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

===First Pan-African Conference===
Du Bois attended the [[First Pan-African Conference]], held in [[London]] on July 23–25, 1900.<ref>Bandele, Ramla, [http://diaspora.northwestern.edu/mbin/WebObjects/DiasporaX.woa/wa/displayArticle?atomid=461 "Pan-African Conference in 1900:  Origins of the movement for global black unity"], Article #461, ''Global Mappings: A political Atlas of the African Diaspora, 1900–1989'', The Institute for Diasporic Studies, Northwestern University. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922122851/http://diaspora.northwestern.edu/mbin/WebObjects/DiasporaX.woa/wa/displayArticle?atomid=461|date=September 22, 2013}}.</ref>The Conference had been organized by people from the Caribbean: Haitians [[Anténor Firmin]] and [[Benito Sylvain]] and [[Trinidad and Tobago|Trinidadian]] barrister [[Henry Sylvester Williams]].<ref>[http://www.newint.org/features/2000/08/05/simply/ "A history of Pan-Africanism"], ''New Internationalist'', 326, August 2000.</ref> Du Bois closed the conference by delivering a speech entitled "To the Nations of the World", in which he asked European leaders to ensure [[equal opportunity]] for all races, allow their colonies the right to [[self-government]], and to recognise the political and human rights of African Americans.<ref>[http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1900-w-e-b-du-bois-nations-world "(1900) W. E. B. Du Bois, 'To the Nations of the World'"], BlackPast.org.</ref> This came amidst a period in which southern states were passing legislation to effectively [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|prevent African Americans from voting]], an exclusion from the political system that lasted [[Voting Rights Act of 1965|until the 1960s]].

After the conference, delegates unanimously adopted "To the Nations of the World", and sent copies of the speech to heads of state who governed large populations of African descent that suffered oppression.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sivagurunathan |first1=Shivani |editor1-last=Dabydeen |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Gilmore |editor2-first=John |editor3-last=Jones |editor3-first=Cecily |title=The Oxford Companion to Black British History |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-923894-1 |pages=359–361 |access-date=14 February 2025 |chapter=Pan-Africanism|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000unse_d1y4/page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref> The text appealed for "[acknowledgment] and [protection of] the rights of people of African descent" from the United States and imperial European nations, and the recognition of "the free Negro States of [[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinia]], [[Liberia]], [[Haiti]], etc."<ref>[http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/pan-african-congresses-1900-1945 The Pan-African Congresses, 1900–1945], BlackPast.org.</ref> It was signed by Bishop [[Alexander Walters]] (President of the [[Pan-African Association]]), Rev. Henry B. Brown (vice-president), [[Henry Sylvester Williams]] (General Secretary) and Du Bois (chairman of the committee on the Address).<ref>[http://www.houseofknowledge.org.uk/site/documents/neoGarveyismCorner/1900%20Conference%20resolution.pdf 1900 Pan-African Conference Resolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232631/http://www.houseofknowledge.org.uk/site/documents/neoGarveyismCorner/1900%20Conference%20resolution.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }}. (PDF) Source: Ayodele Langley, ''Ideologies of Liberation in Black Africa'', London: [[Rex Collings]], 1979, pp. 738–739.</ref> Du Bois included the statement "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the [[Color line (racism)|colour-line]]" in the speech, a phrase that he would use again in the introduction of the book ''The Souls of Black Folk''.<ref>Edwards, Brent Hayes (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3D9FE-UfYxEC&dq=%22The+problem+of+the+Twentieth+Century+is+the+problem+of+the+colour-line%22+souls&pg=PA33 "The Practice of Diaspora"], in Janice A. Radway, Kevin Gaines, Barry Shank, [[Penny Von Eschen]] (eds), ''American Studies: An Anthology'', Wiley-Blackwell, p. 33.</ref>