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Reaching a goal...whether it be swimming an extra lap, or achieving independence for members of your culture; for every goal, there are countless theories or paths as to how to achieve that goal.

Quite often, many people are striving for the same goal, but their paths on how to achieve that goal make it seem as if they are diametrically opposed. There is great belief that by building the strength within the system, you can alter it to accept you and/or your viewpoint. There is equally great belief in the theory of building outside of the system, and thereby either forcing said system to come to you, or if that is not obtainable, to continue without use for that system...to create your own.

Obtaining civil rights is a good example of those opposing theories, particularly for the purposes of our subject this week. The famed Booker T. Washington was considered by many in the African-American community and by almost all in the European-American community to be the "leader" of the former. Washington's belief was the first of the two theories mentioned above; that by gradually building up the African-American culture within the economic system, the assimilation will cause the melting pot of America to include more of the African-American community. Washington also felt that during this gradual build, African-Americans should take a passive stance.

On the other hand, W.E.B. Du Bois felt that the goal should be achieved through constant sharp demand for equality. Du Bois felt that the best route was for college-educated African-Americans to lead the struggle. The divergence of philosophies were deeply rooted in the different environments each of the two leaders grew up around. Washington worked his way up in post-Civil War Virginia, and had more of a sympathy for the economics of the former slaves now working the fields for themselves, whereas Du Bois, a man who grew up in a Massachusetts town with little overt racism, who belonged to an elite group of highly educated African-Americans (at a time when few were), came at it with more of an academic viewpoint. To look at it from the latter standpoint, one could not help but to be more incensed and uncompromising to the insanity that prevailed.

The Early Years

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 to parents of a mixed African, French, and Dutch parentage. His father left the family within a year of William's birth. Through the work ethic of his mother's family, William was an exceptional student. Despite being one of the few non-whites around, he rarely faced the racism so predominate throughout the country. But as he got older, it crept in bit-by-bit. Instead of letting it defeat him, it drove Du Bois to succeed with an even greater desire. Even early in high school, Du Bois felt the need for African-Americans to organize and unite in order to achieve their proper rights.

From the years 1885-88, he attended Fisk University in Nashville, a place where Du Bois began to truly feel the racism that the rest of Black America had long-felt. After graduation, he finally achieved his early goal of attending Harvard, entering as a junior, as his degree from Fisk was not recognized as an acceptable degree to Harvard.

Despite achieving academic awards, Du Bois chose a path of racial segregation, with his reasoning that once schooling was done, the white students would go their way, and he would go his. Therefore, he felt he might as well prepare for that world. He graduated in 1890 with honors in philosophy, and began his graduate studies.

In 1892, Du Bois secured a fellowship to study abroad, and went to Europe, which had a profound effect on his viewpoints on race. Due to treatment of him as an educated young man, and nothing less, Du Bois came to realize that,

"I felt myself standing, not against the world, but simply against American narrowness and color prejudice, with the greater, finer world at my back urging me on."

Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S.A.

Upon returning to America in 1894, Du Bois was sadly reminded of what it meant to be an African-American in this country. In the 1890's, an African-American was lynched every three days. Let me repeat that...every three days.

Feeling the need to teach, Du Bois applied at many Black schools, and was accepted to teach at Wilberforce University in Ohio. He was not particularly popular, as he came back with much of the European mode of dress and affectations, but his isolation actually helped him in finishing his doctoral dissertation for Harvard, "The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870." The dissertation was accepted in 1895, and Du Bois became the first African-American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard. The text was published a year later as the first volume of the Harvard Historical Studies. During Du Bois' two years at Wilberforce, he met and married a student named Nina Gomer.

In 1896, the University of Pennsylvania hired Du Bois for one year to put together data for a study of the social structure of African-Americans in Philadelphia. This later became The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). The study noted that African-Americans had little chance to succeed because they were kept from such things as fair housing and equal employment by whites. Du Bois also blamed the failure of the "black aristocracy" in the city to create jobs amongst themselves for the poor, "The better classes of Negroes should recognize their duty toward the masses." He felt that strong role models were needed beyond political leaders.

As that study ended, Du Bois was hired at Atlanta University, and the following year, in 1898, Du Bois began a 17 year work of editing an annual study of some aspect of African-American life. This was one of the main works that made Du Bois a nationally known scholar.

Pan-Americanism

In 1900, Du Bois was in London, and met with a group of people dedicated with helping the civil rights of Africans and their descendants. This group formed the Pan-American Association. Despite the organization surviving only two years, Du Bois' position as the head of the group solidified his place in history as the father of Pan-Africanism. Simply put, the term is the view that the necessity for unity among Africans and their descendants working together to defeat racism and prejudice. At the conference, Du Bois said, "...the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." This theme was often expanded upon in several essays written over the next several years, collected and published in 1903 as The Souls of Black Folk. The thrust of the essays was the divided nature of the African-American; that by the color of the skin, as well as being Americans, that they had two identities, and that they carried the "veil" of racism that kept African-Americans not only from whites, but also from seeing themselves.

"One ever feels his twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

Vs. Booker T. Washington

In these essays, Du Bois attacked Washington, the unofficial "leader" of African-American's in this country. One of Washington's most famous speeches was given in Atlanta in 1893, when Washington said "In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." Initially, Du Bois called this "the basis of a real settlement between blacks and whites in the South." But 1903 Du Bois denounced Washington's "old attitude of adjustment and submission", and called the speech the "Atlanta Compromise". He was also incensed at Washington's lobbying for agricultural training, perhaps at the expense of higher learning. In Philadelphia Negro, Du Bois had created the Talented Tenth theory; that the educated "Black elite" should provide the leadership.

Du Bois' primary attack was on the "Tuskegee machine". Du Bois (among others), felt that Washington's stature had given rise to a network of the latter's supporters, who squashed any opponents,

"After a time, almost no Negro institution could collect funds without the recommendation or acquiescence of Mr. Washington."

The "Tuskegee machine" began to attack Du Bois, and a verbal, and print war ensued. In 1905, Du Bois realized that a different direction was needed in this fight, and convened with a select group near Niagara Falls to form an organization that became known as the Niagara Movement. In order to publicize the Movement's views, Du Bois started published Moon, and Horizon, two journals that lasted briefly.

In 1909 all of the members of the Niagara Movement except William Trotter (editor of the Boston Guardian), who despised and distrusted whites and their objectives) merged with some white liberals and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was born. DuBois was named Director of Publications and Research, the only African-American on the board. Du Bois left his professorship and moved his wife (and surviving child Yolande. His young son died in 1899 from dysentery) to New York City. That same year, in 1910, began a large influx of African-Americans to Harlem, and by 1920, it was the largest and most renowned African-American community in the country.