Du Bois and MLK: United in struggle
W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington in 1868, just five years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves and supposedly guaranteed equality for African-Americans. By 1956, 88 years had passed since that proclamation and Mr. Du Bois can be forgiven for bristling at the suggestion of Southern novelist William Faulkner that the civil rights movement required “patience and moderation.” (Eagle, Jan. 16).
“Moderation with no forward movement is surrender,” replied Mr. Du Bois. “Moderation with murder of the innocent is retreat.”
