WEB Dubois and WW1

W.E.B. Dubois is most well known for helping to found the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored people. Dubois had an opposing view to that of Booker T Washington, another prominent figure, about how colored people should try and gain respect through WW1. Dubois believed that it was crucial for africans americans to fight in the war and through this they would then gain respect and the civil rights that they wanted so badly. His message was clear and he used all the resources he had to get it out to everyone. "Many of those who volunteered did so because of the message W.E.B. DuBois sent out through the magazine The Crisis. That message was that African Americans could gain progress in civil rights by proving themselves as worthy patriotic citizens in the war." He encouraged african americans to go out and educate themselves intellectually, but also in politics and economics. Dubois understood what the turn of the war would be and was trying to ready the african americans for the new found freedoms they were hoping to win. He understood that by fulfilling a duty in the war it would allow him to gain some of the equality they were fighting for.

http://www3.eou.edu/hist06/WWIRace.html