During the First World War and into the Roaring Twenties, two voices emerged as the philosophical leaders of black liberation in the US: W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Both Du Bois and Garvey wished for institutional and legal discrimination and persecution of Black Americans to stop, but had radically different ideas about how that would be achieved.
W.E.B. Du Bois was born to a free black family in Massachusetts, received the first PhD ever offered to a black man at Harvard University and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and the magazine “The Crisis” in 1910. Marcus Garvey was a printmaker and newspaper editor born in Jamaica and the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914. Both of these men prioritized vastly different aspects of liberation and civil rights, and were known rivals of one another.
When it comes to ideas and methods of the advancement of Black Americans (and black people the world over, in Garvey’s case), how were Du Bois and Garvey similar? How were they different? What did each author believe was the solution to racial discrimination in the US and how Black Americans should behave in society? What role does legislation and politics play? What role does Africa itself play? Why might there be animosity between the two of them for their different approaches? Compare and contrast the primary sources below and support your observations with the textbook. Remember to cite both of the sources AND the textbook extensively.