Contributions by Murali Balaji, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Christopher Cameron, Carlton Dwayne Floyd, Robert Greene II, Andre E. Johnson, Werner Lange, Lisa J. McLeod, Jodi Melamed, Tyler Monson, Eric Porter, Reiland Rabaka, Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, Camesha Scruggs, and Phillip Luke Sinitiere Although the career of W. E. B. Du Bois was remarkable in its entirety, a large majority of scholarship focuses on the first five or six decades. Overlooked and understudied, the closing three decades of Du Bois's career reflect a generative period of his life in terms of teaching, travel, activism, and publications. Forging Freedom in W. E. B. Du Bois's Twilight Years: No Deed but Memory proposes to narrate the political, social, and cultural significance of Du Bois's career during the controversial closing three decades of his life.. Du Bois's twilight years were tremendously controversial: his persistent criticism of the collusion between capitalism and racism and his choice to join the Communist Party in late 1961 raised the ire of many. At the time, Du Bois's strident advocacy of socialism and turn to communism during the Cold War oriented most scholars away from delving into his late career. While only a few scholars have engaged the productivity of Du Bois's later years, the fact is that an anticommunist, antiradical animus has followed Du Bois in the half century since his death. As a result, Du Bois scholarship remains impoverished to the extent that academics neglect his later years. The essays in Forging Freedom in W. E. B. Du Bois's Twilight Years detail selected aspects of Du Bois's later decades and their particular connection to American social, political, and cultural history between the 1930s and the 1960s. While international concerns and a global perspective also fundamentally defined Du Bois's latter years, chronicling his final decades in a US context presents fresh insight into his twilight years. Du Bois's commitment to freedom's flourishing during this period animated the Black freedom struggle's war against white supremacy. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that the durability of Du Bois's intellectual achievements remains relevant to the twenty-first century.
Phillip Luke Sinitiere is professor of history at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston, Texas. He is also the scholar-in-residence at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's W. E. B. Du Bois Center. Sinitiere's recent books include Citizen of the World: The Late Career and Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois and Race, Religion, and Black Lives Matter: Essays on a Moment and a Movement.
ix Acknowledgments 3 Introduction: Du Bois Has Left Us, But He Has Not Died -Phillip Luke Sinitiere PART I: POLITICS AND PROTEST 17 Chapter 1. The Rational and the Irrational: W. E. B. Du Bois's Excavation of Whiteness, 1935-1960 -Lisa J. McLeod 39 Chapter 2. Politics, Poetry, and Prose: W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, and the Origins of Our Times -Carlton Dwayne Floyd and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer 62 Chapter 3. In Pursuit of Peace Where Freedom Chokes: W. E. B. Du Bois Confronts the Cold War -Werner Lange 80 Chapter 4. I Am Certainly Not a Conservative: W. E. B. Du Bois, Democratic Socialism, and Black Marxism -Reiland Rabaka PART II: IDENTITY AND CULTURE 105 Chapter 5. Democracy in America Is Impossible: The Pessimistic Prophecy of W. E. B. Du Bois in "Why I Won't Vote" -Andre E. Johnson 119 Chapter 6. The Dharma of Socialism: How Hindu Thought Influenced W. E. B. Du Bois's Vision for Afro-Asian Solidarity -Murali Balaji 131 Chapter 7. W. E. B. Du Bois and African American Humanism -Christopher Cameron 147 Chapter 8. Blessed Are the Peacemakers, for They Shall Be Called Communists: W. E. B. Du Bois and American Religious Culture, 1935-1963 -Phillip Luke Sinitiere PART III: LITERATURE AND LEGACY 175 Chapter 9. The Mutual Comradeship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Radical Black Women, 1935-1963 -Charisse Burden-Stelly 191 Chapter 10. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois -Robert Greene II 207 Chapter 11. W. E. B. Du Bois's UnAmerican End, Reconsidered -Jodi Melamed and Tyler Monson 231 Chapter 12. Geography of Freedom: Partnership in Preservation and Public History at W. E. B. Du Bois's Boyhood Homesite -Camesha Scruggs 245 Afterword -Eric Porter 251 About the Contributors 257 Index
A new and original perspective on W. E. B. Du Bois's life and activism centering on his career from the early 1930s until his death in 1963. As the volume compellingly demonstrates, an examination of the last three decades of Du Bois's life unveils the richness and complexity of his ideas and praxis, especially his engagement in Black internationalist and radical politics." -Keisha N. Blain, author of Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America "This book will no doubt draw much-needed attention to Du Bois's thought and activism during the most radical yet most neglected period of his life." -Erik S. Gellman, author of Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay
