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UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS |
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W. E. B. Du Bois was the preeminent black scholar of his era. He was also a principal founder and for twenty-eight years an executive officer of the nation's most effective civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Even though Du Bois was best known for his lifelong stance against racial oppression, he represented much more. He condemned the racism of the white world but also criticized African Americans for mistakes of their own. He opposed segregation but had reservations about integration. Today he would be known as a pluralist.
"Wolters's work is a refreshing overview and summary of the role W. E. B. Du Bois played in the struggle for equal rights for African Americans during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America. The author's analysis of Du Bois's interactions with his best-known rivals (and friends) is invigorating reading for both laymen and professional historians. Wolters's interpretation of the life's work of the preeminent African American scholar . . . is a stimulating new evaluation of a topic that has been well researched and documented by some of the country's leading historians."--North Carolina Historical Review"The familiar clashes with Booker T. Washington, Walter White and Marcus Garvey occupy the center of this account of W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), `the most prominent spokesman for his race in the United States,' and those in his wake. During his long career, Du Bois also cooperated and collided with James Weldon Johnson, Monroe Trotter, Robert Moton and Emmett Scott, all of whom Wolters . . . covers in this collective biography. . . . There is enough anecdotal material to ease the reader through the philosophical and temperamental differences that led into, but rarely out of, the `rivalries' of this seminal American."--Publishers Weekly
"A surprisingly fresh look at a much-covered subject. It would be excellent for the first-time reader about Du Bois as well as the student or scholar. All the pertinent facts of his life are there, and his significance in world history is treated properly. Wolters writes for a general audience. His descriptions, storytelling and conclusions are clear and concise. . . .The plainly written narrative and storytelling quality of the presentation of the facts are almost a relief from the informative but pedantic other major works on Du Bois."--Charleston Post and Courier
"This is an excellent work. . . . Were I still in the classroom, the present book would certainly appear on my course reading list."
--Arvarh E. Strickland
In Du Bois and His Rivals, Raymond Wolters provides a distinctive biography of this great pioneer of the American civil rights movement. Readers are able to follow the outline of Du Bois's life, but the book's main emphasis is on discrete scenes in his life, especially the controversies that pitted Du Bois against his principal black rivals. He challenged Booker T. Washington because he could not abide Washington's conciliatory approach toward powerful whites. At the same time, Du Bois's pluralism led him to oppose the leading separatists and integrationists of his day. He berated Marcus Garvey for giving up on America and urging blacks to pursue a separate destiny. He also rejected Walter White's insistence that integration was the best way to promote the advancement of black people.
Du Bois felt that American blacks should be full-fledged Americans, with all the rights of other American citizens. However, he believed that they should also preserve and develop enough racial distinctiveness to enable them to maintain and foster a sense of racial identity, community, and pride. Du Bois and His Rivals shows that Du Bois stood for much more than protest against racial oppression. He was also committed to pluralism, and his pluralism emphasized the importance of traditional standards and of internal cooperation within the black community. Anyone interested in the civil rights movement, black history, or the history of the United States during the early twentieth century will find this book valuable.