An ABC of Color

by W.E.B. Du Bois

This book chronicles the story sixty years of the life of a great man, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, a social scientist, historian and pioneer in the black liberation struggle—in the USA and in Africa whence came his great-grandfather as a slave child in the eighteenth century. These selections from his writings of more than a half century were chose by Dr. Du Bois himself shortly before his death in Ghana in 1963 at the age of ninety-five. He wrote with satire, humor, irony and stirring indignation. What he said decades ago is today being borne out in the fight of black people the world over.

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

In 1868, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced 'doo-boyz') was born in Massachusetts. He attended Fisk College in Nashville, then earned his BA in 1890 and his MS in 1891 from Harvard. Du Bois studied at the University of Berlin, then earned his doctorate in history from Harvard in 1894. He taught economics and history at Atlanta University from 1897-1910. The Souls of Black Folk (1903) made his name, in which he urged black Americans to stand up for their educational and economic rights. Du Bois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and edited the NAACP's official journal, "Crisis," from 1910 to 1934. Du Bois turned "Crisis" into the foremost black literary journal. The black nationalist expanded his interests to global concerns, and is called the "father of Pan-Africanism" for organizing international black congresses.

Although he used some religious metaphor and expressions in some of his books and writings, Du Bois called himself a freethinker. In "On Christianity," a posthumously published essay, Du Bois critiqued the black church: "The theology of the average colored church is basing itself far too much upon 'Hell and Damnation'—upon an attempt to scare people into being decent and threatening them with the terrors of death and punishment. We are still trained to believe a good deal that is simply childish in theology. The outward and visible punishment of every wrong deed that men do, the repeated declaration that anything can be gotten by anyone at any time by prayer." Du Bois became a member of the Communist Party and officially repudiated his U.S. citizenship at the end of his life, dying in his adopted country of Ghana. D. 1963.

More: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stori...

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0his...

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/dub...

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of an A-Z than an ABC. The selection, doesn't cover the key parts of Du Bois' view on race, as you might expect from an ABC. Instead it spans his long career, including letters, diaries, minor articles, and his changing opinions throughout. It's interesting to read Du Bois' evolving views, and his reactions to contemporary events, but less useful as a clear statement of his fundamental beliefs.

Probably better off reading Black Reconstruction and The Souls of Black Folk.