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    Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere: A Feud to Change All Time
    Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere: A Feud to Change All Time
    Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere: A Feud to Change All Time
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    Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere: A Feud to Change All Time

    By Bernie Morris Evans

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    Marcus Garvey came to the United States with a big dream that never came to fruition. With all of his good intentions of taking back the homeland of the Africans, he found that the world just wasn't ready for his radical ideas. One reason that they weren't ready was because of a man named W.E.B. DuBois.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateJun 13, 2014
    ISBN9781491872154
    Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere: A Feud to Change All Time
    Author

    Bernie Morris Evans

    This book has been in the making for over 15 years. In working on my master's thesis, I chose a topic that I felt had not been looked at before and that was how these two prominent men of their era used their news organs to attack each other. These men had the same idea in mind and that was to lead the African American people of that time to a positive outlook on life. If they had only worked together there is no telling where the people would have gone. In working on this research, I have come to understand more about Garvey and his dream for Aftrican Americans. Eventhough he did not succeed in his dream, his idea of Africa for the Africans was done with good intentions. I am a professor of English at a prominent university in the great state of Louisiana. This research is very close to my heart in that Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois have always fascinated me in the way that they went about trying to help the people of their time. They were both strong men with strong viewpoints, but they just went about it in different ways.

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      Book preview

      Garvey and Dubois-A Race to Nowhere - Bernie Morris Evans

      © 2014 Bernie Morris Evans. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 06/10/2014

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-7350-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-7215-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014904788

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      Great Man

      History of the Early Black Press

      Marcus Garvey and the Negro World

      W.E.B. DuBois and the Crisis

      William Edward Burghardt DuBois, 1868-1963

      Marcus Garvey, 1887-1940

      PHILOSOPHIES AND OPINIONS

      Marcus Garvey

      William Edward Burghardt DuBois

      THE CONTROVERSY

      Crisis on Garvey vs. Negro World on DuBois

      SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

      References

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      First of all, I’d like to thank God for giving me the strength and courage to complete something that I’ve always wanted to do which is write a book.

      I’d also like to thank my son Isaac and especially my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ceaser, for their love and teachings through the years because it was watching and listening to them that made me want to reach for more than the obvious.

      And finally, a heartfelt thanks to all my family and friends who knew I could do it.

      Garvey and DuBois-A Road to Nowhere

      INTRODUCTION

      This book is a historical look at how two major Black news organs during the Harlem Renaissance period, 1920-1930, covered the feud between Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois who were the leaders of two high profile associations and who were also considered to be the top crusaders of the Black cause during this period. These organs were the Negro World, the voice of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) founded by Marcus Garvey, and the Crisis, the voice of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded by William Edward Burghardt DuBois. Through these two major news organs it was shown that even though these two leaders differed, they both had the black interest at heart.

      The feud between Marcus Garvey and William DuBois was one of the most personalized in Black American history. It all started when Garvey arrived in America in 1916 and paid a visit to the NAACP in New York. Garvey was shocked to find that most of the NAACP workers at the headquarters were White. Garvey, being fresh from his native land, saw this scene at the NAACP office and equated it with what it would have meant in Jamaica. In Jamaica, organizations for Blacks which had Whites in key roles were usually agencies for the advocation of imperialism through what was known as black middle-class lackies. Because of what he witnessed at the NAACP headquarters, Garvey concluded that the NAACP was the National Association for the Advancement of ‘Certain’ People which was the Black Middle class and their White friends, and not the majority of Blacks.

      Even though the feud between the two men was bitter, DuBois and Garvey were strong influences in Black journalism by the end of the first century of its existence. Each of the sections within this book will lead up to how these two men, through their news organs, differed on each other’s policies during the 1920s-1930s.

      The first three sections of this book will introduce these two famous men and offer a background into where DuBois and Garvey originated. The sections will show some of the men’s thoughts on certain Black issues such as Africa, Communism, and Black/White relationships. After the introduction, chapters on their biographies, philosophies and opinions will be given. Then, a section on the controversy between DuBois and Garvey will show how each news organ covered each man; for instance, how the Crisis magazine covered Marcus Garvey and his progress and issues, and how the Negro World newspaper covered William DuBois, his programs and issues, with outside opinions on these two men being given from other newspapers and journals of this period. Two of the more notable outside newspapers and journals that were used were the Baltimore American and the New York Messenger.

      Several hypotheses have guided this book. First, it was expected that the articles written by Garvey would be more negative about DuBois than would be the articles written by DuBois about Garvey because Garvey felt that DuBois’ policies were more geared to the upper class and Whites. Operationally, it was decided to analyze the articles in terms of the following hypotheses:

      1) On a proportional basis, sentences in Marcus Garvey’s Negro World referring to W.E.B. DuBois will tend to be more negative and less positive than will sentences in W.E.B. DuBois’ Crisis referring to Garvey.

      As the antagonism between the two men deepened from 1920-1930, the negative content of both publications would increase. This was because Garvey, even after 1921, never ceased to make negative comments on DuBois, and DuBois in 1922 began to answer the negative comments made by Garvey about him. Operationally, the second hypothesis asserts:

      (2) The proportion of negative sentences in both the Negro World referring to DuBois and in the Crisis referring to Garvey will increase significantly during the period 1920-1930. The proportion of positive sentences will decline significantly during the same period.

      Great Man

      In this historical focus, two key individuals who influenced Black journalism were focused on. However, it was subject to many of the weaknesses of the Great Man approach to history, in that a focus on individuals as makers of history often meant that economic, political, or structural forces may receive less emphasis. It was felt that an understanding of the personalities and activities of the two men would provide a basis from which future researchers could look at other influential factors of the time.

      Thus, an overview of the status of the Black press during this period, an introduction to the news organs (Crisis and Negro World) to be used in this book were given, and a small introduction into the views of Marcus Garvey and William Edward Burghardt DuBois were also given for future study.

      But, before getting into the actual feud between Garvey and DuBois, which will be dealt with in later chapters, an elaboration on the state of the Black press during this period is needed.

      History of the Early Black Press

      In the United States, during the Harlem Renaissance period, the Black press was half the age of what was considered the White press. It began in 1827 when White newspapers had already existed for 137 years.

      During the earliest periods, 1827 to the Civil War, the Black press was a leader of protest against injustices to the race; it was a form of journalism almost totally committed to a cause.

      Also during this time, Black newspapers attempted to copy the style of their White counterparts during the Harlem Renaissance. By copying the style of the European newspapers, they tried to appeal to a large audience with the yellow journalism tactics of reporting crime and sensationalism. Black journalists were also trying to reach Black audiences because they were aware that Black audiences were reading White dailies.

      However, one important distinction of the Black newspapers from the White newspapers was the featuring of news and analysis of Black protest.

      Six reasons have been cited by Armistead S. Pride for Black newspapers. One was that the Black populace had become better educated; freed men were able to earn a little more; social services and other groups gave financial support to the press; religious organizations entered journalism to advance their views; the Blacks right to vote provided an audience for politically sponsored publications; and it was realized that the editor of a paper was a person of wider influence than some other professionals. However, to these reasons can be added the fact that social changes other than the end of slavery and war were affecting the Black citizens at this time.

      One of the greatest drawbacks for the publishers of the Black press was the lack of adequate funding to have what is known as a good newspaper. Also, because of inadequate equipment, Black newspapers did not do their own mechanical work. Most of the time, the newspaper office collected and arranged the news, and then carried it to some other publishing concern. In other cases, the paper was printed by a publishing house, although the forms were made up in the paper’s own shop. Even though the Black journalist tried

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