Description

Delivered on the occasion of his investment of an honorary doctorate from Charles University in Prague. Much of it is built on the earlier speech "American Negro and Socialism" (mums312-b206-i001). Du Bois advances the idea that socialism has broadly influenced the economies of countries across the world so that even within the private enterprise system of the United States we see socialistic innovations in the ways businesses are regulated and owned. Du Bois focuses on some examples of how semi-socialistic organizations like consumer cooperatives can benefit African American communities. He specifically mentions two examples, an organization of five cooperative grocery stores that operated in black communities in Tennessee, and the successful student cooperative at Hampton Institute. He worries about the recent emergence of an African American bourgeoisie "bound to and aping American acquisitive society" rather than challenging fundamental inequalities in the system, and what this means particularly in regards to control of the African American press and the funding of civil rights organizations. Ultimately, "the salvation of American Negroes lies in socialism."

Record Contributed By

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth