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I take my stand beside the m illions... and cry 'Peace—No More War'
f
Richard W right, o f Jessie Fauset and M ary W right Ovington, Alaine Lock,
James W eldon Johnson. Lillian Smith. Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown.
A nd you w ill fin d views o f A lb e rt Einstein. C laren ce D a rro w . A lb ert
Schweitzer, the sharecroppers who loved him and the artists who drew
inspiration from him. Here is a large segment o f the flesh and bones, the
heart and brains, the hopes and tears, the failures and troubles o f much o f
the world for very nearly a centurv.
Viewing this land and therefore verging at times upon despair, as any of
us must, I urge upon you to think o f William Edward Burghardt DuBois For
example, can the promise of humanity be fullfilled? Can one live completely
and die boldly? Can one make a difference in the world and a difference
that enobles? Is it possible to be both lion and dove?
d u b ." quite properly that civilization's model "murdered Indians." He was
the hero o f " a national disgrace called by courtesy the Mexican W a r," and
he was the leader o f the fight to be free to hold other people in slavery.
"M o ra l obtuscness and refined brutality mark this civilization . . . a system
o f human culture whose principle is the rise o f one race on the ruins o f
anothei is a farce and a lie ." This vision, he concluded, must be replaced by
service not gain, sacrifice not greed, peace not war.
For some years DuBois thought truth alone would conquer error, reason
alone w ould elim in a te inju stice. H e exposed the errors in his A tla n ta
University studies, rallied the ranks o f reason. But the lies and injustice
persisted, indeed they in te n s ified . H e concluded th at tru th was not a
disembodied entity waiting to be grasped; truth was a dynamic reality moving,
changing and perpetually challenging and its search was rooted in social
reality. Hence, true to his secret pledge made to himself on his twenty-fifth
birthday in Berlin. He wrote, in a diary, " I w ill confront the king and o f
course life its e lf*. He answered that foursquare, into the turmoil o f social
re a lity . H e re he used his u nrivaled lea rn in g , wielded his scholarship,
em ployed his artis try , and manifested his impeccable integrity and his
prophetic power in a monumental confrontation with the central evils o f his
tim e; racism , p o v erty , co lo n ialis m , the su b ordin ation o f w om en, the
m iseducation o f y o u th , and above a ll, an em bo d iem ent o f a ll the
monstrosity o f war.
The rid d le o f scholar vs p a rtic ip a n t he was alw ays insisting th at
o biectivity is not choosing neu trality but rather portrayin g reality. The
problem was not partisanship, no one could avoid that, for even passivity
was choice. The problem was partisanship on the side ot justice, on the side
o f the oppressed ex p lo ite d and in s u lted . D uB ois* great ad van tag e,
ironically, was that he was naturally a scholar o f, by and for the insulted
and therefore was gifted with a new vision and therefore a greater clarity.
The first step toward sanity, he wrote in 1926, "is to admit the possibility
o f outlawing war. We must agree on some international apparatus to assure
outlaw ing . . . We must proceed with d isarm am en t." He insisted in 1926
that accompanying this must be the demise o f colonialism. "Peace on earth
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What can be more fitting than to draw to a close with prayers he wrote for
himself and shared w ith his students over seventy years ago, Pravers f o r
Dark Folk.
This is for young people. He wrote it in 1909 on scraps of paper and spoke it
to them— 1909, in Georgia. "L e t us be afraid neither o f mere physical hurt,
nor o f the unfashionableness o f our color, nor o f the unpopularity o f our
cause. Let us turn toward the battle o f life undismayed and above all, when
we have fought the good fight, grant us the shadow o f death with the same
courage that has let us liv e ___ G ive us in our day. G od, to see the fu lfill
ment o f our vision o f peace. M ay these young people grow to despise false
ideals of conquest and empire and all the tinsel o f war. M ay we strive to re
place force with justice and armies o f murder with armies o f mercy. M ay we
believe in peace among all nations as a present practical creed and count
love for our country as love, and not hate, for our fellowm en.”
When his body gave out, when he »as 95, though his spirit and mind
never did, he went gladly to his final rest for he knew he had conquered
death, hence he welcomed it.
James Russell Lowell wrote. "G reat souls are portions of eternity." The
heritage o f DuBois is part of that eternity. And there is a comrade o f ours
holding before all o f us the flaming sword ol that great angel who keeps the
way o f life.
is no mirage. It is a solemn, awful necessity.”
Tw enty-five years later he devoted a series o f his columns in a Chicago
newspaper to this persistent theme o f his life . "Peace cannot mean just
peace in Europe. Today, rather, peace means and must mean peace in the
Dr Herbert Aptheher. Du B oa' ftrendandcolleague for mans i t t n . mas selected hr DuBou
Io compile and publish ha works Aptheher u preparing a 40- cotume renes.
world, peace without poverty."
He insisted then, October 28. 1950, that the hysteria in the United States
did not reflect as true threat to the well-being o f our nation. It was, rather,
concocted by those who fear an idea and that idea is socialism. That idea, he
said, did not begin w ith Russia and did not exist because o f Russia, but
came into being because o f real human problems such as poverty in the
midst o f plenty. A week later he added that the effo rt to establish a Pax
A m ericana was sheer madness. And fin a lly , on Novem ber 25, 1950 he
wrote, "Social control o f production and distribution o f wealth is coming
as surely as the ro llin g stars. The whole concept o f private property is
changing and must change. Not even a H arvard school o f business make
greed into a science. N or can the unscrupulous am bition o f a Secretary o f
State use atomic energy forever for death instead of life .”
The life o f DuBois is that o f a profound radical, a fearless and tireless
scholar, a person who spoke his mind. And it was a mind o f supurb capacity
and infinite training. Past ninety, in a book that appeared posthumously, he
wrote, “ I know the United States. It is my country, the land o f my fathers.
It is still the home o f noble souls and generous people, but it is selling its
b irthrig h t." And he insisted, "T o d ay the United States is the leading nation
in the world which apparently believes that war is the only way to settle
present disputes and difficu lties. For this reason, it is spending fantastic-
sums of money, wasting wealth and energy on the preparation of war which
W illiam Edward Burghardt DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Mas
sachusetls in 1868. He received a B A. from Fisk University in 1883, a B.A.
at Harvard University, and after two years o f study, a Ph D . at the Univer
sity o f Berlin. From 1894 to 1896 he taught at Wilberforce; from 1896 1897
at the University o f Pennsylvania; at A tlanta University from 1897-1910.
He was chairman o f the Sociology Department of Atlanta front 1934 1944.
In 1896 he married Nina Gom er, who was the mother o f his two children
— Burghardt. who died at 3, and Yolande. His w ife died in 1950 and he
married Shirley Graham the next year.
As a journalist he wrote for the New York Age, the New York Globe, the
S pringfield R epu b lican, and the Chicago D efen der. He edited the Fisk
Herald as a student, edited the M oon and the H orizon. From 1910 to 1934
he edited the N A A C P ’s Crisis Magazine and from 1940 to 1944 he edited
Atlanta University’s Phvlon Magazine.
DuBois organized collective action. He was principal founder o f the 1905
Niagra Movement and five swart la t e r w a s p r o n s in e n , in »he »rwi m fiwe n» »he
N A A C P . From 1910 to 1934 he w a s director o f Publicity and Research for
the N A A C P and from 1944 to 1948 was director o f special research Beyond
scholarship, he actively organized public demonstrations against lynching,
discrimination and war.
DuBois was the lather o f Pan-A fricanism , serving as Secretary o f the
First Pan-African Congress in 1900 He attended the First Universal Races
Congress in London in 1911 and was a leading participant in successive
P a n -A fric a n C onferences in 1919. 1921. 1923, and 1945. D u rin g the
McCarthy era his passport w a s withheld and he was unable to attend inter
national conferences.
During the 1950s and 1960s he was closely identified with w orld peace
forces, was a strong supporter o f liberation movements and was friendly
toward the Soviet Union and China.
In 1961 DuBois joined the C om m unist P arty. He became a citizen o f
Ghana in 1963 and died in G hana that year on the eve of the "M a rc h on
W ashington.”
Dr. DuBoia with Paul Robeson, World Peace
Conference, April 20, 1949
is nothing less than crim in a l. W e spread our soldiers and arms over the
earth and we bribe every nation we can to become our allies, while taxing
our citizens into p overty, crim e and unem ploym ent and systematically
distorting the trutfi about socialism.*‘
This life tells as none other can what it meant to be black in the United
Slates fro m the 1870s u ntil the 1960s. It delineates a fig h ter, scholar, a
genuine frie n d , a sw eetly hum orous soul, and a fie rc e ly co m m itte d
ind ividu al determ ined as he said in 1895, to make a name in science, to
make a name in literatu re, "a n d thus to raise my race. I w ill go unto the
king which is not according to the law and if I perish, I perish.”
Study him and fin d indespensible in fo rm a tio n on the founding and
developm ent o f the N iag ra M o vem en t, the N A A C P , the P a n -A fric a n
Movement; his illum ination concerning Marcus Garvev. the Encyclopedia
Afncana, the battles at Fisk and Hampton to improve black education; the
meaning o f Booker T . W ashington’s and DuBois* differences; the impact of
the New Deal on black people; Afro-Am erican people in two world wars in
this century and the struggle to prevent a third; the founding o f the League
o f Nations which he himself witnessed; and o f the United Nations (he was a
consultant for the United States government). Here are insights into Cuba
ant' H a iti, or into West Africa, early and late visits to the Soviet Union and
China, impressions o f Janan and Germ anv, pictures o f Paul Robeson and
DuBois with Alphaeus and Dorothy Hunton and
Paul Robeson after A Hunton's release from
federal prison. New York, 1965
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A tape o ¡ this , / v r i h a eruiluhlr through ih r John U r a l Hoot Store. Drk um Mdg . Portland
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Mary Ellen Pleasant
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The woman who came to be called the "mother of the civil rights struggle in
California" has her beginning shrouded mystery. One story is that M ary Ellen
Pleasant was born in Georgia in the early 1880, freed by her master and
educated in Boston. Another is that she was born in Philadelphia. However she
came to be, there is no question that she fought vigorously for the rights of
blacks.
As the widow of a wealthy abolitionist, she used her inheritance to further
anti-slavery causes while living in the East. She is reported to have supported
John Brown's crusades with a $30,000 donation, aided fugitives from the
South, worked with the Underground Railroad, and agitated for civil rights.
When Brown was captured, she fled to California during the Gold Rush.
Settling in the San Francisco area, she opened several chic boarding houses
and a chain of laundries; all on money she had received from speculating in gold
and silver. She used much of what she earned to work towards the total
freedom of blacks in California and often rode into rural areas to rescue slaves.
After receiving rude treatment on a street car in San Francisco, Pleasant
successfully sued the company. The result was that discrimination on public
transportation ended in the state. Mary Pleasant died in 1904.
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Portland Observer, February 23, 1983 Section II Page 5
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