Two Visions, One Struggle

When Americans think about the Civil Rights Movement, names like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X often come to mind. But decades before the movement reached its legislative triumph with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, two very different thinkers—W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey—had already laid much of its intellectual foundation. This article explores how the two competing visions of these underappreciated men were vital stepping stones that contributed significantly to the Civil Rights breakthroughs of the 1960s.

“The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.”¹ This is the first line of W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1903 article “The Talented Tenth.” The piece outlined his idea that if every tenth or so black man became well-educated, that group of exceptional men could lead the masses to a better future.

Du Bois was born in 1868 and grew up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was surrounded by white kids his entire life, and was lucky enough to live in a place that offered a racially integrated high school. Du Bois was the first black student to graduate from his high school and went on to earn a BA, MA, and eventually, a PhD from Harvard University. The young scholar then studied all over the world, including at the University of Berlin.² In the early 20th century, he was exposed to South Asian activists, and as time went on, he became infatuated with Mahatma Gandhi and Indian Nationalism. In Du Bois’s eyes, the black community could learn from the ideas of public ownership of utilities and socialist thought. Historian Martin O. Ijere argues that Du Bois combined his socialist notions with his “talented tenth” theory, creating a plan for the future of black businesses: “First, businesses would not be established solely on capitalistic principles; instead. Blacks with capital would build consumer co-operation stores.” In these stores, “people would receive profit in proportion to how much stock they purchased and not in relation to the amount of stock held,” and “all members had one vote, regardless of stock held.”³ Du Bois also planned to set up these communities in Europe; in his eyes, the Western world offered the most opportunity for prosperous businesses.

Ijere’s analysis is not solely focused on Du Bois. Also during the early 20th century, Jamaican-born black activist Marcus Garvey emerged as a key figure in the community. Garvey was born in 1887, in British-occupied Jamaica, to a poor family. He was schooled up until the age of 14 but was largely self-taught.

Garvey’s time living under a white colonizing empire convinced him that the path to prosperity was through a mass immigration movement back to Africa. Garvey did not start the “Back to Africa” movement. Still, he was a vocal advocate of the idea that black communities could flourish on their own, away from white society, because white people had been dragging them down for years. After his death, Garvey’s wife, Amy-Jacques Garvey, compiled a document of his philosophies and opinions. In this document, Marcus Garvey calls for Africa to be the black society’s “guiding star: our star of destiny.”⁴

Garvey’s thoughts starkly contrast with Du Bois' “Talented Tenth” theory. Garvey was a proponent of mass education, as he knew that unequal education could lead to oppression. This was due in large part to living his childhood in Jamaica under British imperial rule. Garvey was exposed to how an educated minority could control an uneducated majority, so his priority was to have as many people educated as possible.⁵

Du Bois, on the other hand, was born into a relatively comfortable life, was college-educated, and wealthy enough to travel the globe. He was a prime example of a talented tenth African-American. Du Bois lived an early life surrounded by white people and was not under imperial rule. In Ijere’s eyes, the background of Du Bois, just like Garvey's, primarily contributed to his ideology.

Not every historian agrees with Ijere’s assessment. Some claim that Du Bois suffered from his arguments surrounding cultural unity. San Diego State professor Taharka Adé explains that he “called for smaller groups to yield their cultural autonomy to larger groups in forming a united cultural bloc.”⁶ In Adé’s view, the activist was also disconnected from what it meant to be African: “In The World of Africa, Du Bois often makes superficial and sometimes erroneous claims about what constitutes African identity.” Because of this, Du Bois was disconnected from a big portion of his audience; in Adé’s eyes, he was not Afrocentric enough.

Though Adé’s piece doesn’t comment on Marcus Garvey, this is a significant difference between the two activists. Garvey had no trouble capturing the attention of the black masses. Just as Du Bois’ background influenced his Eurocentric thought, Garvey’s upbringing in British-occupied Jamaica paved the way for him to better understand marginalized, uneducated black communities. Look no further than the nickname Garvey was given: Black Moses. Garvey’s attempt to lead the black population out of America to Africa draws parallels with Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Although the “Back to Africa" movement was never successful, this nickname reflects the respect he earned from his community.

But Garvey was certainly not free of criticism. Du Bois, for one, was concerned with Garvey’s views. In volume 21 of The Crisis, the newspaper he co-founded, Du Bois both praised and criticized the radical activist, first saying he seemed like an “honest and sincere man with a tremendous vision, great dynamic force, stubborn determination and unselfish desire to serve.” But, in the same sentence, Du Bois claimed: “he is dictatorial, domineering, inordinately vain, and very suspicious.” Furthermore, an article in The Broad Ax newspaper quoted Du Bois as accusing Garvey of being “birds of a feather” with the Ku Klux Klan. Du Bois thought that Garvey’s rhetoric would inspire “world war and eternal hate and blood.”⁷

It’s important to consider the thoughts of these scholars, and their criticisms are substantive. However, the conclusion Ijere reaches in his piece is more persuasive. He concludes by saying he is not interested in picking one philosophy over the other. Instead, he sees it as “two contrasting personalities looking at the same thing through their different lenses.”⁸ Each activist served a different purpose because their thoughts were beneficial for different audiences. Even if they weren't enacted, Du Bois’ ideas served as a concrete plan for educated black people with money. Garvey did a better job of teaching the uneducated and poor black communities about the history of their people and motivating them to move forward. In Ijere’s words, “Pan-Africanism became all the more enriched by these two individuals.”⁹

Neither Garvey nor Du Bois lived to see the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but their lasting impact cannot be denied. In 1968, five years after Du Bois died, Martin Luther King delivered a speech “Honoring Dr. DuBois” for what would have been his 100th birthday. According to King, “Dr. Du Bois would be in the front ranks of the peace movement”¹⁰ if he were alive at the time. King tirelessly praised Du Bois' efforts throughout the speech, citing the earlier activist’s condemnation of colonization and his efforts to make as many black Americans as possible college-educated. In a quote that summarizes Du Bois' influence, MLK said that “history cannot ignore W. E. B. Du Bois. Because history has to reflect truth and Dr. Du Bois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths.”¹¹

King also appreciated the influence of Garvey’s action. In a 1964 speech at the New School, King said that Garvey’s movement “attained mass dimensions, and released a powerful emotional response because it touched a truth which had long been dormant in the mind of the Negro. There was reason to be proud of their heritage as well as of their bitterly won achievements in America.”¹²

In sum, King’s words further justify how the two black activists appealed to different audiences within the black population. His perspective as a Civil Rights leader operating decades after Du Bois and Garvey shows how the influence they each had on the black community lasted into and through the mid-20th century. Though their rhetoric differed, each influenced King in his work as a Civil Rights leader, ultimately helping Black Americans achieve a greater share of their equal rights.

References

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth,” The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative American Negroes of Today (1903): 33. ↩︎
Thomas C. Holt, “W. E. B. Du Bois,” Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. ↩︎
Martin O. Ijere, “W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey as Pan-Africanists : A Study in Contrast,” Présence Africaine, no. 89 (1974): 191-2. ↩︎
Amy-Jacques Garvey, “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.” The Journal of Pan African Studies (2009), 7. ↩︎
Ijere, “W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey as Pan-Africanists ,” 204. ↩︎
Taharka Adé, W.E.B. Du Bois’ Africa: Scrambling for a New Africa (2023), 122. ↩︎
"The Colored People In The United States Repudiate 'Back To Africa' Movement Says Professor William," Broad Ax (Chicago, Illinois), January 27, 1923: 1. ↩︎
Ijere, “W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey as Pan-Africanists,” 204. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Martin Luther King, “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘Honoring Dr. Dubois’ Speech,” 1968. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Martin Luther King, “Transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King Speaking at the The New School, February 6, 1964 | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Amherst College.” ↩︎