Long before MLK, W.E.B. DuBois, gifted with a splendid intellect and the fierce certainty of his moral vision, defied the white establishment in America to the consternation and fury of racists everywhere. "Decades of distinguished accomplishment later, universities shun him, well-to-do blacks disdain him, and intellectuals refuse to write about him. Only the Communists and the National Guardian risk publishing him, while his sole financial support comes from the pennies of the poor...."

1903:  Atlanta     
Dr. W. E. B. DuBois

Babies are named after him, organizations founded in his honor, grave risks run complying with his constant calls for action. 

Brilliant, eloquent, and hungry for knowledge, by his mid-twenties he had completed a Ph.D. in Sociology at Harvard and the coursework for another in Economics at Humboldt University in Berlin, the leading economics department in the world. After that, he wrote the first work on American urban sociology and a powerful collection of essays worthy of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. 

A trail of Yankee and European admirers regularly seeks him out, staying in hotels segregation forbids DuBois himself to enter. Such cruel ironies have etched a half-sneer on the good Doctor’s face, and the scorn only deepens when his requests for research funds are routinely dismissed or ignored. 

Condescended to by his inferiors, DuBois responds with volleys of lucid indignation that may subside but never entirely disappear. Seeing the wrath that greets what they take to be their good intentions, Southern “gentlemen” shake their heads and conclude smugly that cities breed a deracialized “uppityness” in general and racial Frankensteins like DuBois in particular. 

Teacher, scholar, activist, sociologist, historian, writer, and world traveler, DuBois uses his lyrical voice, analytical rigor, and passionate advocacy with the supreme dignity of an avatar entrusted with the guidance of his entire race.

Boundless ambition marked him early. While still a teenager he decided to “prove to the world that Negroes [are] just like other people.”

1959:  Beijing
Portrait of a Harvard Ph.D.

Seeing a lynching victim’s blackened knuckles in a display case jolted him out of brilliant scholarly detachment and converted him to activism. 

DuBois in top hat: The black gentleman was not afraid of being called "uppity" by his moral inferiors.

Decades of distinguished accomplishment later, universities shun him, well-to-do blacks disdain him, and intellectuals refuse to write about him. Only the Communists and the National Guardian risk publishing him, while his sole financial support comes from the pennies of the poor. 

Heretical groups, their coffers empty and their leaders always on the brink of jail, compete to have him grace their gatherings with unpaid speeches, which he delivers with aplomb. Always he says exactly what needs saying in an eloquently prophetic voice worthy of Robeson. In private conversation he prefers listening to monopolizing the floor, but whenever he opens his mouth a hush falls over the room. 

Prolific author, spellbinding orator, tireless organizer, proud socialist, champion of a hundred causes Dr. DuBois speaks from Beijing University on his 91^st birthday: “I speak with no authority, no assumption of age nor rank; I hold no position, I have no wealth. One thing alone I own and that is my soul. Ownership of that I have even while in my own country for near a century I have been nothing but a ‘nigger.’ On this basis and this alone I dare speak.”

1903: The Alabama Black Belt
 The Tuskegee Machine

The gatekeeper of rewards, the key to black advancement, Tuskegee Institute champions hard work and savings, the purchase of respect, and a gradual alleviation of racism’s miseries.

Perpetually under construction, the school is built by students whose lessons consist of laying cement, transporting hods on scaffolds, and planing wood in the carpentry shop. Commencement valedictories witness seniors quickly assembling demonstration houses while buildings bearing the names of Northern philanthropists rise up all over campus the whole year round.

Masters of cabinet-making, plastering, masonry, and steam-fitting, Tuskegee graduates never lack for jobs. According to the Tuskegee creed, practical education is worth temporary political subservience, for a man without a vocation is no man at all.

Liberal arts mean nothing to menials locked in caste subordination, and higher degrees merely glorify idleness. Music, literature, and foreign language can wait until blacks become rich, while the vote is a useless thing. Carpentry pays better, and invites no trouble.

1903: The Urban North
The Talented Tenth

Collusion with oppression and meek acceptance of inferiority is turning black society on its head, warn these learned blacks, a self-surrender that awards starring roles to sharecroppers, skilled mechanics, and domestics, while black teachers, preachers, doctors, and undertakers are forced off the stage. In the past accomplished black people traveled and pondered, read more than just the Bible, and at least aspired to express themselves nobly, but today all march to segregated prosperity behind Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Machine.

“In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached has been that manly self-respect is worth more than land and houses,” W. E. B. DuBois reminds his tormented race. Dignity comes before utility, he adds, and knowledge of values will forever trump obsession with prices.

Educated blacks insist that work and money can do their race no ultimate good until it has the vote, higher education, and the power to defeat discrimination. A refinement of character, not material success, is the true measure of humanity. Years ago, Dr. DuBois warned that education should not be confused with a Meal Ticket: “Never make the mistake of thinking that the object of being a man is to make a carpenter; the object of being a carpenter is to be a man.”

E. B. DuBois Makes the Case For Economic Sanity

 “What has gone wrong? It is clear the workers don’t understand the meaning of work. Work is service, not gain. The object of work is life, not income. The reward of production is plenty, not private property. We should measure the prosperity of the nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty; the prevalence of health; the efficiency of the public schools; and the number of people who can, do read worthwhile books.  

Toward all this we do strive, but instead of marching breast forward, we stagger and wander thinking that food is raised not to eat, but to sell at good profit; houses are not to shelter the masses, but to make real estate agents rich; and solemnly declaring that without private profit there can be no food or homes. All of this is ridiculous. It has been disproven centuries ago.  

The greatest thinkers of every age have inveighed against concentration of wealth in the hands of the few and against poverty, and disease and ignorance in the masses of men.  

We have tried every method of reform. A favorite effort has been force by war. But the loot stolen by murder went to the generals and not to the soldiers. We tried through religion to lead men to sacrifice and right treatment of their fellow men, but the priests too often stole the fruits of sacrifice and concealed the truth.  

In the 17^th century of our modern European era we sought leadership in science and dreamed that justice might rule through natural law, but we misinterpreted that law to mean that most men were slaves and white Europeans were the right masters of the world.  

In the 18^th century, we turned toward the ballot in the hands of the worker to force a just division of the fruits of labor among the toilers. But the capitalists, happening on black slavery and land monopoly and on private monopoly of capital, forced the modern worker into a new slavery which built a new civilization of the world with colored slaves at the bottom, with white serfs between, and the power still in the hands of the rich.  

But one consideration halted this plan. The serfs and even the slaves had begun to learn to think. Some bits of education had stimulated them and some of the real scientists of the world began to use their knowledge for the masses and not solely for the ruling classes. It became more and more a matter of straight thinking.  

What is work? It was what all must contribute to the common good. No man has a right to be idle. It is the bounden duty of each to contribute his best to the well being of all, of what men gain by the efforts of all have a right to share, not to the extent of all that they may want, but certainly to the extent of what they really need.  

You must let the world know that this is your simple and unwavering program: the abolition of poverty, disease and ignorance the world over among women and men of all races, religions and color; to accomplish this by just control of concentrated wealth, and overthrow of monopoly to ensure that income depends on work and not on privilege or change; that freedom is the heritage of man, and that by freedom we do not mean freedom from the laws of nature, but freedom to think and believe and express our thoughts and dream our dreams and to maintain our rights against secret police, witchhunters or any other sort of a modern fool or tyrant.”

—W. E. B. DuBois at the 1953 California Peace Crusade

Source: Heather Gray, Another Look at W. E. B. DuBois, Counterpunch, November 19, 2007

Appendix

This is the infamy Dr. DuBois and others like him were trying to erase, and the job is still far from done.

Michael K. Smith has published three books, "The Greatest Story Never Told - A People's History of the American Empire, 1945-1999," "Portraits of Empire," and "The Madness of King George. His fourth book, "Rise to Empire," is forthcoming. He holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Master's Degree in Humanities. He has lived in Central America, Mexico, and Japan. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Socialist Appeal

The British establishment is attempting to divert the movement against racism down safe-channels – turning the struggle into a polarising ‘culture war’, and offering tokenistic gestures. Instead, we must fight for socialist change.

The ruling class has raised a hue and cry over the toppling of the statue of slave-trader Edward Colston in Bristol, since it was thrown into the River Avon by local activists on 7 June.

This wasn't meant to have happened in our ‘civilised’ parliamentary democracy. Protesters have been described as ‘thugs’ and ‘vandals’ by Boris Johnson and other Tory ministers for not following the ‘proper channels’. But the fact is that the Bristol demonstrators achieved in a few hours what years of polite appeals had failed to do.

Notably, this mass direct action has forced the authorities across the country to take steps to remove other monuments to imperialism and colonialism.

A statue of slaveholder Robert Milligan outside the Museum of London Docklands has already been taken down, for example. And Oriel College in Oxford University recently voted to look into removing the statue of notorious British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, thanks to huge street protests organised by the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign.

"A statue of Robert Milligan is removed by workers from outside the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 9."
Pic: John Sibley/Reuters pic.twitter.com/zhcxCXAKmS

— b9AcE ???? (@b9AcE) June 14, 2020

Events in Britain have even had international ramifications. Statues of brutal Belgian imperialist Leopold II have been set on fire and defaced in Antwerp and elsewhere. And there have been calls for Confederate monuments to be taken down across the USA.

The statue of genocidal maniac and king of Belgium, #Leopold_II, has finally been removed from the area of Ekeren in #Antwerpen, after having been covered in paint and set on fire by activists. #belgium #genocide #racist #just_saying pic.twitter.com/MWrs8F3woI

— M.GHAZAL ???????? (@ghazal67) June 17, 2020

Back home, the ensuing debate has finally shone some light on Britain’s colonial history – a useful reminder of how much of the ‘old wealth’ of capitalism is very much built on racism, slavery, and imperialism.

Culture vs. class

Labour leader Keir Starmer, however, has offered only a mealy-mouthed response. Starmer scandalously condemned the Bristol protesters for taking matters into their own hands; conveniently forgetting about the struggles taken by the labour movement and the oppressed throughout history – often involving illegal methods – in the face of blatant injustice.

Keir Starmer and the other Labour right-wingers who have denounced activists’ recent efforts would do well to remember that real historical change is never obtained by appealing to the ruling class through the ‘proper channels’, but by the working class uniting to organise and fight for progress.

Socialists wholeheartedly support the pulling down of statues like Colston and Rhodes. This form of mass direct action is not merely symbolic, but can also have a powerful effect on consciousness, giving workers and youth the confidence to trust in themselves and take bold action. It shows concretely that militancy pays.

At the same time, these protests have set off all sorts of alarm bells for the establishment. They have called it ‘mob rule’, and are petrified precisely because they cannot control it.

In turn, far-right thugs and Tory backbenchers alike have rallied to ‘defend Britain’s history and heritage’. On Saturday 13 June, for example, in farcical scenes, fascist hooligans and flag-waving ultras descended on London to ‘protect’ the statue of Winston Churchill that sits outside Parliament.

Prominent Tory MPs such as Ben Bradley, meanwhile, have been outspoken in asserting that “a Conservative government [should] be the staunch defender of our heritage, and take a strong stance on law and order”.

“Ministers must step up and say that our history is ours and we will not tolerate it being torn down”, the Conservative MP for Mansfield demanded in the Telegraph.

Ben Bradley proudly holds the views that poor people should be castrated yet thinks racists being rightly removed from Twitter is Orwellian

— Ben (@BenJolly9) June 21, 2020

The ruling class is desperate to divert the movement against racism into the territory of so-called ‘culture wars’ – for example, with the removal of a Fawlty Towers episode by the BBC.

But this is clearly not what the BLM movement is fighting for. It is a distraction to focus attention on these incidental examples, and to talk about culture instead of class. All this does is to sow confusion and division amongst the working class, and sidetrack the fight against systemic, institutionalised racism.

The establishment are actively whipping up and weaponising a ‘patriotic’ and nationalist backlash. The way to combat this is for the BLM movement to join forces with the labour movement: to drive the far right off our streets; to fight for real material improvements such as jobs, housing, and fully-funded public services for all; and to unite together to kick out this racist Tory government.

Material change

Renaming buildings and removing statues is a first step. But in order to have a real impact on the lives of BAME people, this must be the spark for genuine social change.

We must not allow these measures to become mere cheap tokenistic gestures by the establishment. For example, Tower Hamlets council has helped to remove the aforementioned Milligan statue in East London. Meanwhile, however, it is cutting services that working-class BAME people rely on.

Similarly, local authorities across the country are pledging to investigate what antiquated monuments or street names need to be removed. Yet they have done nothing to remove the dangerous cladding that remains on council estates up-and-down Britain – accommodation often inhabited by BAME communities.

It is therefore utter hypocrisy for politicians to say ‘Black Lives Matter’, whilst doing nothing to solve the real material issues – such as housing, jobs, and services – that lead to inequality and racism under capitalism.

To fund the sweeping measures that will genuinely address these problems, we need to expropriate the wealth of the super-rich – including the respectable ladies and gentlemen who have amassed their wealth both out of the colonial slavery of the past, and through the modern-day wage slavery of capitalism: the exploitation of the working class.

There is a very good reason why the full story about racism and colonialism is never told. If it were, the whole rotten system would be exposed. Whitewashing history helps to keep existing power relations intact, and to deflect attention from the root cause of inequality: the capitalist system.

Tearing down statues like those of Colston and Rhodes is a start. But to truly end racism, we need to tear down the whole crumbling edifice of capitalism.

Originally published at socialist.net