Today is the last day of National Poetry Month and I've decided to end with a discussion of one of my favorite poems, "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Published six years before W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term "double consciousness," Dunbar's poem evokes the feelings of African-Americans desiring true citizenship in a country that was consistently creating barriers that would hinder their inclusion in society.

My favorite lines of the poem are "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,/And mouth with myriad subtleties." In my opinion, these lines show not only the emotional distress associated with being African-American at the height of the Jim Crow Era but also the perseverance to achieve greatness in United States' society.

What is your favorite Dunbar poem?

Suggested Reading

"We Wear the Mask"

W.E.B. Du Bois

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Booker T. Washington once said, "an inch of progress is worth a yard of complaint."

Throughout Washington's career, he countered with much opposition from men such as William Monroe Trotter and W.E.B. Du Bois who felt that he was not doing enough to fight for an immediate end of racism and segregation in the United States.

Yet, Washington also had the support of working class African-Americans in the South who benefited greatly from his advocacy of industrial education. But most interesting to me, was his close relationship with white philanthropists and politicians. I have often wondered if Washington's philosophy of promoting education and entrepreneurship in lieu of racial equality was in the best interest of African-Americans during this time period. I still don't have an answer.

What do you think? Was Washington right to argue that African-Americans should prove their worth before gaining equal rights? Do you think he really believed in this philosophy or, was it a means to an end?

Suggested Reading

W.E.B. Du Bois

Progessive Era

African-Americans and the Progressive Era

William Monroe Trotter

Image Courtesy of the Library of Congress

W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote that African-Americans "may and must criticize America, describe how she has ruined democracy...and led her seats of justice astray."

Social, political and legislative reformers brought many changes to United States' society during the Progessive Era. However, the needs of African-Americans were largely ignored.

As a result, African-American men and women became reformers for their own community. African-Americans in the Progressive Era developed many methods of countering racism and sexism in society. These tactics included:

Image Courtesy of Public Domain

One of the biggest contradictions of the Progressive Movement was the existence of Jim Crow laws in the South and de facto segregation in the North.

Men such as W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter relentlessly fought for racial equality in the United States through their work as sociopolitical organizers and writers.

My favorite quote by Trotter is "...My vocation has been to wage a crusade against lynching, disenfranchisement, peonage, public segregation, injustice, denial of service in public places for color, in war time and in peace" shows his tireless desire to end racism in the United States. Yet, Trotter and Du Bois' fight would not be easily won. It would be another fifty years after these men organized the Niagara Movement that African-Americans would begin seeing changes in society.

Do you think the work of men such as Du Bois and Trotter was in vain? Or, was it planting seeds for the Civil Rights Movement?

Suggested Reading

Booker T. Washington

Niagara Movement