Essay on William E.B. Dubois - 1164 Words

William E.B. Dubois William Edward Burghardt DuBois was born in 1868, two years after slavery was abolished, in Great Barrington, MA. Born a free man in the North, during the dawn of the twentieth century, W.E.B. DuBois was able to receive an extensive education. Throughout his life he grew more and more cognizant of the politics, education, religion, and economics that shaped the American system and separated the peoples that lived there. Although he was granted the fortune of education and freedom, he was forever torn between his dark coloring which distinguished him from others. Furthermore, he was disillusioned by his unfulfillment of American ideals. Establishing an identity for DuBois was extremely complex, and in his classic†¦show more content†¦I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads.*214 The veil not only created a color line, but it also granted African Americans a unique insight on life, an insight that understood spirituality in a different sense than that found in Western culture. DuBois managed to establish a medium between his veiled and unveiled worlds, for although he struggled in pursuit of fulfilled manhood, he was able to achieve a successful life. Education further defined DuBois. In his essay The Freedom to Learn, he emphasized the importance of knowledge and asserted that of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled...the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental. He attended Fisk University, with the help of fellow church members, and then went on to Harvard and became the universities first black recipient of a Ph.D. Previously he had studied at the University of Berlin for two years and focused on economics, history, and political science. Education was what created DuBois, a man of great consciousness and hope for the achievement of the African American. Over the span of his lifetime, he worked devotedly in the effort to advance hisShow MoreRelatedThe Souls Of Black Folk By William E. B. Dubois1066 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"The Souls of Black Folk† was written in 1903 by William E. B. Dubois (4). Dubois was an activist for civil rights and an author of many pieces regarding the lifestyle, s truggle and historic patterns of African Americans (4). Though Dubois was born after the abolition of slavery, he knew the prospects of the African American struggle were most likely formed due to the conditions of black lives during slavery. Dubois was also an educator and advocate for educational opportunities in black communitiesRead MoreCash Crops1538 Words   |  7 Pagesmetaphor for casting out your life in a friendly caring way and seeing what comes back to you. 4. Explain how each of these leaders responded to the question of race relations. (9 points) Ida B. Wells: ï‚ § In 1906, Ida B. Wells joined with William E.B. DuBois and others to further the Niagara Movement, and she was one of two African American women to sign the call to form the NAACP in 1909. Although Ida B. Wells was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement ofRead MoreReconstruction : The Burning Years10732 Words   |  43 Pageslike the new birth of freedom that black activists like Frederick Douglass and William Cooper Nell, and white activists like Angelina Grimke and William Lloyd Garrison, had sought for so many years. But history never proceeds in a straight line. The first challenge to a new, more racially inclusive America came one week after Appomattox: Confederate sympathizers assassinated Lincoln and wounded Secretary of State William Henry Seward. Andrew Johnson, a man grievously unprepared for the job of President