27 august 1968 & remembering w.e.b. dubois
#OTD 27 August 1968 It had been five years since W.E.B. Du Bois passed away in Ghana. Undoubtedly, at least one person or organization in the city noted the anniversary of his death. And perhaps they read the 1968 publication of The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois : a soliloquy on viewing my life from the last decade of its first century.
DuBois has a long history in DC. He was an original member of the American Negro Academy, founded on 5 March 1897 by Alexander Crummell:
"The Academy is an organization of authors, scholars, artists and those distinguished in other walks of life, men of African descent, for the promotion of Letters, Science and Art: for the creation, as far as possible, of a form of intellectual taste, for the encouragement and the assistance of youthfull but hesitant scholarship, for the stimulation of inventive and artistic powers, and for the promotion of the publication of works of merit."
DuBois' first novel, Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) was set in DC (and Alabama).
In the photo above, W.E.B. DuBois attends a banquet here in 1940.
Courtesy, New York Historical Society, c1964. W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America pin-back button.
The W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America was founded in San Francisco in 1964 to encourage young people to fight against oppression. I wonder if there were clubs in DC.
Your comments are welcome below. Did you, family members or neighbors meet/know DuBois? Were you a member of the DuBois Clubs of America? Do you have a pin? Did you learn about DuBois in school, church or thru an organization? Which one of his books most impacted you? Do you recognize anyone else in the photo? You may comment privately here.
Photo source: Courtesy Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. c1940. Scurlock Studio, photographer. The photo was taken at a banquet in DC.
Read DuBois' c1961 autobiography here.
Click here for primary materials on the American Negro Academy in the DuBois papers, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
