"A People`s Leader" - W E B Du Bois and Philip Foner on Frederick Douglass

`A People`s Leader` was the headline given by Masses and Mainstream magazine (May 1950) to a review by W E B Du Bois of the first two volumes of Philip S Foner`s The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, which had been published by New York publishing company International.

Du Bois opened his review by saying that Foner`s book "puts all America under deep obligation" and was "in happy contrast to the neglect of Douglass by American historians".

He commented "It has been difficult for America to see Frederick Douglass in his correct perspective : he was a Negro and therefore in a special category ; he was certainly an unusual Negro, but how was one to compare him with white folk ? There were no accepted standards of comparison."

He quotes an (unnamed) editor`s account of hearing Douglass speak in 1841;

"This is an extraordinary man. He was cut out for a hero...As a speaker he has few equals. It is not declamation - but oratory, power of debate. He has wit, argument, sarcasm, pathos...His voice is highly melodious and rich, and his enunciation quite elegant, and yet he has been but two or three years out of the house of bondage."

Du Bois indicates that this opinion was shared by many, in many parts of the word, but feels that in itself it tells us little ;   "But oratory is in a sense superficial ; what was the man beneath ? Foner traces his intellectual growth, with perhaps not enough  emphasis on the continuous study that gave Douglass more than a college training within seven years after learning to read."

Du Bois quotes Douglass` shocked reaction to the poverty and misery he saw in Ireland ; "The scenes I witnessed were such as to make me `blush, and hang my head to think myself a man`. I speak truly when I say I dreaded to go out of the house. The streets were almost literally alive with beggars."

Du Bois takes up the story. "Soon he was developing into a man who could see the evils of the world and not simply the plight of his own people", and quotes with approval his comment "I am not only an American slave, but a man, and as such, am bound to use my powers for the welfare of the whole human brotherhood."

"Particularly was his growth helped by meeting men and being treated as an equal" Du Bois remarks, "He talked and ate with some of the great figures of his day and returned to the United States, not only a Negro, but a world citizen."

Without wanting to play the `armchair psychoanalyst`, it is clear that Du Bois is becoming sidetracked here from reviewing the book and it seems likely that Du Bois was identifying very strongly with Douglass.While a spirit of academic detachment can be a good thing, his close identification with his subject gives us something of an insight into WEBD`s own character and thinking, as well as into the character of Douglass.

Returning to the matter in hand, he comments that in Foner`s book "one can follow details of  (Douglass`s) life and compare them with what he was thinking and saying...Those of us who have always thought of Douglass principally as a speaker will be amazed at the virility and clarity of his writing". In support of this he quotes Foner`s contention that Douglass` "editorials, speeches and letters...are among the most penetrating and eloquent of any American."

"He grew as he worked and he wrote," says Du Bois, "from the lecture platform he went into the editor`s chair ; he assumed more and more the leadership of free Negroes, a difficult and intelligent group." Is it too much to think he was having a little wry joke with us, as Douglass`s story begins to sound more than a little like his own, and he reflected on the difficulties he himself had experienced ?

"He was active in the temperance movement", Du Bois continues, "he announced himself a Chartist and endorsed the land reform movement...he opposed capital punishment and was a pioneer for women`s rights."

He touches on Douglass` falling out with his former ally Garrison, apparently because Douglass had indicated he would approve if slaves used violence to free themselves (it`s worth reminding ourselves here that slaveowners were not slow to use violence to keep their slaves, and that the slave trade was inherently violent from start to finish), but points out that Harriet Beecher Stowe had been quick to write to Garrison defending Douglass` new views as "a genuine growth of his own convictions."

Douglass, we learn, "moved into politics ; into both the Liberty and Free Soil parties and finally, with some reluctance, voted with the Republicans." He regarded his association with John Brown to be "among the highest privileges of my life."

Here the first two volumes of Foner`s work end, and here Du Bois` review ends also. "These first two volumes are clear, exhaustive and convincing" he concludes. "The figure of a great man rises from them."

I hope this proves helpful to those who might not otherwise see the review (though you should be able to pick up the appropriate back issue of M and M quite cheaply on http://www.abebook.com/ or http://www.marelibri.com/ if you want your own copy).

 I also  hope the late Dr Du Bois would forgive me my poor punctuation and rather brutal pruning of his review in an effort to  keep this article reasonably concise !

Lastly, if you were interested in this article, you may also be interesed in some of my other efforts ;

Civil Rights Showdown Revisited  - 17 April 2010
Blasts From the Past ; Angus Cameron on McCarthyism -  11 April 2010
Fighting Slavery and Climate Change in Yorksire  - 2 April 2010
Civil Rights Showdown - 13 March 2010

all to be found at http://masses2mainstream.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Nick

Postal Paraphernalia # 2

I don`t think too much additional comment is needed from me here. Following on from the original Postal Paraphernalia a few weeks ago, here are two more American first day covers celebrating the life and times of W E B Du Bois.

Happy Birthday W E B Du Bois !

Today would have been W E B Du Bois` birthday (he was born 23 February 1868), so this seems a good opportunity to share some current news which I`m sure would meet with his approval.

Firstly, the NAACP is marking 100 years of the NAACP and The Crisis, so Crisis Publishing and Gibbs Smith Publishing have teamed up to produce a new book, `NAACP 100 - Celebrating A Century ; 100 Years In Pictures`. The book is currently available, and can be ordered via the NAACP website, or contact Kim Eddy at keddy@gibbs-smith.com for more information.

Secondly, Du Bois biographer David Levering Lewis has co-edited (along with Michael Nash and Daniel Leab) a volume entitled Red Activists and Black Freedom, about James and Esther Jackson, close friends of both Du Bois and Robeson during the `50s. The book,  which was launched during January of this year,  arose from a symposium during 2006 entitled `James and Esther Jackson ; The American Left and the Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement`. Contributors include Tim Johnson, Maurice Jackson, Michael Anderson and Angela Davis. The book is published by Routledge.

Levering Lewis has been sharply critical  of some of the stances taken by Du Bois later in life, so this may seem a surprising project for him. However, I understand he has interviewed the Jacksons several times in the course of research for his books and believes that it is impossible to understand the Civil Rights Movement of the `60s without first understanding the pioneering work they undertook in the `30s. He is at pains to stress that the Civil Rights movement didn`t begin with Martin Luther King, it has a long history and is ongoing. Esther Jackson has commented that "the book would not have been possible" without Lewis. It`s interesting to note that the  launch of the book was attended by  Jarvis Tyner, once a key figure in the Committee to Defend Dr Du Bois.

Book Review #3 ; Kathryn T Cryan-Hicks - W E B Du Bois : Crusader for Peace

Kathryn T Cryan-Hicks (author) , David H Huckins (illustrator) - W E B Du Bois : Crusader for Peace - Discovery Enterprises, Lowell , Massacussets, 1991. In the Picture Book Biography Series. Contains a message from Benjamin L Hooks.

I make no apologies for including a book aimed at youngsters in this blog, particularly one as good as this !

Kathryn T Cryan-Hicks has a nice writing style, very clearly expressed, but still obviously well-researched and informative. There is no sense of her `dumbing down` for a younger audience. Interestingly, I notice at the front of the book, under the heading A Word on the Literature, a few suggestions on further reading for adults interested in Du Bois. I have to say her selections are very good and include some I would have mentioned myself ( Shirley Graham Du Bois - His Day is Marching On, Manning Marable - W E B Du Bois : Black Radical Democrat, Mark Stafford - W E B Du Bois : Scholar and Activist).

The book is enhanced by a number of excellent full-page colour illustrations by David H Huckins. These are done to a high standard and the images complement Ms Cryan-Hicks` words nicely.

It`s interesting to see how the use of simple words can actually be more effective than a heavily embellished style ; 

"Some people said W E B Du Bois was ahead of his time. They called him a prophet because he saw things that others didn`t see. One thing is evident. While other people hid from the world, afraid of different cultures, different ideologies, Du Bois was not afraid to seek the truth, and to look it squarely in the face. He was not afraid to act upon his new insights and to discard ill-fitting philosophies. His life manifested this search to understand people and the world, and to find a way for all people to live together peacefully."

A pretty good epitaph I should say !

NOTES - A bit of googling has produced the fact that Kathryn T Cryan-Hicks is Assistant Director of Programs and Community relations at Chelmsford Public Library (Chelmsford, Massachusetts, not Chelmsford, UK) and a member of Chelmsford Climate Action Network ( http://www.chelmsfordcan.org/ ) . I didn`t find anything about David H Huckins other than a passing reference which seemed to indicate a connection with the world of music. I had little luck finding out more about Discovery Enterprises, though I note they did publish a series called Perspectives on History which included one called The Lowell Mill Girls : Life in the Factory by Jo Anne B Weisman which I thought sounded interesting. In addition to his many other activities, Benjamin L Hooks has been a lawyer, a businessman, a Baptist Minister and was Executive Director of the NAACP from 1977 - 1993.  He is founder of the Benjamin L Hooks Institute for Social Change.

Postal Paraphernalia

These don`t really need much comment from me. The US postal service paid tribute to Dr Du Bois in 1992 and 1998 by issuing commemorative stamps, as you`ll see from the images below. Sadly, the 1998 first day cover doesn`t reproduce too well because of the use of gold gilt, which reflects light, but I`m including it for interest`s sake.

Quotations #2 - Du Bois on Jefferson Davis

In June 1890, Du Du Bois graduated with honors in philosophy, and was asked to make a speech at his `commencement`, which I assume is the US equivalent of graduation. Du Bois, a man of mixed race, chose the tricky subject of Jefferson Davis, a champion of slavery and the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.


The next two paragraphs are from Mark Stafford`s W E B du Bois : Scholar and Activist (Chelsea House, New York, 1989. In the Black Americans of Achievement series) ;


`Du Bois` speech...was as impassioned as it was caustic. Davis, he said, satisfied the nation`s hunger for an individualist who was also an oppressor. Du Bois called the southern leader a "peculiar champion of a people fighting to be free in order that another people should not be free". Like all "strong men" he sought "the advance of a part of the world at the expense of the whole...it has thus happened that advance in civilization has always been handicapped by shortsighted national selfishness."


The speech received an overwhelming response. "Du Bois handled his difficult and hazardous subject with absoloute good taste, great moderation and almost contemptuous fairness," The Nation reported. "He is an excellent scholar in every way, and altogether the best black man that has come to Cambridge" added a Harvard professor.`


Stafford states that as a result of this speech the American Historical Association invited Du Bois to address one of its` meetings, and also  quotes further praise for the speech from the New York Independent.

The full text of Jefferson Davis as a Representative of Civilization can be found in a Du Bois anthology edited by Herbert Aptheker, Against Racism ; Unpublished Essays 1887 - 1961, University of Massachusetts Press, 1985.

It`s worth pointing out that, while passages of the speech are certainly caustic, the Dr was on the whole even-handed and even, to a degree, diplomatic, stressing that "I wish to consider not the man, but the type of civilization which his life represented ; its foundation is the idea of the strong man - individualism coupled with the rule of might - and it is this idea that has made the logic of even modern history, the cool logic of the club".

He also pointed out that Davis was "a naturally brave and generous man" and that "such a type is not wholly evil or fruitless : the world has needed and will need its Jefferson Davises ; but such a type is incomplete and can never serve its best purpose until checked by its complementary ideas".

Clearly it is a youthful work, and elsewhere in the same speech we find some rather dated ideas, and some rather dated language. Some later commentators, particularly the more radical ones, find it rather submissive and `accomodationist` . They may have a point, though personally I think it is partly his choice of words that gives that impression.

However that may be, the essential message seems pretty clear, and in my view still relevant and thought-provoking. Du Bois summarised his aims in making the speech  in this way ; "the submission of the Strong to the advance of all - not in mere aimless sacrifice, but recognizing the fact that `to no one type of mind is it given to discern the totality of truth`, that civilization cannot afford to lose the contribution of the very least of nations for its full development."

FOOTNOTE

It is interesting to note that some of these sentiments, voiced by Du Bois so long ago, appear to anticipate areas of feminist thinking from the `60s and `70s. We know that many feminists from this era have asserted that they took much of their thinking from the American Civil Rights movement*. It would be interesting to know if Dr Du Bois, well-known as an early advocate of women`s rights, had a particular influence there. 

* This point is made by Jenny Bourne in her  Towards an Anti-Racist Feminism ( IRR, London, 1984). Jo O`Brien makes similar comments in the conclusion to her Women`s Liberation in Labour History : A Case Study From Nottingham (BRPF, Nottingham, 1972), though her comments go more to her motivation in writing her pamphlet, which is about English working class women in the 19th century, than to it`s content.

Bourne`s pamphlet is still available, at a very reasonable price, from the Institute of Race Relations, London. I don`t run this blog as an adjunct to our business, but as it happpens, I do have a copy of O`Brien`s pamphlet for sale ; 

http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookinfo.phtml?o=hoonal&bnr=35

but just to re-iterate, her comments on feminism and civil rights are only a small part of a pamphlet largely concerned wth other matters.

Book Review # 2 ; Albert E Kahn - Agents of Peace

Albert E Kahn`s Agents of Peace was a title in The Hour Publishers` Pamphlets for Peace series. A small, slim  (16 pages) booklet, it was intended to raise support for the defendants in the 1951 Peace Information Center trial, including, obviously, Dr Du Bois. I assume it is fairly rare, though I have to say my copy was inexpensive (I sometimes think I should re-title this blog Collecting Du Bois on a Budget, as you`re not likely to find any expensive items described here in the foreseeable future !). My copy still has it`s erratum slip (Duke Ellington was listed on page 8 as being among a number of American signatories to the `Stockholm Appeal` , actually called the World Peace Appeal, when  in fact he had not signed it at all. The erratum slip just points out this error).

A point of interest is `How to Aid in the Defense` on the inside rear cover (suggestions include lobbying President Truman and Attorney General McGrath, sending donations, forming local groups of supporters).

Although clearly it is a propaganda piece, intended purely  to support a particular campaign, it is written and produced to a high standard. There is quite a bit of information packed into this tiny booklet, and it does make interesting reading. Mostly, it is concerned with fact and opinion, rather than analysis, but none the worse for that. I did have reservations about  one paragraph, which unquestioningly assumes a connection in a case where a man who had signed the Appeal "was hurled from a second storey window". No evidence is adduced to connect the two incidents, which would seem to me to call into question whether it should have been mentioned at all.

However, I have to say this is a nice item of memorabilia and would also be useful to researchers etc. If you can track down a reasonably-priced copy in decent condition, you`d be wise to acquire it pronto.

Sorry, but my copy is not for sale. In the unlikely event I have any Du Bois material to sell, I will mention it, but at present, this blog is basically an eccentric fans personal tribute to Dr Du Bois and a guide to imformation and items that are around.