:Creative Conflict in African American Thought: Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey

Abstract

Since publication of The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850–1925 (1978), Wilson Jeremiah Moses has defined the contours of black nationalism. In the last decade, however, a revisionist scholarship has begun to reshape the black nationalist landscape, questioning Moses's perspectives and no doubt provoking this response. In his new book, Moses addresses loopholes in his earlier studies. Focusing on five key black leaders—Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey—Moses offers a more balanced assessment of their contributions. In his view, admirers and detractors of these leaders have focused too narrowly on constructed images designed to advance ideologically skewed and misleading perceptions. Classical black nationalism combined cultural assimilation with political/geographical separation. Critically engaging this ambivalence, Moses portrays his subjects as nationalists whose ideas reflected those of mainstream society. These blacks embodied complex, multiple values and perspectives, reflecting the “essential paradox” of classical black nationalism. This is represented in Douglass's assimilationist integration of black militancy, his subscription to, and exploitation of, ontological blackness, his aversion to black pride/racial distinctiveness, and his inconsistent responses to black nationalist ideals. It can also be found in Crummell's blending of black nationalism, Victorian civilizationism, and anglophilism; in Washington's contradictory constructions of slavery and black religion, embodiment of liberal and conservative ideals, and his combination of materialism, idealism and economic determinism; in Du Bois's ambivalent response to black separatism, his elitism, and his distrust of democracy. These leaders were often in conflict with each other. Crummell shared Du Bois's political elitism and embraced an authoritarian view of government. Douglass, Crummell, and Du Bois all harbored condescending attitudes toward the black masses. Moses portrays Douglass as a representative black man who was often at odds with critical cultural and political demands of the black struggle.