W. E. B. Du Bois on communism
'Accomplish the end which every honest human being must desire by means other than communism, and communism need not be feared. On the other hand, if a world of ultimate democracy, reaching across the colour line and abolishing race discrimination, can only be accomplished by the method laid down by Karl Marx, then that method deserves to be triumphant no matter what we think or do.'
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), c1945. One of the greatest African-American scholars of his time, author of such works as Black Reconstruction; An essay towards a history of the part which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880, Du Bois died aged 95 a citizen of Ghana - which celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its independence last week - after having moved there on the invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah in 1961 to work on compiling an Encyclopedia Africana.
posted by Snowball @ 6:17 pm
3 Comments:
When I was in high school I joined the WEB DuBois Club. It was the youth group of the American Communist Party. That was decades ago.
I don't blame you - if you are going to join any club at High School, that one sounds like it would be a pretty damn cool one to join.
Just so you all know, my religious biography of Du Bois is about to come out from the university of pennsylvania press, and I have an entire chapter devoted to Du Bois's moral conception of Communism. In fact, Du Bois argued that Jesus Christ was a communist. All fascinating. Best, Edward J. Blum
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