A Portrait of a Sellout
During the height of World War I, W.E.B. Dubois issued one of the most widely-known and least-understood propositions in the history of civil rights protest. In the July 1918 issue of the monthly NAACP journal the Crisis, he [DuBois] called on African Americans to "forget [their] special grievances and close ranks" with white Americans and the Allies for the duration of the war. This article of course, left many Black political leaders as well as the general African-American public utterly baffled; "The wider significance of the controversy over "Close ranks" and the proposed commission lies in what it reveals about the potential for schism among black leaders and organizations at a pivotal moment in the development of civil rights thought" . [Marcus Garvey, wrote in the Negro World August 1918 that DuBois' defense was "a desperate effort to bolster up a bad case by far-fetched conclusions". Garvey dismissed the idea that by putting their country before their rights during the war, blacks would ultimately benefit. By "dickering with an official position," he claimed, Du Bois had show he was no longer the leader he had been in the Niagara Movement. Instead, he was "a follower of the masses."] How can one who claims he is for the a
In their analyses of black leadership and the pressures of W.E.B. DuBois, many historians have overlooked the obviously deliberate purpose DuBois had in mind when he wrote the editorial. It [the editorial] was specifically included in the July issue of the Crisis to help get him into military intelligence, there is no other way to justify it. When a magazine is founded on the basis of attacking all racial injustice it just does not seem fitting to write an article which calls for unity with a race that degrades another. The only plausible explanation is that DuBois'(upon the request of Springarn) chose to "sellout" his own race in lieu for a position which would place him at an advantage of any other black political leader. I think DuBois wanted that position just so he could boast about having more political ties with the government, and he was willing to completely to set back the civil rights struggle in doing so. Because the magnitude of the article, ill feelings which were cause as a result of it were slow to subside. In fact DuBois' relationships with other black radicals, notably socialists such as Marcus Garvey and A. Philip Randolph were degenerated because of his comments. There is no wonder why DuBois suddenly began to criticize other black Pan-African leaders; he was trying to salvage his own public image. Ultimately the editorial influenced the decision of the War Department to offer DuBois a commission, later that same year the commission was rejected. Partly because DuBoi
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1010
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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