Historian David Levering Lewis says that if W.E.B. Du Bois were alive today, the controversial sociologist and activist would “stand before us and say, `I told you so.’ “
Du Bois’ turn-of-the-century predictions of a bitter class schism and his belief in multiculturalism would at last have been understood, in Lewis’ view. And he hopes people are now ready to see that Du Bois’ intellect led understandably to radicalism.
So the timing, Lewis says, is right for his “W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race,” the 735-page first of a projected two-volume history of the influential historian and educator who helped found the NAACP. Already it has won praise, including a nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award. (For a list of the winners, see Page 7.)
Although the book focuses on Du Bois’ career and public life, Lewis also fleshes out the man.
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Born in 1868 and hailed particularly among black people as one of the era’s great intellects, Du Bois saw his influence ebb and flow during his 95 years. It was a life that began during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and ended during the height of the civil rights movement.
When Du Bois died on Aug. 27, 1963, in his adopted country of Ghana, President Kwame Nkrumah gave him a state funeral in honor of his leadership in the Pan-Africanist movement.
In the U.S. his death was announced by Roy Wilkins, then executive secretary of the NAACP, to the huge crowd gathered for the March on Washington. It is this scene that opens the book-Wilkins telling the crowd “it is incontrovertible that at the dawn of the 20th Century, his was the voice calling you to gather for this cause.”
Decades later, Du Bois’ beliefs are still debated and misunderstood, even though he wrote volumes to make his views clearly known.
Lewis’ book follows William Edward Burghardt Du Bois from his birth in 1868 in predominately white Great Barrington, Mass., through 1919. It describes his education; the publication in 1899 of his book, “The Philadelphia Negro,” a definitive study of turn-of-the-century urban blacks; and the founding of the NAACP. The volume concludes with Du Bois’ demanding that black soldiers returning from World War I be treated with equality.
During the years in between, Du Bois taught at Atlanta University and founded The Crisis, the widely read magazine published by the NAACP.
Lewis relies heavily on Du Bois’ writings to help readers know the man and understand his times. In biting editorials in the Crisis, Du Bois unflinchingly described the racial issues of his time.
Previous books by Lewis, who holds the Martin Luther King Jr. chair in history at Rutgers University, include a 1970 biography of King and a 1991 book on the Harlem renaissance.
In writing about Du Bois, Lewis said he wanted to produce a scholarly work that would appeal to non-academics as well.
“It’s no disgrace to gossip a little bit and tart up the language a little bit,” said Lewis. “That’s what I tried to do. I wrote it like historians used to write.”
Besides Du Bois’ public life, his books and the Crisis editorials, the biography opens up Du Bois’ personal life-his neglected wife and daughter, and his close relationships with other women.
It is within the context of Du Bois’ personal life that Lewis found weight to balance against the grandeur of Du Bois’ intellect and personality.
“The line between delusion and charisma, and delusion and real leadership, moves back and forth. . . . And it’s thin,” said Lewis.
Lewis, 57, was born in Little Rock and raised mostly in Atlanta. He spent eight years researching Du Bois’ life. His efforts led him to 28 archives and libraries on three continents. He interviewed about 150 people.
Lewis said he and Du Bois met once, briefly. Du Bois was visiting Wilberforce University in Ohio, where Lewis’ father was dean of the Divinity School.
It was 1948; Lewis was just a boy. Lewis recalled that Du Bois took a moment to speak to him. What plans, the famous man asked his future biographer, did young Lewis have for his life?