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

===Socialism===
{{Socialism US}}

When Du Bois became editor of ''The Crisis'' magazine in 1911, he joined the [[Socialist Party of America]] on the advice of NAACP founders [[Mary White Ovington]], [[William English Walling]] and [[Charles Edward Russell]]. However, he supported the Democrat [[Woodrow Wilson]] in the 1912 presidential campaign, a breach of the rules, and was forced to resign from the Socialist Party. In 1913, his support for Wilson was shaken when racial segregation in government hiring was reported.<ref name="DuBois1973">{{cite journal |last1=Du Bois |first1=W. E. Burghardt |last2=Wilson |first2=Woodrow |title=My Impressions of Woodrow Wilson |journal=The Journal of Negro History |date=1973 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=453–459 |doi=10.2307/2716751 |jstor=2716751 |s2cid=224839908 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Yellin|first=Eric S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fixBOW3902UC&pg=PA147|title=Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4696-0721-4|page=147}}</ref> Du Bois remained "convinced that socialism was an excellent way of life, but I thought it might be reached by various methods."<ref name="Communist Party USA 2009">{{cite web | title=Application to join the CPUSA by W.E.B. Du Bois, 1961 | website=Communist Party USA | date=February 28, 2009 |url=https://cpusa.org/party_info/application-to-join-the-cpusa-by-w-e-b-du-bois-1961/ | access-date=February 16, 2021}}</ref>

Nine years after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]], Du Bois extended a trip to Europe to include a visit to the [[Soviet Union]], where he was struck by the poverty and disorganization he encountered in the Soviet Union, yet was impressed by the intense labors of the officials and by the recognition given to workers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=486}}.</ref> Although Du Bois was not yet familiar with the [[Communism|communist]] theories of [[Karl Marx]] or [[Vladimir Lenin]], he concluded that [[socialism]] might be a better path towards racial equality than capitalism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=487}}.</ref>

Although Du Bois generally endorsed socialist principles, his politics were strictly pragmatic: in the [[1929 New York City mayoral election]], he endorsed Democrat [[Jimmy Walker]] for mayor of New York, rather than the socialist [[Norman Thomas]], believing that Walker could do more immediate good for blacks, even though Thomas's platform was more consistent with Du Bois's views.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=498–499}}.</ref> Throughout the 1920s, Du Bois and the NAACP shifted support back and forth between the Republican Party and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], induced by promises from the candidates to fight lynchings, improve working conditions, or support voting rights in the South; invariably, the candidates failed to deliver on their promises.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=498–507}}.</ref>

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|quote = And herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor&nbsp;– all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked – who is good? Not that men are ignorant – what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
|source=—Du Bois, "Of Alexander Crummell", in ''The Souls of Black Folk'', 1903<ref>Quoted by Lewis, p. 119.</ref>
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A rivalry emerged in 1931 between the NAACP and the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]], when the communists responded quickly and effectively to support the [[Scottsboro Boys]], nine African American youth arrested in 1931 in Alabama for rape.<ref>Balaji, Murali (2007), ''The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson'', Nation Books, pp. 70–71.</ref> Du Bois and the NAACP felt that the case would not be beneficial to their cause, so they chose to let the Communist Party [[Scottsboro Boys#Help from Communist Party and N.A.A.C.P.|organize the defense efforts]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=513}}.</ref> Du Bois was impressed with the vast amount of publicity and funds which the communists devoted to the partially successful defense effort, and he came to suspect that the communists were attempting to present their party to African Americans as a better solution than the NAACP.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=514}}.</ref>

Responding to criticisms of the NAACP from the Communist Party, Du Bois wrote articles condemning the party, claiming that it unfairly attacked the NAACP, and that it failed to fully appreciate racism in the United States. In their turn, the communist leaders accused him of being a "class enemy", and claimed that the NAACP leadership was an isolated elite, disconnected from the working-class blacks they ostensibly fought for.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=517}}.</ref>