The World
Du Bois’s 90 editorials on Pan-Africanism, colonialism, and the global color line in The Crisis (1910-1934)
Du Bois framed American racism as part of a global system from the first issue of The Crisis. Africa, Haiti, India, Ireland, and Hawaii were one story. These 90 editorials range from the programmatic documents of the Pan-African Congresses to lyrical travel writing about Africa to geopolitical analyses connecting Jim Crow to European imperialism. The collection’s two retrospective pieces, written in 1947 and 1951, bring the argument full circle: “The Freeing of India” treats colored liberation worldwide as a single movement.
Africa and the Pan-African Congresses
Du Bois organized Pan-African Congresses in 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927, using The Crisis to promote each one and to publish their resolutions. The Congress documents called for better treatment of African colonies, greater international oversight, and eventual self-governance. The Africa travel writings, especially “Little Portraits of Africa,” are among the most beautiful prose in the corpus.
- Memorandum to M. Diagne and Others on a Pan-African Congress (1919) — proposes the first Paris Congress
- The Second Pan-African Congress (1921)
- Manifesto to the League of Nations (1921) — asks the League to affirm racial equality
- Little Portraits of Africa (1924) — lyrical travel writing
- The Pan-African Congresses (1927) — reports on the Fourth Congress
Haiti, India, Ireland
Du Bois connected struggles across the colonial world. The U.S. occupation of Haiti drew sustained editorial attention. India’s independence movement provided a model of nonviolent resistance. Irish independence demonstrated that white European peoples, too, fought against imperial domination. Each case reinforced Du Bois’s argument that the color line was a global system.
- Egypt and India (1919) — solidarity with colonized India and Egypt
- Haiti (1920) — condemns the U.S. occupation
- Bleeding Ireland (1921) — English repression mirrors U.S. racial violence
- Haiti (1921) — demands U.S. withdrawal
- Gandhi and India (1921) — profiles Gandhi’s nonviolent movement
Imperialism as System
The analytical framework that tied everything together. Du Bois argued that American racial oppression was not a local problem but part of a worldwide system of exploitation built on the color line. European colonialism, American Jim Crow, and South African mining labor were expressions of the same logic.
- World War and the Color Line (1914) — the war stems from imperialism
- Italy and Abyssinia (1926) — Italian imperial designs on Ethiopia
- India (1930) — British imperialism and India’s struggle
- Pan-Africa and New Racial Philosophy (1933)
- The Freeing of India (1947) — colored liberation as a single movement
All Pan-Africanism & Empire Articles
| Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1910 (Dec) | The Races in Conference | Urges the Universal Races Congress to create interracial contact, tolerance, and a true democracy of races. |
| 1911 (Feb) | London | Depicts London as imperial capital where racial empire and rising colored peoples foreshadow a global race conference. |
| 1911 (Feb) | Races | Argues modern science exposes race myths, urging education and civic reform to erase supposed racial hierarchies. |
| 1911 (Mar) | The Races in Congress | Reports on the First Universal Races Congress, urging education, interracial understanding, and global action on race. |
| 1911 (Mar) | The World in Council | Praises the First Universal Races Congress as a moral victory for race equality and condemns U.S. racial policy. |
| 1911 (May) | Christianity Rampant | Argues in The Crisis (1911) that practical Christianity masks imperial cruelty; he links church complicity to wars, conquest, and racial justice. |
| 1912 (Feb) | China | Argues in The Crisis (1912) that China’s revolution reveals humane modernity and fights white supremacy, challenging Crisis-era racial narratives. |
| 1912 (Feb) | The Durbar | Argues the Indian Durbar yields real concessions won by sustained agitation—education, autonomy, and inclusion—unlike mere honors. |
| 1912 (Jun) | Decency | Exposes German legal endorsement of interracial marriage as a critique of white supremacy and Western decency. |
| 1913 (Feb) | Slavery | Condemns South African slavery and disfranchisement, showing how race and labor deny democracy and human life. |
| 1913 (Apr) | The Princess of the Hither Isles | Condemns racial exclusion and imperial greed, showing how white supremacy dehumanizes and destroys. |
| 1913 (May) | Peace | Criticizes American peace leaders for ignoring colonial imperialism, urging democratic, anti-racist peace over aristocratic dignity. |
| 1913 (Nov) | The People of Peoples and Their Gifts to Men | Stages a 1913 pageant in The Crisis celebrating Black contributions to civilization, labor, faith and the struggle for freedom. |
| 1914 (Feb) | Migration | Warns Oklahoma’s migration to Africa is dangerous: Africa needs capital and skilled leadership, not untrained labor. |
| 1914 (Feb) | Resistance | Argues Hindu and Chinese resistance to white oppression reveals racial injustice and undermines the oppressor’s power. |
| 1914 (Mar) | The Story of Africa | Celebrates Africa’s great civilizations and condemns the violence of empire, trade and slavery. |
| 1914 (Apr) | Brazil | Rebukes Roosevelt, defending Brazil’s racial fusion and warning U.S. racism fuels poverty, lynching, and undermines democracy. |
| 1914 (May) | The Burden of Black Women | Condemns white supremacy’s burden on Black women, exposing racial and gender injustice. |
| 1914 (May) | World War and the Color Line | Argues World War stems from imperialism and the color line, warning race prejudice fuels global conflict. |
| 1914 (Jun) | Mexico | Warns a war on Mexico would be racialized imperialism—exploiting labor, dishonoring democracy and civilization. |
| 1915 (Mar) | Hayti | Urges America to save Hayti, defend Black sovereignty and democracy, and oppose imperialist graft. |
| 1915 (Apr) | Hayti | Condemns U.S. intervention in Hayti as racist imperialism, calling citizens to protest and defend sovereignty. |
| 1915 (May) | Peace | Argues that peace movements fail by ignoring race, colonial rule, and white supremacy as root causes of war. |
| 1915 (Jun) | An Amazing Island | Celebrates Jamaica’s post-color-line society while exposing severe labor exploitation and endemic poverty. |
| 1915 (Jun) | Lusitania | Condemns World War I as the unveiling of Western racial and imperial hypocrisy, affirming Black moral vindication. |
| 1915 (Jun) | Haiti | Exposes U.S. intervention in Haiti as racial domination, linking State Dept. policy to lynching and white supremacy. |
| 1916 (Feb) | Germany | Condemns Germany’s colonial racism, documenting massacres like the Herero slaughter and contrasting French comradeship. |
| 1916 (Feb) | Ireland | Urges Black solidarity with Ireland, condemning English oppression and historic racialized labor conflict. |
| 1916 (Mar) | The Battle of Europe | Argues WWI exposes Western civilization’s brutality, prompting racial pride, democratic change, and cultural renewal. |
| 1917 (May) | Naval Ruler | Criticizes military imperialism: naval officers govern colonies without training in democratic governance or social needs. |
| 1917 (Jun) | Resolutions of the Washington Conference | Urges Black Americans to join the war effort and demands race justice: voting, education, end to lynching and Jim Crow. |
| 1919 (Jan) | The Future of Africa | Urges ending colonial exploitation and racial prejudice, calling for Pan-African self-rule, education, and labor reform. |
| 1919 (Feb) | Africa | Shows how European colonial partition and WWI’s aftermath fueled Pan‑Africanism and demands for racial self‑determination. |
| 1919 (Feb) | Reconstruction and Africa | Exposes European colonial greed and hypocrisy, urging African self-rule and protection of native labor, culture and rights. |
| 1919 (Mar) | Memorandum to M. Diagne and Others on a Pan-African Congress to be held in Paris in February, 1919 | Proposes a Paris Pan-African Congress to demand race rights, education, land and political voice for Black peoples. |
| 1919 (Mar) | Forward | Urges Black readers to study labor struggles, public-utility ownership, and global fights for democracy and worker rule. |
| 1919 (May) | Flaming Arrows | Argues Wilson’s rhetoric of democracy and justice exposes U.S. racial hypocrisy toward Black and colonized peoples. |
| 1919 (May) | My Mission | Recounts organizing a Pan‑African Congress in Paris to press race, rights and League of Nations action for Black democracy. |
| 1919 (May) | The League of Nations | Urges pragmatic support for the League of Nations to secure peace and advance racial democracy against imperialism. |
| 1919 (Jun) | Egypt and India | Urges Black America’s solidarity with colonized India and Egypt, condemning oppression and pleading for justice. |
| 1920 (Jan) | England | Condemns English imperialism, exposing racial injustice and economic plunder and urging independence and self-rule. |
| 1920 (Jan) | Race Pride | Challenges race pride, arguing whites must choose segregation or true democracy and justice for all races. |
| 1920 (Feb) | Leadership | Condemns imperialist leadership - England and Wilson - for betraying democracy, racial justice, and labor in the League. |
| 1920 (Mar) | England, Again | Condemns British imperialism and land theft, exposing racial hypocrisy and the betrayal of democratic ideals. |
| 1920 (Mar) | The Rise of the West Indian | Shows how rising West Indian migration creates new Black political consciousness, labor demands, and race solidarity. |
| 1920 (Apr) | Haiti | Condemns the U.S. occupation of Haiti as illegal racist repression that kills and deposes officials, denying Haitian democracy. |
| 1920 (Sep) | The History of Haiti | Traces Haiti’s revolutionary struggle, showing how race, Black labor, and foreign capital shaped its path to democracy. |
| 1920 (Dec) | And Now Liberia | Denounces Wilson Plan as financial imperialism, rigid US terms and white control threaten Liberian sovereignty and democracy. |
| 1920 (Dec) | McSwiney | Praises Irish hunger-striker Terence MacSwiney, arguing patient martyrdom exposes injustice and defends democracy. |
| 1921 (Jan) | Pan-Africa | Calls a Pan‑African Congress in Paris to rally Black governments and activists for racial solidarity, democracy, and self‑rule. |
| 1921 (Feb) | Africa for the Africans | (1921, The Crisis) argues Africa must be governed for Africans, critiques colonial labor limits and urges self-rule over racial paternalism. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Bleeding Ireland | Argues English repression of Ireland mirrors U.S. racial violence, showing oppressed peoples used to police labor and race. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Pan-Africa | Traces the rise of Pan-African public opinion and urges unity for political rights, land, education and labor reform. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Gandhi and India | Profiles Gandhi as a moral leader whose nonviolent non-cooperation advances India’s anti-colonial struggle for Swaraj. |
| 1921 (Apr) | The Second Pan-African Congress | Announces the Second Pan-African Congress in Paris, arguing logistics and anti-colonial solidarity unite Black communities. |
| 1921 (Apr) | Haiti | Urges Americans to demand U.S. withdrawal from Haiti, condemning imperialism and defending Black democracy. |
| 1921 (Apr) | Socialism and the Negro | Critiques socialism’s promise for Black labor, urging cautious, evolutionary reform amid race and imperialism. |
| 1921 (Jun) | The Second Pan-African Congress | Urges Pan-African unity and fundraising for the Second Pan-African Congress, mobilizing Black organizations worldwide. |
| 1921 (Oct) | Thomas Jesse Jones | (The Crisis, 1921) criticizes T. J. Jones for imposing white control over Black education, missions and leadership, urging Black representation. |
| 1921 (Nov) | Manifesto to the League of Nations | 1921 asks the League of Nations to affirm racial equality, study Negro labor, and appoint Black members to Mandates Commission. |
| 1921 (Nov) | To The World | Demands racial equality, self-government, education and labor rights, condemning colonialism and economic injustice. |
| 1922 (Jan) | The World and Us | Argues war-driven unemployment, imperialism, and racist labor exclusion undermine democracy and global disarmament. |
| 1922 (Apr) | The Negro and Labor | Exposes how race and labor intersect: white workers, employers, and imperialism pit Black labor against democracy and rights. |
| 1923 (Mar) | Florida | Advises Black migrants against emigrating to Liberia without capital, skills, and health, stressing labor realities. |
| 1924 (Jan) | The Black Man and the Wounded World | Argues income-seeking elites, backed by propaganda and law, sustain racial imperialism and deny labor, democracy, education. |
| 1924 (Jan) | Helping Africa | Critiques paternalism toward Africa, arguing Africans claim land, self-determination, and resist colonial control. |
| 1924 (Feb) | Kenya | Condemns British colonial race policy in Kenya—land dispossession, exclusion of blacks and Indians, threat to democracy. |
| 1924 (Mar) | Sketches from Abroad | Recounts travel sketches across Europe toward Africa, critiquing imperialism, whiteness, and noting Pan-African ties. |
| 1924 (Apr) | Little Portraits of Africa | Celebrates Africa’s landscape, people, and spiritual culture and critiques the heavy cost of colonial civilizing labor. |
| 1924 (Dec) | West Indian Immigration | Critiques an immigration bill that bars West Indian migrants, arguing U.S. democracy and racial balance suffer. |
| 1925 (Jun) | The Firing Line | Argues the U.S., not Africa or the West Indies, is the racial firing line, urging democratic struggle and voting rights. |
| 1926 (Jun) | Italy and Abyssinia | Argues Italy seeks Abyssinia to extend empire, exposing imperial theft, racial hypocrisy, and threats to democracy. |
| 1926 (Jun) | Travel | Reports firsthand Russian and European journeys, arguing race and democracy are global issues. |
| 1927 (Jan) | League of Nations | Critiques the League of Nations for excluding Black labor and colonial voices, urging racial and labor representation. |
| 1927 (Feb) | War | Condemns imperialist profiteering and urges pacifists to resist war with Mexico to defend human life. |
| 1927 (Mar) | Liberia | Urges sympathy for Liberia, critiques missionary overreach and paternalism, defends Firestone lease, warns corporate power. |
| 1927 (Oct) | The Pan-African Congresses: The Story of a Growing Movement | Reports the Fourth Pan-African Congress, urging African self-rule, education, land rights, labor and racial democracy. |
| 1928 (Mar) | Black and White Workers | Shows Black and white workers share a common struggle for democracy and labor rights, yet prejudice and bosses block solidarity. |
| 1928 (Nov) | The Dunbar National Bank | Argues the Dunbar National Bank could democratize capital and empower Black leaders to advance racial democracy via credit. |
| 1929 (May) | Missionaries | Exposes racial discrimination in U.S. missionary societies, blocking Black missionaries to Africa. |
| 1930 (Feb) | Smuts | Exposes Jan Smuts’ white-supremacist vision, arguing it denies Black education, labor, and democratic rights. |
| 1930 (Mar) | Patient Asses | Condemns Jan Smuts’ racial caste in South Africa, urging Pan‑African solidarity against disfranchisement. |
| 1930 (May) | Our Program | Argues the NAACP fights race-based barriers, and that color discrimination blocks democracy, economic justice, and peace. |
| 1930 (Aug) | India | Condemns British imperialism, lauds India’s mass nonviolent struggle and warns its success could reshape global democracy. |
| 1932 (Mar) | Hawaii | Warns that economic exploitation, racial law bias, and U.S. military power threaten democracy and race relations in Hawaii. |
| 1932 (Dec) | From a Traveller | Defends Liberia as a real chance for Black democracy, exposing foreign capital, graft, forced labor, and colonial racism |
| 1933 (Jan) | Listen, Japan and China | Urges China and Japan to unite against Western imperialism, claim racial leadership, and defend Asia. |
| 1933 (Oct) | Pan-Africa and New Racial Philosophy | Urges Pan‑African unity to confront racial labor exploitation and economic injustice, reclaiming Black agency. |
| 1933 (Dec) | Peace | Argues war propaganda and racial fear sustain militarism, urging pacifists to attack race prejudice and arms. |
| 1947 (Oct) | The Freeing of India | Condemns British imperialism, hails India’s liberation and warns of partition, poverty, education and labor struggles. |
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