EDITORIAL ROOMS OF
THE CRISIS

69 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK, N. Y.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS

Rockefeller Hall
Spelman College, Atlanta, Ga.

May 18, 1933.

Mr. James Weldon Johnson,
Fisk University,
Nashville, Tennessee.

My dear Johnson:

I agree with you perfectly concerning Mr. Spingarn's
resignation. Of course, it is quite possible that his
reasons are such that they cannot be entirely changed, but
it seems to me that it would be fair to ask, first, if he
will not re-consider his resignation? Secondly, if that is
impossible, if he will word it so that it will become
effective December 31, 1933. That will give us a chance to
reorientate ourselves and decide just what the future of
the Association and of THE CRISIS is going to be.

Very sincerely yours,
W.E.B. Du Bois

WEBD/DW

EDITORIAL ROOMS OF
THE CRISIS

W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS

September 22, 1933.

Mr. J. E. Spingarn,
9 West 75rd Street,
New York, N.Y.

My dear Spingarn:

Can you help me with any information about William Archibald Dunning of Columbia? What was the source of his pro-Southern, anti-Negro attitude? I find he was born in New Jersey, and while there is a Southern Dunning family, there is no proof that it was related to him. Do you know anything of his politics or of the birthplace of his wife? He and his group of young Southerners started the present interpretation of Reconstruction, but why? Whence came his prejudices?

I shall appreciate any information that you can give me.

Very sincerely yours,

WEBB/DW

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

October 16, 1933.

Mr. J. E. Spingarn,
Troutbeck,
Amenia, New York.

My dear Spingarn:

Thank you for your letter of October 10. I shall certainly accept the appointment and stand with you and the Association to the last ditch. I make the following tentative suggestions for your reaction:

1. That the Vice Presidents be enlarged indefinitely from time to time and built up into a sort of Advisory Committee or body of Elder Statesmen. It can be a place where we can shelve members of the Board who are inactive. In accordance with this, I suggest that Darrow, Loud, Carl Murphy, George W. Crawford, Mrs. Murray, F. B. Ransome, Dr. Somerville, Dr. Waller and Dr. Hudson be elected Vice Presidents.

2. Then I suggest that the following persons be re-nominated for the Board: James Weldon Johnson, President Neilson, Arthur Spingarn and Mr. Studin.

3. I suggest that two vacancies be left on the Board.

4. I suggest that 10 new members be elected. For these new members, I make the following suggestion:

A. Charles Houston of Washington, whom you know.

B. E. Franklin Frazier of Fisk, who is our best expert in social studies and while he grows on acquaintance, is thoroughly honest and reliable.

C. Rachel Davis Du Bois, a white woman of about 40, who is doing the best scientific work in race relations in secondary schools and colleges that is being carried on. She is lecturing under the Extension Department of Columbia and under Temple University, and has fulfilled all requirements for the Columbia University Ph.D., except the thesis. You will remember that she served a while on THE CRISIS Advisory Board.

D. Dr. Virginia Alexander, the young Philadelphia physician. She is on the staff of two leading hospitals and for some time worked on the Board of the Y. W. C. A.

E. Abram Harris. He is our best theoretical economist, and while as yet over-academic, has a clear, logical mind and is reliable.

F. Mabel Byrd, a young woman of wide experience, trained at the University of Oregon, employed for a couple of years at the League of Nations, experienced in Y. W. C. A. work, and now connected with the N.R.A. in Washington. A fine, level-headed person.

Miss Arnold

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE N.A.A.C.P.

May 21, 1934.

At the June meeting of the Board, the following action was taken:

On motion of Dr. Wright, duly seconded, it was VOTED, That The Crisis is the organ of the Association and no salaried officer of the Association shall criticise the policy, work, or officers of the Association in the pages of The Crisis; that any such criticism should be brought directly to the Board of Directors and its publication approved or disapproved.

I did not know of this action until a week after the June editorials had been written.

I regret to say that I am unable to comply with this vote. I do not for a moment question the right of the Board to take this action or its duty to do so whenever differences of opinion among its officers become so wide as to threaten the organization. On the other hand, my contribution to the settlement of the Negro problems has always been candid criticism based on a careful effort to know the facts. I have not always been right, but I have been sincere, and I am unwilling now to be limited in the expression of my honest opinions in the way which the Board proposes. In fact, my ideal for THE CRISIS has always been that anyone's opinion, no matter how antagonistic to mine, or to the Association, could find there, certainly to a reasonable extent, free and uncensored expression. I will not edit THE CRISIS or any other journal of opinion, unless this policy can be carried out.

I am, therefore, resigning from my position as Director of Publications and Research, Editor of THE CRISIS, member of the Board of Directors of the N.A.A.C.P., and member of the Spingarn Medal Committee,--this resignation to take effect immediately.

I am grateful for the opportunity of service which this organization has given me for twenty-four years, and for many marks of its confidence.

Very respectfully yours,
N. E. B. DuBois

May 21, 1934.

At the May meeting of the Board, the following action was taken:

I regret to say that I am unable to comply with this vote. I do not for a moment question the right of the Board to take this action or its duty to do so whenever differences of opinion among its officers become so wide as to threaten the organization. On the other hand, I seriously question the wisdom or right of any distinction between the opinions of salaried and unsalaried officials.

In thirty-five years of public service my contribution to the settlement of the Negro problems has been mainly candid criticism based on a careful effort to know the facts. I have not always been right, but I have been sincere, and I am unwilling at this late day to be limited in the expression of my honest opinions in the way in which the Board proposes. In fact, THE CRISIS never was and never was intended to be an organ of the Association in the sense of reflecting its official opinion. I could point to a dozen actions of the Board confirming this. My ideal for THE CRISIS has always been that anyone's opinion, no matter how an-tagonistic to mine, or to the Association, could to a reasonable extent, find there free and uncensored expression. I will not edit THE CRISIS unless this policy can be continued.

June 11, 1934.

Mr. J. E. Spingarn,
TROUTBECK, Amenia, New York.

My dear Spingarn:

Your letter of June 2 did not reach me until I returned to New York June 9, so that I could not answer it. I should, of course, have given you permission to use the resignation for the information of the Budget Committee. I find that meantime the story of the resignation had somehow leaked out. I do not know how this happened. Certainly I had nothing to do with it. I was out of town from June 1 to June 9, and left no address. I'm sorry that the matter got into the papers before it was presented to the Board, because I wanted everything to be regular with no even apparent discourtesy. Of course in the long run it will make no difference.

I want to assure you that nothing will disturb our long friendship, and I'm still deeply grateful for the many and sincere efforts that you and your brother have made in my behalf.

With best regards

WEBD/DW

(For release July 1, 1934)

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

June 26, 1934

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

In reference to your desire to postpone action on my resignation of June 11, I have allowed my nominal connection with THE CRISIS to extend to July 1, and have meantime entered into communication with the Chairman of the Board, and with your Committee of Reconciliation.

I appreciate the good will and genuine desire to bridge an awkward break which your action indicated, and yet it is clear to me, and I think to the majority of the Board that under the circumstances my resignation must stand. I owe it, however, to the Board and to the public to make clear at this time the deeper reasons for my action, lest the apparent causes of my resignation seem inadequate.

Many friends have truthfully asserted that the segregation argument was not the main reason for my wishing to leave this organization. It was an occasion and an important occasion, but it could have been adjusted. In fact, no matter what the Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says, its action toward segregation has got to approximate, in the future as in the past, the pattern which it followed in the case of the separate camp for Negro officers during the World War and in the case of the Tuskegee Veterans' Hospital. In both instances, we protested vigorously and to the limit of our ability the segregation policy. Then, when we had failed and knew we had failed, we bent every effort toward making the colored camp at Des Moines the best officers' camp possible, and the Tuskegee Hospital, with its Negro personnel, one of the most efficient in the land. This is shown by the 8th and 14th Annual Reports of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The only thing, therefore, that remains for us is to decide whether we are openly to recognize this procedure as inevitable, or be silent about it and still pursue it. Under these circumstances, the argument must be more or less academic, but there is no essential reason that those who see different sides of this same shield should not be able to agree to live together in the same house.

The whole matter assumed, however, a serious aspect when the Board peremptorily forbade all criticism of the officers and policies in THE CRISIS. I had planed to continue constructive criticism of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in THE CRISIS because I firmly believe that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People faces the most gruelling of tests which come to an old organization: founded in a day when a negative program of protest was imperative and effective, it succeeded so well that the program seemed perfect and unlimited. Suddenly, by World War and chaos, we are called to formulate a positive program of construction and inspiration. We have been thus far unable to comply.

Today this organization, which has been great and effective for nearly a quarter of a century, finds itself in a time of crisis and change, without a program, without effective organization, without executive officers, who have either the ability or disposition to guide the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the right direction.

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These are harsh and arresting charges. I make them deliberately, and after long thought, earnest effort, and with infinite writhing of spirit. To the very best of my ability, and every ounce of my strength, I have since the beginning of the Great Depression, tried to work inside the organization for its realignment and readjustment to new duties. I have been almost absolutely unsuccessful. My program for economic readjustment has been totally ignored. My demand for a change in personnel has been considered as mere petty jealousy, and my protest against our mistakes and blunders has been looked upon as disloyalty to the organization.

So long as I sit by silently consenting, I share responsibility. If I criticize within, my words fall on deaf ears. If I criticize openly, I seem to be washing dirty linen in public. There is but one recourse, complete and final withdrawal, not because all is hopeless nor because there are no signs of realization of the possibilities of reform and of the imperative demand for men and vision, but because evidently I personally can do nothing more.

I leave behind me in the organization many who have long thought with me, and yet hesitated at action; many persons of large ideals who see no agents at hand to realize them, and who fear that the dearth of ability and will to sacrifice within this organization, indicates a similar lack within the whole race. I know that both sets of friends are wrong, and while I desert them with deep reluctance, it is distinctly in the hope that the fact of my going may arouse to action and bring a great and gifted race to the rescue, with a rebirth of that fine idealism and devotion that founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Under those circumstances, there is but one thing for me to do, and that is to make the supreme sacrifice of taking myself absolutely and unequivocably out of the picture, so that hereafter the leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, without the distraction of personalities and acumulated animosities, can give their whole thought and attention to the rescuing of the greatest organization for the emancipation of Negroes that America has ever had.

I am, therefore, insisting upon my resignation, and on July 1st, whether the Board of Directors acts or does not act, I automatically cease to have any connection whatsoever in any shape or form with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I do not, however, cease to wish it well, to follow it with personal and palpitating interest, and to applaud it when it is able to rescue itself from its present impossible position and reorganize itself according to the demands of the present crisis.

Very respectfully yours,
(Signed) W. E. B. Du Bois.