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Africa
SPECIAL REFLECTIONS: Dr. DuBois and Equal Rights for Women -- Shirley Graham DuBois by Remel Katherine Moore In September 1996, when I was hired as the first substantive Executive Director of the W. E. B. DuBois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra, Ghana, I did not realize that my selection was historic in many ways. First, I was the first diasporan to head the Centre and, secondly, I was the first woman to be placed in that position. During my tenure, I learned that both "firsts" posed their own unique challenges and, together, presented unfamiliar opportunities for the Centre and me. I soon learned that I inherited access to a wealth of material unavailable in many places of the world. I took advantage of the opportunity to conduct research in the archival material that Dr. DuBois had used himself. It was a heady experience walking into his study and reading his personal books, letters, reference books and materials. While there, I often found succor, wise instruction, and solace in the books of this fascinating library. On days that I searched for understanding and peace in reconciling conflicts presented by my mere presence at the DuBois Centre, I would often pick one or two favorite works and walk to the Open Air Theatre behind the DuBois home, sit and read, reflecting on the personality and character of Dr. DuBois and other writers among the collection. One of my favorites, DuBois: A Pictorial Biography, is a book by Shirley Graham DuBois a reflections of sorts of her own, on her life and times with Dr. DuBois. Shirley Graham DuBois was similarly affected by the grounds surrounding her house in a pleasant neighborhood in Cantonments, Accra. She wrote that she enjoyed the flowers, tree, and other aspects of natural beauty and wonder that the government bungalow, formerly at the edges of Accra, afforded her. Now, thirty years later, Accra had grown and sprawled beyond Cantonments (formerly a suburb) and the city of thirty thousand had swollen to three million. Still, the Centre is a refuge from the life of the city, a pocket of history, removed from the daily hustle of Accra. In the early 1960s, by the time Dr. DuBois was permitted to travel to Ghana by the United States government, he was in his early nineties. He had been invited to move to Ghana some years earlier by Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He was to undertake the massive work of compiling the Encyclopedia Africana that Dr. Nkrumah envisioned would be the first comprehensive and definitive work completed on Africa and Africans by African people. Naturally, following the all the stress of gaining his traveling documents to leave the United States and go to Ghana, Dr. DuBois was accompanied by his wife, confidant, and friend Shirley Graham DuBois. It has been supposed that Dr. DuBois grew apart from his wife of fifty-five years, Nina Gomer DuBois. Apparently, she felt that he did not perceive her as his intellectual equal. Interestingly, they’d met while she was a student and he was a teacher at Wilberforce University in the late 1890s. They married in 1896, the same year DuBois published his doctoral dissertation. She forsook any aspirations she may have had upon entering Wilberforce. Then their son was born and, twenty-two months later, her daughter. Dr. DuBois wrote that they shared happy times in their young marriage. Not surprisingly, Nina DuBois was distraught at the death of their toddler son. She became more withdrawn as she focused on protecting her family. At the same time, Dr. DuBois found that he was becoming an increasingly important voice in the United States and the world. In Shirley Graham DuBois he found a confident, successful, self-assured woman a widowed mother who raised two sons while being a consummate, creative professional. She was an accomplished writer. She wrote a number of biographies and books. She was an acknowledged playwright. She wrote the first opera for African American by an African American. She was an effective educator. She taught music and art at Agriculture and Industrial State College in Nashville. She was a capable administrator. She was the Head of the Fine Arts Department at Tennessee State College and, later, the first Director of Ghana Television. She was a political activist. Her socialist leanings made her good company for DuBois, now in his later years. Despite the contrast between Nina and Shirley, DuBois went on record with his support of equal right for women. During the suffrage movement, as women pressed for equity, DuBois wrote: "Shirley Graham DuBois was a young woman in her early twenties when women gathered to march in the streets for women’s rights and, surely, she was inspired by so many examples of overcoming women to tackle the unknown, and not only to tackle, but to attain and to excel. She spent her life doing just that. Most clearly is his support demonstrated in the encouragement he provided Shirley Graham DuBois. While difficult there is some security in championing civil rights and equitable treatment in public, but more difficult to apply and live by the same ideals in one’s personal life at home. Shirley Graham DuBois was a devoted wife to an equally devoted husband. It seems obvious that Dr. DuBois had respect for his wife. Maybe he was made wiser in his years with regard to marital relations, or, perhaps, in Shirley Graham, he found someone with whom he could share his ideas, aspirations and dreams. Or, perhaps, Shirley presented herself as a self-assured, confident woman who could stand next to DuBois with her self-worth undiminished. Whatever the case, Dr. DuBois found in Shirley Graham a woman who could partner with him while continuing to pursue her own interests. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. No others can do this work and Negro colleges must train men for it. The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men from The Talented Tenth. As the architect of the Talented Tenth theory, Dr, DuBois had women in mind. He did not see the espoused Talented Tenth as an exclusive men’s only club. On the talented tenth he further states that, "All men cannot go to college but some men must; every isolated group or nation must have its yeast of these graduates 2,079 were men and 252 were women." And there were many women on the scene who had earned widespread respect and recognition for there accomplishments, such as Mary Jane Patterson, Sojouner Truth, Charlotte Ray, Harriet Tubman, Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Church Terrell, Elizabeth Johnson Harris, and many more. Evidently, even before the days of suffrage street protests, Shirley Graham had been deeply affected when she met Dr. DuBois at age thirteen. Perhaps he gave her the gift of a few encouraging words that started her on her personal path of achievement. Shirley Graham was one of a number of women who attained achievement and greatness and long before she was reacquainted with and married Dr. DuBois in 1951. Obviously, Dr. DuBois respected women’s intelligence, their capacity to contribute to society and their intelligence, energy, fire and tenacity in pursuit of an issue. Among the many women of his time, Dr. DuBois respected Shirley Graham DuBois. The respect they shared ensured a satisfying, gratifying marriage. As I reflect on my days at the DuBois Centre, I consider the kind of respect "mutual respect" that existed between the two mature newlyweds. The marriage of W. E. B. and Shirley DuBois ended upon his death eleven years later. After his death, Shirley Graham DuBois’s voice was neither stilled nor intimidated by her second widowhood. She continued to be an activist maintaining close ties with her Chinese and Russian friends "still an unpopular posture at the time. She still faced harassment from the U.S. State Department and was prevented returning to the land of her birth. However, before her death in 1977, she was twice permitted to visit the US, once in 1971 and, again, in 1975 when she was awarded the honorary doctorate by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. About the Author(s): Remel Katherine. Moore was the first director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra, Ghana. She is an international lecturer and is a senior associate of the African Diaspora Concerns Foundation, Inc., an international humanitarian organization. She is represented by Rosetta.G. Gainey. Contact: Tel: 410.435.7316; e-mail: adcfi@aol.com See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
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