On Sunday, Sept. 25, Pulse Ensemble Theatre showcased “W.E.B. Du Bois: A Man For All Times” featuring Brian Richardson as Du Bois. Produced by artistic director Alexa Kelly, the one-man play followed Du Bois through his early years from his birth in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to his eventual decline and death in Accra, Ghana. In between, the story showcased Du Bois’ personal philosophy and often horrific confrontations with racism in the late 19th century, highlighting his life-long battle for civil rights. Du Bois is remembered as one of history’s most important black leaders. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “History cannot ignore W.E.B. Du Bois.”
I was glad I went to this event,” said Catie Yanchak, a junior dual major in journalism and classical studies. “I learned about him in high school, but it was really interesting to learn about this history in the form of a play; it was very powerful.”
The play began in 1953 with Du Bois in shackles. He had been indicted during the McCarthy era and stood trial for suspected Communist ties. The scene dissolved into a passionate diatribe from Du Bois on the foundations of American freedom. Escalating towards the speech’s end, the historic figure raised his arms to unravel his chains and proclaimed, “Wake up America! Your liberties are being stolen before your very eyes. Wake up Americans and dare to think and say and do. Dare to cry no more war!”
From there the play transitioned back to 1868 when Du Bois was born. The young Du Bois shared his ancestor’s racially mixed genealogy and the relative racial harmony in which he grew up. This harmony contrasted sharply with his experience as a student in the south. “[At Fisk University] I discovered that the world was split in two halves. Black and white. I pained to describe this forced distinction as the color line, or the veil. A new loyalty replaced my Americanism. Henceforth I would always be regarded and know myself as a Negro.”
On this split Du Bois remarked, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness. This sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others. Of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on with amused contempt and pity.”
These disruptions to prior conceptions were featured prevalently throughout the play as Du Bois encountered the horrors of racist practices. The loss of innocence is jarringly revealed in multiple instances, once when he witnessed the mutilation of a pregnant woman, and later when he saw the knees of a lynching victim on a butcher’s window display amidst other animal remains.
This latter instance triggered Du Bois’ transition from academia to political activism. Stepping away from his “Ivory Tower,” Du Bois began his lifelong struggle against racial bias, or what he called the “shadow of the veil.”
On activism, Du Bois said, “If one is an activist and not considered dangerous by the powers than one is not doing one’s job.” Clarifying, he remarked, “I do not believe in violent revolution. I expect revolutionary change mainly to come through reason, human sympathy and the education of children. Not by murder.”
“It was a really moving performance that kind of really interestingly covered W.E.B. Du Bois’ life,” said Ashanti Davis, a junior dual major in English and computer science. “It was moving. It was a good show.”
In a discussion following the play, Assistant Dean Lauren Kozol of the Hofstra University Honors College said, “It really drives home how hard life was for African Americans at the time; that death somehow seems an escape, a positive escape as a young person that you don’t have to go through all these different stages of life.”
The play’s conclusion highlights a litany of causes promoted by Du Bois, among them the abolition of poverty, free universal medical care, free universal education and freedom of religion. Still, the civil rights activist emphasized that to a large extent, “My homeland knows me not.”
Connor Imhoff, a sophomore theater major, said, “I thought it was a really lection cycle. I think a lot of the points were a part of Dr. Du Bois’ ideals and felt very valid and important.”
In the current strained status of American race relations and the upcoming presidential election, the political activism of Du Bois holds greater importance than ever. Despite the racial advancements during and after Du Bois’ time, the play still reminded the audience that, “Sometimes people can only hear your color.”