A Portrait of a Sellout

. . .
Byron Gunner, a Niagara Movement veteran, was ¡§amazed beyond expression¡¨. He told DuBois that Blacks should be doing ¡§just the reverse¡¨, since a war in the name of democracy was ¡§the most opportune time¡¨ for their complaints to be aired. Partly because DuBois was a fifty something year old man, and mostly because as Marlborough Churchill claimed, ¡§any attempts on the part of the military Intelligence Branch to solve the question of Negro subversion among the civil population would necessarily lead it beyond the proper limits of military activity and would duplicate the efforts of agencies already charged with the solution of the same problem¡¨ .

In their analyses of black leadership and the pressures of W. DuBois saw a position which would grant him further prestige and allow him an opportunity to bask in his own ideal of belonging to the elite ¡§talented-tenth¡¨, so he pursued it, by any means necessary; even if it meant betraying or ¡§selling-out¡¨ his own people.

Ironically, ¡§Close Ranks¡¨ was published during a period when DuBois was seeking a commission as a captain in the Military Intelligence Branch (MIB), an antiradical agency of the United States Army General Staff. DuBois insisted that the editorial and the commission were unconnected, but any breathing creature understood what was really transpiring. A growing number of African-Americans believed that DuBois was speaking a language of submission. DuBois abused his power as editor of the Crisis journal to publish his propagandist brown nosing efforts and to try to force those efforts onto the black public (of which DuBois in all probability thought very little of). In fact DuBois¡¦ relationships with other black radicals, notably socialists such as Marcus Garvey and A. It [the editorial] was specifically included in the July issue of the Crisis to help get him into military intelligence, there is no other way to justify it. Mark Ellis titled, ¡§Closing Ranks¡¨ and ¡§Seeking Honors¡¨: W. Or in other words, let someone else worry about it.

Because the magnitude of the article, ill feelings which were cause as a result of it were slow to subside. Philip Randolph were degenerated because of his comments.

Common topics in this essay:
WEB DuBois, Civil Rights, Joel Spingarn, Americans Allies, Movement Instead, DuBois Blacks, Intelligence Branch, World August, Philip Randolph, WEB Dubois, civil rights, military intelligence, ¡§close ranks¡¨, military intelligence branch, world war, intelligence branch, dubois position, du bois, niagara movement, marcus garvey, black political,

Approximate Word count = 1010
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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