MUSINGS

by Loretta J. Williams, Ph.D.                             Director, The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry  and Human Rights    (http://www.myerscenter.org/)

Did you know that the pioneering sociologist W.E.B. DuBois wrote three novels in his senior years?  The prolific scholar activist (1868-1963) is known best for his founding of Crisis magaze and for his statement that the problem of the 20th century is the color line. The novels in The Black Flame Trilogy are less known. In fact, the US government’s ‘better-dead-than-red’ days and powers tried to block publication for a long time. Now Oxford University Press has republished The Ordeal of Mansart, Mansart Builds a School, and Worlds of Color, Oxford 2007. The three novels center around key individuals and their families, descendants, and involvements. DuBois takes the readers through Reconstruction and Jim Crow, geopolitics, and strategies of resistance and pragmatic compromise. These novels deserve wide readership and discussion of the various worldviews in dynamic view. 
Currently showing in many movie theaters is another stepping stone to understanding more deeply some of this same time period: The Great Debaters. Denzel Washington’s portrayal of Professor Melvin Tolson and his debate teams in the segregated south is outstanding. Knowledge of Tolson, poet and organizer for southern Black farmers, too, has been eliminated from much schooling. Like DuBois, Tolson’s importance has been suppressed for his “communist” leanings.

Let’s settle in this month to read the DuBois novels.  View and discuss the Great Debaters movie. We stand on the shoulders of some audacious folk!