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

===''The Crisis''===
[[File:Motto web dubois original.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=An African American man, sitting for a posed portrait|Du Bois, {{circa| 1911}}]]

NAACP leaders offered Du Bois the position of Director of Publicity and Research.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=252, 265}}.</ref> He accepted the job in the summer of 1910 and moved to New York after resigning from Atlanta University. His primary duty was editing the NAACP's monthly magazine, which he named ''[[The Crisis]]''.<ref>Bowles, Amy, "NAACP", in Young, pp. 141–144.</ref> The first issue appeared in November 1910, and Du Bois wrote that it aimed to set out "those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people".<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=268–269}}.</ref> The journal was phenomenally successful, and its circulation reached 100,000 in 1920.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pP=270 (success), 384 (circulation)}}.</ref> Typical articles in the early editions polemics against the dishonesty and parochialism of black churches, and discussions on the Afrocentric origins of Egyptian civilization.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=271}}.</ref> Du Bois's African-centered view of ancient Egypt was in direct opposition to many Egyptologists of his day, including [[Flinders Petrie]], whom Du Bois had met at a conference.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davies |first1=Vanessa |title=W. E. B. Du Bois, A New Voice in Egyptology's Disciplinary History |journal=ANKH |date=2019–2020 |volume=28/29 |pages=18–29}}</ref>

A 1911 Du Bois editorial helped initiate a [[Anti-lynching movement|nationwide push to induce the federal government to outlaw lynching]]. Du Bois, employing the sarcasm he frequently used, commented on a lynching in [[Pennsylvania]]: "The point is he was black. Blackness must be punished. Blackness is the crime of crimes ... It is therefore necessary, as every white scoundrel in the nation knows, to let slip no opportunity of punishing this crime of crimes. Of course if possible, the pretext should be great and overwhelming – some awful stunning crime, made even more horrible by the reporters' imagination. Failing this, mere murder, arson, barn burning or impudence may do."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=279–280}}.</ref><ref>Quote from "Triumph", ''The Crisis'', 2 (September 1911), p. 195.</ref>

[[File:The crisis nov1910.jpg|thumb|left|First Issue of ''The Crisis'', November 1910]]

''The Crisis'' carried Du Bois editorials supporting the ideals of unionized labor but denouncing its leaders' racism; blacks were barred from membership.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=274}}.</ref> Du Bois also supported the principles of the [[Socialist Party of America]] (he held party membership from 1910 to 1912), but he denounced the racism demonstrated by some socialist leaders.<ref>Hancock, Ange-Marie, "Socialism/Communism", in Young, p. 196 (member). {{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=275}} (denounced).</ref> Frustrated by Republican president Taft's failure to address widespread lynching, Du Bois endorsed Democratic candidate [[Woodrow Wilson]] in the [[1912 United States presidential election|1912 presidential race]], in exchange for Wilson's promise to support black causes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=278}}. Wilson promised "to see justice done in every matter".</ref>

Throughout his writings, Du Bois supported [[Feminism in the United States|women's rights]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=43, 259, 522, 608}}.</ref><ref>Donaldson, Shawn, "Women's Rights", in Young, pp. 219–221.</ref> and [[women's suffrage]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duong |first1=Kevin |title=Universal Suffrage as Decolonization |journal=American Political Science Review |date=May 2021 |volume=115 |issue=2 |pages=412–428 |doi=10.1017/S0003055420000994 |s2cid=232422414 }}</ref> but he found it difficult to publicly endorse the [[Women's suffrage in the United States|American suffragist movement]] because leaders of the movement refused to support his fight against racial injustice.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=272–273}}.</ref> A 1913 ''Crisis'' editorial broached the taboo subject of [[interracial marriage]]: although Du Bois generally expected persons to marry within their race, he viewed the problem as a women's rights issue, because laws prohibited white men from marrying black women. Du Bois wrote "[[Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States|[anti-miscegenation] laws]] leave the colored girls absolutely helpless for the lust of white men. It reduces colored women in the eyes of the law to the position of dogs. As low as the white girl falls, she can compel her seducer to marry her ... We must kill [anti-miscegenation laws] not because we are anxious to marry the white men's sisters, but because we are determined that white men will leave our sisters alone."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=275}}.</ref><ref>Du Bois quoted in Lubin, Alex (2005), ''Romance and Rights: The Politics of Interracial Intimacy, 1945–1954'', University Press of Mississippi, pp. 71–72.</ref>

During 1915−1916, some leaders of the NAACP – disturbed by financial losses at ''The Crisis'', and worried about the inflammatory rhetoric of some of its essays – attempted to oust Du Bois from his editorial position. Du Bois and his supporters prevailed, and he continued in his role as editor.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=312–324}}.</ref> In a 1919 column titled "The True Brownies", he announced the creation of ''[[The Brownies' Book]]'', the first magazine published for African-American children and youth, which he founded with [[Augustus Granville Dill]] and [[Jessie Redmon Fauset]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kory |first1=Fern |chapter=Once upon a Time in Aframerica: The 'Peculiar' Significance of Fairies in the Brownies' Book |pages=91–112 |id={{Project MUSE|251727|type=chapter}} |chapter-url=https://thekeep.eiu.edu/eng_fac/3/ |doi=10.1353/chl.0.0803 |editor1-last=Keyser |editor1-first=Elizabeth Lennox |editor2-last=Pfeiffer |editor2-first=Julie |title=Children's Literature |date=January 1, 2001 |volume=29 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08891-5 |s2cid=144994019 |url=https://works.bepress.com/fern_kory/2/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221018222257/https://works.bepress.com/fern_kory/2/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 18, 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance|title=Brownies' Book, The|last=Kommers Czarniecki|first=Kristin|editor-last1=Wintz|editor-first1=Cary D.|editor-last2=Finkelman|editor-first2=Paul|volume=1 (A–J)|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-1-57958-389-7|page=196|lccn=2004016353}}</ref>