Commemorating the 150th anniversary of W. E. B. Du Bois’s birth, the chapters in this book reflect on the local, national, and international significance of his remarkable life and legacy in relation to his specific commitments to socialism and democracy.
Written with contemporary conditions in mind, such as the current political period of economic inequality, the debilitating reality of exploitative economic conditions, an expansive and invasive surveillance state, the grotesque injustice of the prison industrial complex, the ongoing crisis of police violence and the militarization of law enforcement, and a White House unashamedly spewing white supremacist, nationalist rhetoric in word and deed, this book collectively ponders how Du Bois’s radicalism can shape and re-texture historical understanding and underscore a reflective urgency about the future.
In this volume, scholars and activists undertake thoughtful and analytical explorations with regards to how Du Bois’ commitments to socialism and democracy can inform current methodology and praxis.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: “If we neglect to mark this history, it may be distorted or forgotten”: Socialism and Democracy in W. E. B. Du Bois’s Life, Thought, and Legacy
1. The Abolitionist Tradition in the Making of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Marxism and Anti-Imperialism
2. “Glances Curiously and Walks On:” Racializing Visibility and Double Consciousness
3. What Happens to a Dream Deferred?: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Radical Black Enlightenment/Endarkenment
4. Darkwater’s Existentialist Socialism
5. Du Bois’s “A World Search for Democracy”: The Democratic Roots of Socialism
6. From Philanthropic Black Capitalism to Socialism: Cooperativism in Du Bois’s Economic Thought
7. “Listen to the Blood”: Du Bois, Cultural Memory, and the Black Radical Tradition in Education
8. Enlightening the Working Class: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Jefferson School of Social Science
9. W. E. B. Du Bois in the Tradition of Radical Blackness: Radicalism, Repression, and Mutual Comradeship, 1930-1960
10. “There must be no idle mourning”: W. E. B. Du Bois’s Legacy as a Black Radical Intellectual
Poems
Because Time is Long
The Seventh Son: After W.E.B. Bois
When W. E. B. Turned 150
Of the Passing, Home, Right, Broad Sympathies, Drumbeat
Dialogues
On W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist politics:” An Interview with Alys Eve Weinbaum
Excavating History and a Homeplace: An Interview with Whitney Battle-Baptiste on W. E. B. Du Bois’s Impact, Influence, and Legacy
New Dimensions of Sino-American Relations and Black Internationalism: An Interview with Yunxiang Gao about W. E. B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois, and China
“We never capitulated on our right to dissent, to be Communist, socialist, left, and radical”: An Interview with Jarvis Tyner on W. E. B. Du Bois, the DuBois Clubs, and Black Liberation
About the Author :
Edward Carson is Dean of Multicultural Education at The Governor’s Academy, USA. He received his B.A. in History and Biblical Christianity and an M.Ed. in History Education from Harding University, USA. He is the co-author with John P. Irish of Historical Thinking Skills: A Workbook for European History. He’s an activist in the greater Boston community.
Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, USA. He is the author of over 30 books on subjects that address racism, labor, white supremacy, black radicalism, black internationalism, civil rights, and film.
Phillip Luke Sinitiere is Scholar in Residence at the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA and teaches history and humanities at the College of Biblical Studies, a predominately African American school in Houston, USA. His essays and books on Du Bois address history, literature, black radicalism, and Pan-Africanism.
