Internal Debate
Du Bois’s 72 editorials on accommodationism, Garvey, and contests within the movement in The Crisis (1910-1934)
Du Bois fought on two fronts: against white supremacy and against strategies within the Black community that he believed accommodated it. These 72 editorials trace his contests with Booker T. Washington’s legacy, his escalating confrontation with Marcus Garvey, and his defense of the NAACP’s methods against critics from both left and right.
Accommodationism and Washington
The Washington critique runs through the early corpus. Du Bois rarely named Washington directly but demolished the accommodationist platform systematically: its acceptance of disfranchisement, its restriction of education to industrial training, its willingness to trade political rights for economic concessions. After Washington’s death in 1915, Du Bois wrote a measured obituary, then continued the argument against Washington’s successors at Tuskegee.
- Education (1912) — education should train minds, not just trades
- The Fruit of the Tree (1913) — rhetoric of subservience causes disfranchisement and lynching
- The Simple Way (1913) — self-help rhetoric masks racial exploitation
- Booker T. Washington (1915) — the measured obituary
- An Open Letter to Robert Russa Moton (1916) — urges Moton to defend voting rights
Garvey
The most volatile internal contest of the period. Du Bois moved from generous appraisal (“an honest and sincere man with a tremendous vision”) to financial forensics on the Black Star Line to “A Lunatic or a Traitor,” the most vitriolic piece in the entire corpus. The Garvey editorials reveal Du Bois at his most prosecutorial.
- Marcus Garvey (1920) — first major assessment: praises leadership, faults business sense
- Marcus Garvey (1921) — critiques the Black Star Line
- A Correction (1921) — clarifying ship materials and defending Black enterprise
- A Lunatic or a Traitor (1924) — the most vitriolic piece in the corpus
- Marcus Garvey and the NAACP (1928) — clears up myths, records their clashes
NAACP Defense and Methods
Du Bois defended the NAACP’s legal strategy against Communist critics who called it too cautious and against accommodationists who called it too confrontational. “Legal defense is not the complete program,” he conceded, “BUT it is the only effective immediate tool.” His resignation pieces are the coda: pride in what the organization had built, recognition that it had outgrown one editor’s vision.
- Our Methods (1927) — organized protest and legal action advance justice
- The Negro and Communism (1931) — critiques Communist tactics, defends NAACP
- The N.A.A.C.P. and Race Segregation (1934)
- Counsels of Despair (1934) — rejects despair, urges race uplift
- Dr. Du Bois Resigns (1934)
All Internal Debate Articles
| Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1911 (Jan) | Envy | Critiques labeling Black leaders’ disagreements as ‘envy,’ arguing race leadership debates deserve principled scrutiny. |
| 1911 (Mar) | Social Equality | Insists social equality is essential to civil and political rights and condemns Black leaders’ acceptance of pariah status. |
| 1911 (Jun) | Starvation and Prejudice | Argues Washington’s minimization of Southern race wrongs lets prejudice, lynching and disfranchisement threaten democracy. |
| 1911 (Jun) | The Sin Against the Holy Ghost | Argues deceit for political gain is the unforgivable sin, corroding Black humanity, race dignity, and democracy. |
| 1912 (Jan) | Fraud and Imitation | Exposes impostors who exploit white praise and counterfeit educational groups to undermine Black progress and unity. |
| 1912 (Apr) | Vital Statistics | Debunks a white-supremacist claim about Black mortality in The Crisis (1912), documenting declining Negro death rates with census data. |
| 1912 (Jun) | Education | Argues in The Crisis (1912) that education should train minds for life, not just trades, urging broad schooling for Black children and democracy. |
| 1913 (Jan) | Our Own Consent | Argues that collective protest against Jim Crow and disfranchisement can force America to face racial injustice. |
| 1913 (Mar) | The Fruit of the Tree | Condemns rhetoric of Black subservience as causing disenfranchisement, segregation and lynching, and calls for resistance. |
| 1913 (May) | The Simple Way | Rejects simple fixes for the Negro problem, arguing self-help rhetoric masks racial exploitation, dispossession, and Jim Crow. |
| 1913 (Jun) | Education | Urges Americans to confront the race problem through education and hard knowledge, not cowardly denial. |
| 1914 (Mar) | Booming The Crisis | Defends The Crisis’s independence, rebukes the Washington Bee, critiques race weeklies’ facts and urges principled advocacy. |
| 1914 (Mar) | A Crusade | Urges a new abolitionist crusade for race justice and democracy, calling for mass organization and support for the NAACP. |
| 1914 (Jun) | William Monroe Trotter | Praises William Monroe Trotter’s fearless defense of Black equality and criticizes Wilson’s paternalistic race views. |
| 1915 (May) | The Risk of Woman Suffrage | Kelly Miller in The Crisis (1915) argues against woman suffrage, claiming it threatens social harmony and that gender differences make women unfit for politics. |
| 1915 (Jun) | Booker T. Washington | Praises Booker T. Washington’s gains in Black education but faults him for aiding disfranchisement and color caste |
| 1916 (Feb) | An Open Letter to Robert Russa Moton | Urges Tuskegee leader Moton to defend Black voting rights, equal education, and oppose Jim Crow segregation. |
| 1916 (May) | Social Equality | Condemns white Southern efforts to re-enslave and argues education and interracial contact are vital for race equality. |
| 1916 (Jun) | Refinement and Love | Urges culture, refinement, and love for racial uplift but warns Black freedom may demand grim, violent struggle. |
| 1917 (Mar) | The Tuskegee Resolutions | Denounces Tuskegee resolutions for urging Black labor to remain South while ignoring lynching and legal injustice. |
| 1918 (Jan) | Thirteen | Praises the NAACP as the most effective defender of Black civil rights, fighting disenfranchisement, segregation, lynching. |
| 1918 (Mar) | A Momentous Proposal | Defends accepting a military commission to advance Black rights, lamenting the government’s shelving of a race-bureau plan. |
| 1918 (Mar) | Our Special Grievances | Praises Black wartime loyalty, urging temporary deference of grievances while demanding eventual full civil rights. |
| 1919 (Jan) | Jim Crow | Analyzes Jim Crow’’s paradox: segregation undermines rights yet spurs Black institutions, urging race unity and prudence. |
| 1919 (May) | Robert R. Moton | Criticizes R.R. Moton for sidelining Black troops, abandoning Pan-African work, and enabling racial deference. |
| 1919 (May) | To Mr. Emmett Scott | Demands that Emmett Scott answer why Black soldiers faced mistreatment in France, exposing racial failures in the military. |
| 1919 (May) | A Statement | Declares a critical racial moment, urging lawful resistance, NAACP organizing, and a fight against Jim Crow. |
| 1919 (Jun) | Radicals | Condemns Southern oligarchy’s campaign to silence Black critics, warning it threatens race equality and free speech. |
| 1920 (Feb) | Danger | Warns that a bill making ‘racial’ appeals unmailable would silence Black voices and endanger democracy. |
| 1920 (Feb) | Pettiness | Condemns petty social squabbles among Black college women in Harlem and warns they undermine community and progress. |
| 1920 (Mar) | Information Wanted | Demands to know if Black leaders aided Arkansas’ racial injustice—probing race, justice, and leadership betrayal. |
| 1920 (Apr) | In Black | Urges Black communities to reject racist caricature, reclaim racial pride, and see beauty in black. |
| 1920 (Apr) | Persecution | Condemns the persecution of educator Roscoe C. Bruce, urging Black Washington to end infighting that harms education. |
| 1920 (May) | White Co-Workers | Defends interracial NAACP leadership, arguing cooperation with whites advances racial justice and American democracy. |
| 1920 (Jul) | Race Intelligence | Dismantles racist intelligence tests, exposing flawed science that limits Black education and labor prospects. |
| 1920 (Dec) | Marcus Garvey | Critiques Marcus Garvey’s Black nationalist drive - praising his leadership and race pride while faulting its business sense. |
| 1921 (Jan) | Marcus Garvey | Critiques Marcus Garvey’s racial commerce schemes, warning that poor business, secrecy, and hubris endanger Black progress. |
| 1921 (Feb) | The Class Struggle | Rejects revolution; argues Black race needs economic democracy—banks, capital and education to secure labor rights. |
| 1921 (Feb) | Hopkinsville, Chicago and Idlewild | Urges the NAACP to agitate, educate and build democratic control of capital to secure Black economic democracy. |
| 1921 (Mar) | A Quarter Million | Urges readers in The Crisis to join the NAACP’s 250,000-member drive to defend Black freedom, democracy, and civil rights. |
| 1921 (Mar) | A Correction | Corrects earlier coverage of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line, clarifying ship materials and defending Black enterprise. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Of Boards | Argues that boards shape democratic action, praising NAACP leaders while exposing race, gender, and leadership tensions. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Of Cold Feet | Condemns patriotic bluster and cowardly refusal to protest a libelous film, a moral critique of civic duty and race. |
| 1922 (Jan) | N.A.A.C.P. and Xmas | Urges donations to the NAACP, funding race justice, anti-lynching efforts, Klan exposure and legal aid. |
| 1922 (May) | Anti-Lynching Legislation | Defends the NAACP’s focused anti-lynching campaign, warning that splitting efforts harms race justice and freedom. |
| 1922 (May) | The Drive | Urges Black Americans to back the NAACP, fight lynching and Jim Crow at home, and defend democracy. |
| 1922 (May) | Inter-Racial Comity | Urges interracial committees to act on race, the vote, Jim Crow, peonage and mob-law, warning against complacency. |
| 1923 (Jan) | The Tuskegee Hospital | (1923, The Crisis) condemns Tuskegee Hospital’s racial segregation and political control, arguing it endangers Black veterans’ health and dignity. |
| 1924 (Jan) | Unity | Argues diversity - not enforced unity - is vital to Negro progress and defends the NAACP’s fight for race and democracy. |
| 1924 (Mar) | The N.A.A.C.P. and Parties | Condemns party patronage, urges Black voters to defend democracy, and promotes nonpartisan debate on race. |
| 1924 (May) | A Lunatic or a Traitor | Condemns Marcus Garvey as a dangerous traitor or lunatic who undermines race progress and Black democracy. |
| 1925 (May) | The New Crisis | Calls for renewed focus on race, labor, political independence, education, art and international peace. |
| 1927 (Jan) | Our Methods | Defends NAACP methods, arguing organized protest and legal action advance racial justice, democracy, and labor rights. |
| 1927 (Dec) | The Durham Conference | Calls for a Durham conference to take stock of labor, education, voting rights and Black community life. |
| 1927 (Dec) | The Hampton Strike | Condemns Hampton trustees and alumni silencing Black students, saying race and education demand support for student protest. |
| 1928 (Feb) | Marcus Garvey and the NAACP | Clears up Garvey–NAACP myths, records their clashes, and urges a truthful pursuit of Black democracy. |
| 1928 (Mar) | Augustus G. Dill | Discusses Augustus G. Dill’s withdrawal as The Crisis’ business manager, highlighting labor, sacrifice, and leadership challenges in 1928. |
| 1928 (Mar) | The Name Negro | Argues that naming cannot erase racism; the real work is affirming Black humanity and democracy, not changing labels. |
| 1929 (May) | Optimism | Urges guarded optimism: race progress visible in legal defense, education, labor, and a budding Black arts movement. |
| 1930 (Jan) | About Wailing | Defends continued ‘wailing’—documenting racial injustice, disfranchisement, poverty, and exclusion despite surface progress. |
| 1930 (May) | The Capital N | Argues that capitalizing Negro affirms racial self-respect and records a press shift tied to civil-rights advocacy. |
| 1930 (May) | Our Program | Argues the NAACP fights race-based barriers, and that color discrimination blocks democracy, economic justice, and peace. |
| 1931 (Sep) | The Negro and Communism | Critiques Communist tactics in Scottsboro, defends NAACP leadership, and urges legal, labor, and democratic reform. |
| 1933 (Jan) | Toward a New Racial Philosophy | Urges a new racial philosophy: a 12-part reexamination of race, education, labor, health, law and democracy. |
| 1933 (Sep) | On Being Ashamed of Oneself | Urges organized racial pride and economic action, diagnosing shame, segregation, and labor exclusion. |
| 1933 (Oct) | Youth and Age at Amenia | Reports the Amenia Conference urging youth–age dialogue to make race, labor, education central to democratic economic reform |
| 1934 (Feb) | The N.A.A.C.P. and Race Segregation | Explains the NAACP’s pragmatic fight against race segregation—defending civil rights, schools, hospitals, and democracy. |
| 1934 (Apr) | Segregation in the North | Argues Northern segregation is growing and urges Black economic self-organization, education and boycotts. |
| 1934 (May) | William Monroe Trotter | Eulogizes Monroe Trotter, lauds his fight against racial segregation, and warns that organized civil-rights unity can prevail. |
| 1934 (May) | Violence | Warns that violence, given U.S. demographics, would provoke white backlash, justify repression, and imperil Black democracy. |
| 1934 (Jun) | Counsels of Despair | Rejects counsels of despair, urging race uplift through education, institutions, and strategic anti-segregation action. |
| 1934 (Aug) | Dr. Du Bois Resigns | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in The Crisis (1934) examines Du Bois’s resignation over silencing and segregation disputes |
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