Summary
Section IV starts by introducing the life and career of three important Black intellectuals and writers of the late 19th century, beginning with W.E.B. Du Bois. The authors refer to Du Bois as the king of “uplift suasion,” because Du Bois wanted Black people to compete with the white population. He prided himself on his Harvard education, and he blamed Black people for their own situation. Additionally, he supported the idea that all Black voters should be “educated” and “respectable.” Many argue that Du Bois’s biracial identity contributed to his ideas of exceptionalism. Booker T. Washington, another Black intellectual, similarly did not advocate for all Black citizens and was exclusionary in his ideas. Ida B. Wells, however, was revolutionary in her journalistic research and aimed to humanize the representation of Black men.
Du Bois and Washington both advocated for assimilation into white society, but through different methods. Du Bois wanted Black people “to be like white people,” while Washington favored labor and “common work” for Black citizens. Many Black Americans were divided between these two figures and their respective ideologies. Du Bois was later influenced by Franz Boas, a Jewish anthropologist who argued that African society was noble and excellent. Once Theodore Roosevelt was elected President, Booker T. Washington lost a lot of his support. As a result, Du Bois’s ideology took precedence.
Chapter sixteen recounts the story of Jack Johnson, a Black boxer and arguably one of the first Black pop-culture celebrities in the United States. Jack Johnson had the style and attitude of a celebrity, and white America was threatened by his success. As a result of Jack Johnson’s success and his widely-discussed interracial marriage, author Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes. In Tarzan, the main character protects a white woman from being killed by Africans. Tarzan became a sensation, and had a large influence on how Black people were seen at the time. Africans were depicted as savage and a threat to white women.
In the same year that Tarzan was published, Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States. At this point in history, Democrats dominated the South and were against “Big Government,” while Republicans advocated for civil rights. During Wilson’s presidency, he screened an incredibly racist movie by D.W. Griffith called The Birth of a Nation at the White House. Like Tarzan, The Birth of a Nation promoted a terribly harmful narrative that depicted Black men as threatening savages. Black activists in the South began protesting against their stifled freedom. Black people headed to major Northern metropolitan cities, such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York.
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist, arrived in New York in 1916. Although he originally sought to receive funding from the NAACP, he was surprised to find that the organization only had white and light-skinned Black people as leaders. Upon noticing the colorism that appeared to dominate the structural leadership of the NAACP, Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Following Garvey’s deportation to Jamaica, Du Bois began to take a more radical stance. However, many other Black artists and cultural leaders in the 1920s began to voice their issues with Du Bois.
By 1933, Du Bois abandoned his beliefs in uplift suasion and media suasion. Instead, he took up a new school of thought that championed antiracist socialism. Du Bois used this intellectual framework to criticize Black colleges for having white-centered curriculums, among other things. Du Bois’s switch could be partially attributed to the mounting pressures brought by the Great Depression. After the New Deal was passed in 1933, Du Bois advocated for another New Deal that would specifically create safe spaces for Black communities.
Following the end of World War II, a few game-changing civil rights cases were brought to then-president Harry Truman’s office. Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) brought forth the issue of real estate discrimination. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) affirmed that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The brutal death of Emmet Till ignited a fire within the civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a charismatic leader. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy introduced landmark civil rights legislation, which was eventually passed in 1964 as the Civil Rights Act.
Analysis
W.E.B. Du Bois is the primary subject of Section IV. While Du Bois was a powerful and influential organizer during his 70+ year career, the authors are keen to point out the flaws within his agenda. This is an important tactic, as Reynolds and Kendi prompt readers to deconstruct the tradition of labeling historical figures as merely “good” or “bad.” Rather, activists can contribute to valuable organizing work while still holding their prejudices and biases. In this way, the audience is inspired to assess their own politics and evaluate how they can consistently embody antiracism.
Like all Black people growing up in the 19th century, Du Bois was made to feel “othered” by white society. He grew up in an affluent, educated community in Massachusetts. He had mixed-raced ancestry, which further complicated his sense of belonging. Du Bois attended a historically-Black university in Nashville, Tennessee. While there, he was first exposed to Southern racism and the common appearance of bigotry and lynchings. This experience greatly influenced Du Bois’s later work.
Du Bois later attended Harvard University, where he eventually earned his Ph.D. However, it is important to recall that Harvard was founded by Puritan ministers that embedded their own racist philosophies in the institution. Du Bois prided himself on his education and his ability to succeed within white institutions. In his early career, Du Bois preached an agenda of Black excellence that argued for Black people’s assimilation into white society in order to gain power.
Du Bois’s narrative once again demonstrates how leaders can adjust their positions to be more representational and inclusive. Later in his life, Du Bois was prompted to reflect upon his own privilege as a biracial and educated man. He realized that he had benefited from colorism, and in turn he had preached an agenda that was not applicable to many Black Americans. Du Bois changed his perspective to champion antiracist socialism. He argued that white spaces would never be comfortable and approachable for the Black community, and he actively sought to create safe spaces for Black people that were oppressed by segregation laws.
This section also tells the story of Jack Johnson, a Black boxer and pop-cultural icon. Johnson was ill-received by the general American population, and it is important to understand the racist undertones in his legacy. Johnson was bold with eccentric style. He sought to take up space in a way that he was prevented from doing on the basis of his skin tone. His “obnoxious” behavior encouraged racist criticism, and Black people were further depicted as savage, minstrel characters. The publication of the novel Tarzan of the Apes and its subsequent popularity reflects the rejection of the iconography of the Black celebrity.
