubois found himself disagreeing with him over the significance of moderate arts education. Washington’s prominence on industrial education drew resources away from black liberal arts colleges. Dubois realized that Washington’s helpful program produced minute genuine gain for the race. Washington and his Tuskegee Machine was another factor that separated Dubois from him. This Machine kept a tyrannical control over Negro dealings that subdued sincere disapproval of his policies and other efforts at Negro development. Dubois understood Washington as a political boss who used much of his authority heartlessly to his own benefit. He believed that Washington was an inadequate and a mistaken leader although he asserted that he was worthy of respect (Gibson, 2010). Morse (2008) indicates that Dubois went to school to be educated sufficiently to accomplish his mission. For his undergraduate degree, he attended Fisk University and then enrolled in Harvard University for further studies as a graduate student where he studied philosophy under Josiah Royce, William James and George Santayana. He also studied abroad in Germany. Though Dubois acquired much from his philosophy teachers, particularly William James, he came to discard educational philosophy, referring to it as attractive but sterile. In its place, he turned to history and sociology. Dubois and Washington’s opposing opinions sought to help Blacks obtain equal treatment under the law. To the black liberals, Dubois's philosophy had won over that of Washington. They alleged this philosophy as being a more practicable and valuable way to combat racism. According to Washington (2001) however, Dubois's philosophy was born and developed by white liberals of the academy but was not in the minds of Blacks. This philosophy was analytically shaped to control most academic disciplines at that time and conform to a cultural relativist mind set. The major concern between Washington and Dubois was over whether labor was noteworthy for ethical enhancement or not. Washington alleged that it was, while Dubois thought that the teachings of a brilliant tenth were also essential. He argued that by teaching the prominent how to live decently it would save the mass and supposed that his assumption of artistic pluralism was the answer of the problem of racial segregation (Bell, 1996). Through his classic collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903, Dubois initiated a well-thought, indisputable and considerate attack on Washington’s agenda. He took the headship in the resistance against Washington with the publication of this book. He then headed the radical protest movement for civil rights for Negroes. In this classic collection of essays, Dubois indicated that the Black men of America had to instigate an onward pressure group to go up against a part of the work of their utmost leader (Gibson, 2010). Both Washington and Dubois saw discrimination as a prospect. Washington found it as a chance to build up black capitalism while Dubois discarded this suggestion because his study of Marx had directed him to the suggestion that capitalism was humiliating. He saw isolation as an opening to initiate a supportive black financial system (Bell, 1996). This rivalry between Washington and Dubois can be described in various ways. It was a rivalry of endurance versus convenience; political dissent verses self-help; obvious activism in the streets, verses the quiet persistence of individual and ethical development at home. It can also be considered as the rivalry of forcing Whites to recognize blacks as equals, verses showing Whites that they can first treat each other as equals (Washington, 2001). Conclusion W.E.B. Dubois was one of the most influential black leaders in history. He conducted numerous studies on the black society in America. He was highly opposed to the rampant racial segregation against the blacks. To realize these dreams, he struggled through schooling to gain more experience and knowledge. His rivalry with Washington was primarily based on racial segregation upon the blacks in America. He advocated for equal rights of the blacks and the whites while Washington believed that the blacks did not require such rights. The different people from Europe, whom Dubois came into contact and interacted with, greatly contributed to his realization that racial segregation was very ruthless. References Bell, B. W. et al. (1996). W.E.B. Dubois on race and culture: Philosophy, politics and poetics. London: Rutledge publishers. Chew, R. (1996). W.E.B Dubois: Sociologist, Author & Civil Rights Leader. Retrieved from http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/dubois.html Gibson, R. A. (2010). Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois: The Problem of Negro Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/2/78.02.02.x.html Morse, D.J. (2008). William Edward Burghardt Dubois. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/dubois/ Stafford, M. & Daverport, J. (2005). W.E.B. Du Bois: Scholar and activist. New York: Chelsea publishers. Washington, E. (2001). Dubois vs. Washington: Old Lessons Black People Have Not Learned. Retrieved from http://www.issues-views.com/index.php/sect/1000/article/999 Read More