W. E. B. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement
A reconstruction of a conversation from late January 2002, my classroom, 2nd period AP US History, student鈥檚 name altered for privacy:
鈥淢s. Bryan, after Reconstruction, where did the Black people go?鈥�
鈥淗mmm鈥�.Rosa, let鈥檚 think back to Tuesday. Do you remember our conversation about the Jim Crow laws in the South? Or about the creation of black towns in northeastern Colorado in the 1880s? Can you answer your own question?鈥�
鈥淒uh, Miss! You know I listen to you. But I鈥檓 talking about the book. Where are they? Other than the peanut guy, there aren鈥檛 any pictures of black people until Martin Luther King in Chapter 22. Why not?鈥�
鈥淕reat question, Rosa! But are you sure? Let me take a look and I鈥檒l get back to you. By the way, the peanut guy鈥檚 name is George Washington Carver. Now, today鈥檚 topic is the Populist Party platform of 1892. Everyone, find a partner and鈥�.鈥�
And so I clumsily side-stepped my first serious reckoning with the missing voices of American history. I was 25; it was my second year of teaching and my first time teaching APUSH. I didn鈥檛 even realize that I needed to critically think about what I was teaching and why! But that moment with Rosa led me to an earnest re-appraisal of my teaching choices and materials. And so began my love affair with teaching with primary sources.
One of the authors I became heavily reliant upon was W.E.B. Du Bois.聽 While his rivalry with Booker T. Washington is touched upon in most textbooks, I also found it useful to frame his contributions to the struggle for civil rights as part of a historical continuum that reached from Reconstruction to the Obama era.聽 澳门六合彩开奖直播鈥檚 core document volume Populists and Progressives includes a classic illustration of Du Bois鈥� thinking regarding the methods and goals of the turn-of-the-century civil rights movement. Written in his capacity as National Secretary of the Niagara Movement, Du Bois鈥� 鈥�Address to the Country鈥� illustrates the role that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments played in his understanding of civil rights. It argues the need for federal action to ensure Black access to civil rights and shows that such action would not occur without the grassroots activism of African Americans like himself.
The brain-child of W. E. B. Du Bois and W. M. Trotter, the Niagara Movement held its in Fort Erie, Ontario, attracting twenty-nine African American activists. It resulted in the creation of a national organization. With anticipated chapters in all fifty states; standing committees on civil rights, crime, economic opportunity and interstate travel; and the twin aims of overturning segregationist policies in the South and the passage of state-level Civil Rights Acts in northern states, the organization embarked on a fervid membership and fundraising drive. The Niagara Movement grew rapidly and was poised to become the nation鈥檚 leading Black civil rights organization.
Prior to the Niagara Movement鈥檚 inception, the post-Reconstruction civil rights struggle had been led by Booker T. Washington. Founder in 1881 of the Tuskegee Institute, he was a proponent of industrial education. Arguing that self-improvement would lead to eventual security and prosperity for Black Americans, Washington explained his philosophy on civil rights in his at the Atlanta Exposition:
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly. . . . No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.
The Niagara Movement鈥檚 call for 鈥渇ull manhood suffrage鈥� and 鈥渢he abolition of all caste distinctions based simply on race and color鈥� was a flagrant departure from the accommodationist approach emanating from Tuskegee. In their 1905 鈥� released after that first meeting in Fort Erie, the Niagara Movement brought to the struggle for African American rights a sense of urgency and insistence on personal agency that had been missing from Washington鈥檚 tactics. Writing that 鈥減ersistent manly agitation is the way to liberty,鈥� the Niagara Movement decried 鈥淸a]ny discrimination based simply on race or color,鈥� regardless of 鈥渉ow hallowed it be by custom, expediency, or prejudice.鈥�
Du Bois鈥� 鈥淎ddress to the Country鈥� further embodies the relative radicalism of the Niagara Movement鈥檚 purpose and methods. Written in the summer of 1906, it was the closing statement of the . Held in Harper鈥檚 Ferry to commemorate the 鈥�100th birthday of John Brown and the Jubilee of the Battle of Osawatomie,鈥� this event was the apex of the Niagara Movement鈥檚 influence and popularity. The 鈥淎ddress鈥� was read aloud by L. M. Hershaw, the Washington D.C. secretary, and subsequently widely published in African American newspapers.
鈥淪tep by step, defenders of the rights of American citizens have retreated.鈥� So wrote Du Bois in the opening paragraph of the statement. Throughout the piece, Du Bois attacked the failures of Black leaders, white society, the federal government and the Republican party to protect the rights codified in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Labeling segregated schools in the South 鈥渁 disgrace,鈥� he anticipated Brown v. Board of Education fifty years hence. He called on Congress to oversee congressional elections, foreshadowing federal intervention authorized by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. And he hammered home the need for federal protection of citizens鈥� Fifteenth Amendment rights, for 鈥渨ith the right to vote goes everything: Freedom, manhood . . . the right to work, and the chance to rise.鈥� Calling discrimination within public areas 鈥渦n-American, un-democratic, and silly,鈥� he linked the federal government鈥檚 failure to ensure the right to vote for Black Americans to the discriminatory practices of state governments. These practices became the target of the grassroots activism seen in the Freedom Rides of 1961 and Freedom Summer of 1964.
Any student of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. will recognize his reliance on Du Bois鈥� careful balancing of federal action against individual activism. When Du Bois proclaims 鈥淲e claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil, and social,鈥� the modern reader calls to mind on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the summer of 1963:
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note. . . . This note was a promise that all men鈥攜es, black men as well as white men鈥攚ould be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In the evolving role of the federal government in ensuring civil rights, the 鈥淎ddress鈥� plays a key role. From the redefinition of citizenship in the Reconstruction era; to Du Bois鈥� cry 鈥淲e want the Constitution of the country enforced鈥� during Jim Crow; to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s; to modern debates about affirmative action鈥攖he questions have been constant. What is the role of the federal government in defining civil rights? How active should it be in ensuring access to those rights? The 鈥淎ddress鈥� answers those questions, and Du Bois鈥� response resonates today.
Despite its lofty goals and Du Bois鈥� energetic leadership, the Niagara Movement imploded. In 1907, the debate over the role of in the Niagara Movement deepened the that aleady existed between state and national officers. The departure of original member William M. Trotter, founder of the influential African-American newspaper the Boston Guardian, led to negative publicity and a substantial decline in membership. The 1908 annual conference was divisive and poorly attended, and financial woes forced the organization to fold several years later.
While the leaders of the Niagara Movement were absorbed in internecine conflict, the Black residents of Springfield, Illinois became the latest victims of racial violence. On and 15th, 1908, a white mob destroyed the Black section of Springfield, lynching one man, murdering another, and destroying an estimated $150,000 in property. That the violence occurred in Lincoln鈥檚 adopted hometown shook activists to the core, renewing interest in a national civil rights organization. In 1909, white and Black advocates formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On their , the NAACP directly attributes their founding goals to the work done by W.E.B. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement.
