David Levering Lewis - W. E. B. Du Bois Biography of a Race 1868–1919

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For Ruth Ann

CONTENTS

12. GOING OVER NIAGARA: DU BOIS AND WASHINGTON 297

1 3. ATLANTA: SCHOLAR BEHIND THE VEIL 343

14. NAAGP: THE BEGINNING 386

1 5. RISE OF THE CRISIS, DEGLINE OF THE WIZARD 408

16. CONNECTIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD 435

17. CRISES AT THE CRISIS 466

18. THE PERPETUAL DILEMMA SOI

19. "THE WOUNDED WORLD" 535

NOTES 58 i

SELECTED WRITINGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS 703

INDEX 709

Acknowledgments

AT AGE twelve I stood beside my father one day in August 1948 as he spoke with WE.B. Du Bois on the campus of Wilberforce University. I cannot recall the answer I gave when the latter asked what my plans were for life, but it certainly could not have anticipated what I would say to him today about the plan my life has followed for the past eight years. Research for this biography began in 1985. Since that time, it has often almost seemed that the problem of the twentieth century for me was far less the problem of the color line than it was the problem of WE.B. Du Bois. The voyage through his ninety-five years has been long, challenging, and fascinating, extending over three continents into twenty-eight archives and research libraries containing ninety-nine collections, and into the lives of some 150 people. Yet with the completion of this volume, the writing of the life is only half done. The opposite hurtles of fatigue and obsession inherent in biography, thus far avoided, still stand in the road ahead. If luck holds, however, the splendid support and counsel of friends and colleagues and the exceptional cooperation of a great variety of professionals will continue to safeguard me from both dangers.

Because those to whom I owe large and lasting debts for having made this first volume possible are so numerous, I hope I may be forgiven for deciding that the most fitting manner in which to record my appreciation is simply to list them below without the comment each so richly merits. To Ron Bailey, therefore, and Esme Bhan, Philip Butcher, and James Celarier; Paul Clemens, David Donald, and Gabrielle Edgcomb; Paula Giddings, Louis Harlan, and Kenneth Janken; August Meier, John McCormick, and

Acknowledgments

Wilson Moses; Marc Pachter, Lila Parrish, Carol Preece, and Claudia Tateall of whom read portions of this sprawling manuscripteternal gratitude for criticism and suggestions, absolution from responsibility for all errors and deficiencies, and please stand by. Portions of what was read by these friends and professional acquaintances were written with the fellowship support of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the creative and exceptionally generous research support of the department of history and the administration of Rutgers University, notably due to Edward Bloustein (president, deceased), Kenneth Wheeler, former provost, Richard L. McCormick, history chair and former faculty of arts and sciences dean; Rudolph Bell, current chair of the department of history; and Maryann Holtsclaw, without whom the Rutgers ship of history would have been, for all the luster of its navigators, rudderless. In the category of particular acknowledgments must also be included Richard Newman, formerly of the New York Public Library, who passed along much Du Boisiana and many astute hints in the early stages of this volume that were invaluable; my research assistants Chad Birely and Florice Whyte Kovan, and my graduate students Kimn Carlton-Smith, now a peer, and Martin Summers, still under sentence of dissertation.

The vibrant companionship and steady discernment of Ruth Ann Stewart, to whom this volume is dedicated, have sustained me in the highs and lows of living and writing. Her patient affection, her take-charge resiliency, and the untold hours she devoted to critical readings have meant far more to me than I can adequately or discreetly convey Without her, there would be no biography. Our children, Allison, Jason, and Allegra, have shown remarkable understanding and affection year after year as this project enveloped our lives and often rendered me unaware of the routine of daily life. Perhaps now ways can be found to repay their precocious forbearance. Henry Holt and Company published The Negro in 1915, Du Boiss fifth work of nonfiction, and John Macrae, possessed of a rare knack for getting authors to borrow his own editorial blue pencil, has believed in and supported this biography as if some special bond subsisted between Holt and Du Bois. Although he hadn't bargained on a one-volume life turning into a two-volume one. Jacks measured enthusiasm never faltered. Nor did that of the meticulous Amy Robbins, Holts tireless former associate editor, whose urgings to be clear and simple went only moderately against the grain. Once again to Claire Smith of Harold Ober Associates my gratitude for guidance in coping with the real world.

Acknowledgments

Abiding gratitude is expressed for advice or assistance to the following persons, with apologies in advance for the inadvertence of omissions: Kathleen Adams; Adele Alexander; Lee Alexander; Maya Angelou; Herbert Aptheker; Paul Ariani; Edward Beliaev; Emma Bell; Gila Bercovitch; John Bracey; Randall Burkett; Barbara Chase-Riboud; John Henrik Clarke; Willie Coleman; Claire Collier; Charles "Cooney; Maceo Dailey; William L. Dawson; Robert Demariano; St. Clair Drake; Martin Duberman; Rachel Davis Du Bois; Walter Fisher; John Hope Franklin; Jacqueline Goggin; Leroy Graham; David Graham-Du Bois; Carol Grant; Jeffrey Green; Betty Gubert; Jessie P Guzman; Debra Newman Ham; Grace Towns Hamilton; Faire Hart; Robert Hill; Wendell P Holbrook; Harley Holden; Mr. and Mrs. John Hope 2d; Beth Howse; James Hudson; Irene C. Hypps; Karen Jefferson; Margaret Jerrido; William Jordan; Roger D. Joslyn; Mrs. Alfred A. Knopf; Theodore Kornweibel; Diana Latachenier; Robert and Sarah Lee; Josephine Harreld Love; Bettye Lovejoy; Fritz Malval; J. David Miller; Robert Morris; Emil P Moschella; Albert Murray; Ethel Ray Nance; Kathy Nicastro; Stephen Ostrow; Paul Partington; Dovey Patrick; Edward Paul; Robert Paynter; Benjamin Quarles; Michael Raines; Arnold Rampersad; Priscilla Ramsey; T Allen Ramsey; Naomi Richmond; James Rose; Kenneth Rose; Irving Rosenberg; Lucy Aiken Rucker; Elliott Rudwick; Everett H. Sanneman, Jr.; Morris U. Schappes; Linda Seidman; Veoria Shivery; Ann Allen Shockley; Steven Sklarow; Jeffrey Stewart; Edward Spingarn; Alan Stone; William Strickland; Charles M. Sullivan; Mae Miller Sullivan; John Taylor; Paul Thornell; Bazolene Usher; Carolyn Wedin; Dorothy Porter Wesley; Denise Williams; Du Bois Williams; Sondra Kathryn Wilson; C. Vann Woodward; Melanie Yollis; Pauline Young.

I wish to thank most sincerely the staffs of the following libraries and research institutions: The Amistad Research Center, Tulane University; The Beinecke Library, Yale University; Special Collections, Robert W Woodruff Library, Clark-Atlanta University; The Oral History Office Research Collection, Nicholas Murray Butler Library, Columbia University; Special Collections, The Du Sable Museum, Chicago; Fisk University Library, Fisk University; Special Collections, Collis P Huntington Memorial Library, Hampton University; The Houghton Library, Harvard University; The Library of America; Special Collections, Manuscript Division, The Library of Congress; Black Studies Reference Division, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library of the District of Columbia; Special Collections, Soper Library, Morgan State University; Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; National Archives; Rare Books and