"Capitalism cannot reform itself": father of the modern Negro liberation movement who joined the Communist Party at 93
"Communism will triumph. I want to help bring that day." — from his 1961 application to join the Communist Party USA, submitted at age 93
American sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, and the single most important African American intellectual of the 20th century. A co-founder of the NAACP, he edited its magazine The Crisis for 24 years, shaping the direction of the black civil rights movement, while his books The Souls of Black Folk and Black Reconstruction in America transformed American sociology and historiography. He viewed capitalism as the root cause of racism and pursued a synthesis of Marxism and Pan-Africanism. In 1961, at age 93, he joined the Communist Party USA; invited by Kwame Nkrumah, he settled in Ghana to begin work on the Encyclopedia Africana, and died there in 1963.
Career Timeline
- 1895–1897Wilberforce University; University of Pennsylvania researcher, published The Philadelphia Negro (1899)
- 1897–1910Atlanta University professor; published The Souls of Black Folk (1903); founded Niagara Movement (1905)
- 1910–1934NAACP co-founder, editor of The Crisis; organized Pan-African Congresses
- 1934–1944Atlanta University professor; published Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
- 1944–1948NAACP Director of Special Research; attended UN founding conference
- 1950–1951Peace Information Center chair; indicted under FARA, acquitted
- 1961–1963Joined CPUSA; emigrated to Ghana, began Encyclopedia Africana