Talk:W. E. B. Du Bois

Semi-protected edit request on 8 August 2024

change "Du Bois was an early and lifelong supporter of Zionism." to "Du Bois was an early supporter of Zionism, but his views changed due to the influence of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Du Bois's poem 'Suez' was foundational in the creation of Black anti-Zionism." Aburroughs93 (talk) 18:48, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

 Discussion ongoing...
@Aburroughs93: I think that a better phrasing would be Du Bois was an early supporter of Zionism, but his views changed during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Nadia Alahmed contends that Du Bois came to view "Gamal Abdel Nasser as a Pan-African symbol, a power to resist Western" neo-colonialism and that Du Bois's poem "Suez" influenced Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement in forming Black anti-Zionism.

Black anti-Zionism is actually a redirect to Black-Palestinian solidarity, so maybe it would be better to use the latter.

Peaceray (talk) 20:02, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

Sounds good to me Aburroughs93 (talk) 22:56, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

 Done The paragraph now reads:

Du Bois was an early supporter of Zionism. He viewed Palestinians as uncivilized and viewed Islam as the main factor in what he saw as a lack of progress. However, he did not express support for Israel during the Suez Crisis, instead backing Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nadia Alahmed contends that Du Bois came to view "Nasser as a Pan-African symbol, a power to resist Western" neo-colonialism and that Du Bois's poem "Suez" influenced Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement in forming Black-Palestinian solidarity.

Peaceray (talk) 23:39, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

References

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W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an American sociologist, historian and civil rights activist. The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. He rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks, and was one of the co-founders of the NAACP in 1909. He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and published three autobiographies. Black Reconstruction in America (1935) challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. On August 28, 1963, a day after his death, his book The Souls of Black Folk was highlighted by Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington, and hundreds of thousands of marchers honored him with a moment of silence. A year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, embodying many of the reforms for which he had campaigned his entire life, was enacted. This gelatin silver print of Du Bois was taken in 1907 by the American photographer James E. Purdy, and is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Photograph credit: James E. Purdy; restored by Adam Cuerden

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Image

There is an image of Du Bois in color by Carl Van Vechten taken in July of 1946. Can we use this instead of the current image since this is better quality

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Wcamp9 (talk) 02:42, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Removal from "American Zionists" list

As per the previous edit request from 8 August 2024, Du Bois was an early supporter of Zionism that eventually turned Anti-Zionist, I don't think he should be included in the category of "American Zionist". What does everyone think? Eunicemf98 (talk) 23:37, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

There is nothing in this article (yet) that speaks to Du Bois' anti-Zionism. Yue🌙 01:05, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I was going off the previous edit that was made it that section. I tried to access the article that is linked but unfortunately it is not accessible, which seems to defeat the purpose of having it tIere... is there any other way to access it? Thank you Eunicemf98 (talk) 10:38, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Lead

As I mentioned before, a group of newly uploaded images of Du Bois that are relatively high quality are pretty good, and I think that we should honestly change the image. While not the biggest issue, I think it could be important to show a color image of one of the most important African Americans in the 20th century as that was one of his defining features that changed his life and contributed to his life's work

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Wcamp9 (talk) 20:56, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

The current image is fine, and comprehensively illustrates the subject how they are remembered by the public. It's worth outlining this is part of a wave of efforts to swap out consensus images on these well-developed biographies by the OP in a manner that continues to reflect their aesthetic biases with no clear concern for how we actually select these images. Remsense ‥ 论 00:42, 31 January 2025 (UTC)