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"Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life."- W. E. B. Du Bois
Over a century ago in February 1905, thirty-two African Americans met secretly in the Buffalo home of Mary B. Talbert to discuss the resolutions that would become the Niagara Movement. This group invited fifty-nine selected "African American businessmen to a meeting that summer in western New York. On July 11 thru 14, 1905 on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, twentynine met and formed a group called the Niagara Movement" ("Founders of the Niagara Movement at Niagara Falls."). The name "Niagara Movement" allegedly came from the location of the meeting, along with the '"mighty current' of protest they wished to unleash." But before looking at the Movement, we need to take a closer look at some of the founding members.
W. E. B. Du Bois is arguably the most well-known and respected founding member of the Niagara Movement. Du Bois was born in Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868. He completed high school and then went to Fisk University, where, in 1888, he received a B.A. degree. Du Bois went on to go to Harvard where he obtained his M.A. and his Ph. D. ("Dubois Obituary"). Du Bois was the first African American to earn a Ph. D. at Harvard (Meier, and Franklin, 65). Du Bois used his training in social sciences and published the first in-depth case study of a black community in the United States, in The Philadelphia Negro, in 1899. When dealing with civil rights for African Americans, Du Bois believed in a college-educated "Talented Tenth." This Talented Tenth were going to be the educated African Americans who would lead the rest of the African Americans to equality by being committed to the "welfare of the black masses." This Talented Tenth would be the leadership that would elevate the "blacks economically and culturally." This will play in later to the conflict between Du Bois and the largest black figure of this time, Booker T. Washington. [Du Bois was also a noted propagandist]. Since Du Bois was the leading intellectual African American at this time, it seems appropriate that this would be one of his roles. Du Bois even wrote in his autobiographical book,...