Michael Fisher discusses Dubois, the Communist Party USA, integration and Marcus Garvey.
“By 1961 the CPUSA had been arguing for decades that only the way to solve the question of racism in the United States (and South Africa for that matter) was via integrationist, civil rights policies: The persuasion of white folks of the fallacy of their racist ways.
“Gone were the notions of autonomous black economic and political power, of African-American self-determination. In were the inter-racial “let’s all love each other” attitudes of the largely white Communist party leadership.
“This is what DuBois endorsed. DuBois praised the ”racial attitudes” of the communists, but condemned the African-American communists’ call for African-American self-determination and power, i.e., the so-called “Negro Republic”. As a result, all DuBois had done when joining the CPUSA was to once again join the NAACP, only this time a NAACP with a more “radical” face. The leaders once again were the same type white folks who had lead and continued to lead the NAACP of his youth. This was DuBois’ last political statement to the African Diaspora in America. This is how he ended his life.
“W.E.B. DuBois opposed African-American self-determination. DuBois played at Pan-Africanism. He was a die-hard Civil Rights Negro. Marcus Garvey said about DuBois: “The history of the struggle of the American Negro upward will record that Du Bois was one of the greatest enemies of the greatest industrial, political, commercial and nationalistic movements that was ever founded in the United States.”
Marcus Garvey had a point.
