HW 2/25

W.E.B was a political leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Lived 95 years of age (1868-1963) and was one of the smartest African Americans of the 20th century.
First book was called The Suppression of the African Slave Trade (1896) which described the beliefs that whites had about the inferior African culture.
He was fighting blacks right to vote and having better education.
“Double-consciousness” was mentioned in his essay. White leaders believed American was white. Blacks were of African decent but American. Gave blacks a feeling of not having an identity in the society and would judge themselves by whites standards and would then think to themselves that they are inferior.
“This sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”
Blacks goal is to be both black and American without being spit on or treated differently and without losing the chance of self-development.
The double conscious is a very powerful concept that he tries to describe in his essay and will continue to remain to be one of the most influential ideas in history.