Editing W. E. B. Du Bois (section)

===Academic work===
{{quote box
|quote = Once we were told: Be worthy and fit and the ways are open. Today, the avenues of advancement in the army, navy, civil service, and even business and professional life are continually closed to black applicants of proven fitness, simply on the bald excuse of race and color.
|source=—Du Bois, "Address at Fourth Niagara Conference", 1908<ref>Quoted by {{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=230}}. Conference was in Oberlin, Ohio.</ref>
|align = right
|width = 30em
|fontsize = 90%
|bgcolor = #F0F0F0
}}

In addition to writing editorials, Du Bois continued to produce scholarly work at Atlanta University. In 1909, after five years of effort, he published a biography of abolitionist John Brown. It contained many insights, but also contained some factual errors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=238}}.</ref><ref>VendeCreek, Drew, "John Brown", in Young, pp. 32–33.</ref> The work was strongly criticized by ''[[The Nation]]'', which was owned by [[Oswald Garrison Villard]], who was writing his own, competing biography of John Brown. Possibly as a result, Du Bois's work was largely ignored by white scholars.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=240}}.</ref> After publishing a piece in ''[[Collier's]]'' magazine warning of the end of "[[white supremacy]]", Du Bois had difficulty getting pieces accepted by major periodicals, although he did continue to publish columns regularly in ''The Horizon'' magazine.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=244 (Colliers); p. 249 (Horizon)}}.</ref>

Du Bois was the first African American invited by the [[American Historical Association]] (AHA) to present a paper at their annual conference. He read his paper, ''Reconstruction and Its Benefits,'' to an astounded audience at the AHA's December 1909 conference.<ref name=Lewis250>Lewis, p. 250.</ref> The paper went against the mainstream historical view, promoted by the [[Dunning School]] of scholars at [[Columbia University]], that [[Reconstruction Era of the United States|Reconstruction]] was a disaster, caused by the ineptitude and sloth of blacks. To the contrary, Du Bois asserted that the brief period of African-American leadership in the South accomplished three important goals: democracy, free public schools, and new social welfare legislation.<ref name=Lewis251>Lewis, p. 251.</ref>

Du Bois asserted that it was the federal government's failure to manage the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], to distribute land, and to establish an educational system, that doomed African-American prospects in the South.<ref name=Lewis251/> When Du Bois submitted the paper for publication a few months later in ''[[The American Historical Review]]'', he asked that the word 'Negro' be capitalized. The editor, [[J. Franklin Jameson]], refused and published the paper without the capitalization.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=252}}.</ref> The paper was mostly ignored by white historians.<ref name="Lewis251"/> Du Bois later developed his paper as his 1935 book, ''[[Black Reconstruction in America]],'' which marshaled extensive references to support his assertions.<ref name=Lewis250/> The AHA did not invite another African-American speaker until 1940.<ref>Lewis, David Levering, "Beyond Exclusivity: Writing Race, Class, Gender into U.S. History", date unknown, New York University, Silver Dialogues series.</ref>