Katie and Mateo

Nov. 17
DuBois Movement
William Edward Burghardt DuBois was a sociologist and accomplished civil rights writer.
He was an explorer who wanted to know more about his people. Unlike many scholars he
wanted the honest truth of the black man. He was born on February 23rd, 1868, in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. Where there were about 50 black people out of a population of
5,000. He struggled with people in his vindictive and bitter neighbors. This changed his
personality poorly; he went from a good natured and outgoing boy to sullen and withdrawn. In
1895 he used his sullen personality to better his work. He opened up about his true thoughts
through his writing and in turn, He eventually got a doctorate in History from Harvard University,
and his book, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America,
1638-1870, was published as number one in the Harvard Historical Series. Afterwards, in 1896,
he had two children with his wife, Nina Gomer. While his life seemed to take a turn for the
better, he was still upset about the lack of equality in America. His bitterness in the face of
racism strengthened, and this haunted him throughout his life as he continued to dwell in
oppression.
In 1905, after the Civil war W.E.B DuBois J ohn Hope, Monroe Trotter, Frederick
McGhee, C. E. Bentley and 27 others met secretly together in the house of Mary B. Talbert in
order to adopt the resolutions which lead to the founding of the Niagara Movement. In the words
of W.E.B DuBois,We want full manhood suffrage and we want it now.... We are men! We want
to be treated as men. And we shall win, It became the Niagara movement's statement. During
the summer of 1905 they invited 59 African American businessmen to a meeting in western
New York. During July 11 thru July 14th, on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, Twenty-nine
men then formed the Niagara Movement. Their named was made from the location and the
mighty current of protest they wished to unleash.
In 1905, when African Americans had to fight relentlessly for their basic rights, DuBois
founded the Niagara Movement. The Niagara Movement was a group of professors and
intellectuals who protested against the mistreatment of African Americans. The Niagara
movement brought about legal change of crime, economics, religion, health, and education.
DuBois fully demanded equal economic and educational rights as well as rifts for black men and
women to vote. After his work with the Niagara Movement, he became one of the founders for
the NAACP. From 1910 to 1934, he was a director of publicity, and chief editor of The Crisis,
the NAACPs weekly magazine.
W.E.B DuBois was named the general secretary and the group split into various committees.
The end of the first year the organization only had 170 members and were poorly funded. Their
low funding did not stop them from pursuing their activities, distributing pamphlets, lobbying
against Jim Crow, and sending circulars and protest letters to President Theodore Roosevelt

after the Brownsville incident in 1906. The Niagara movement was founded to address issues
but their main focus was more immersed on freedom of speech and universal black male
suffrage. When addressing letter of the Niagara movement, Dubois addressed letters
encouraging men to stand up and fight for their constitutional right to vote