The Vision
W.E.B Du Bois was born on February 23,1868 in Great Barrington Massachusetts. In 2018, Philadelphia will celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. He is perhaps African America’s greatest thinker and one of the most important scholars of the modern epoch. At the core of this celebration will be a yearlong project, “Philadelphia Reads W.E.B Du Bois”. From churches, to mosques, from union halls to college campuses, Philadelphians will gather to explore the contemporary relevance of Du Bois’ ideas and how they might be used in our time to help resolve the great problems the people of our city, nation and world face.
A people armed with just ideas and political consciousness are a strong people. Such people cannot be easily manipulated. An educated people are more able to determine the course of their own history. They constitute a most powerful force, more powerful than violence and weapons. This force can only be developed when people take it upon themselves to study their history, and work from the simple awareness that when women, men and children think they are better able to determine the future.
Moral despair, resulting from uncertainty about the future, consumes millions of people. The country has immense poverty in the midst of obscene wealth. More than one-fourth of Philadelphians live in poverty, one in four households in North Philadelphia are struggling with childhood hunger. Too many children and adults cannot read; the schools are failing to equip thousands of children with literacy; thereby cutting them off from ideas and information.
The Black poor and working people are most affected. The defunding of public schools is an attack upon our children and our communities. The universities are failing in their responsibility to educate the people. We believe that people want to read and understand. It fulfills a human need to see one’s place in the world, to uncover the purpose of one’s life. This striving motivates us to take Du Bois’ words and ideas to the people of Philadelphia. “Philadelphia Reads W.E.B. Du Bois”, in the end, is a campaign of reading, discussion and literacy.
Moreover, it is not enough to be able to read words in a book, we must be able to interpret what we read through the lens of one’s life world and the strivings of ones community. Today’s culture of quick entertainment discourages understanding and leaves us helpless in times of crisis and change. It is only with a return to deep thought and study that we can imagine what better future might be.
In reading Du Bois, we return to the history of black Philadelphia, the tradition of radical thought, of jazz and of art which understands the world with clarity, and presents a vision for change. The poor in Philadelphia may have been denied elite culture, yet it is out of this denial that a great culture emerged. We wish to draw on these traditions of thought and knowledge by reading Du Bois.
Reading Du Bois means engaging in the battle for ideas of freedom, justice and equality. The battle for ideas which clarify our realities, against confusion and mis-education, is the most important things we can collective engage in. It cannot be won in a matter of hours and days. It requires patience and perseverance. It is a righteous, difficult and long battle. It is a battle against today’s pessimism and nihilism. Du Bois’ ideas start from an unshakable faith in the vast masses of people. As we enter upon this great campaign, in an atmosphere where too many see no future and no way out of the crises of everyday living, we are inspired by DuBois’ words “pessimism is cowardice”.
We look forward to the the campaign Philadelphia Reads W.E.B Du Bois as a year of concerted reading across the city. We hope to bring alive churches, mosques, schools, and union halls, with reading, thinking, learning and growing. Because reading is the pathway to knowing, the campaign to read Du Bois is a moral and spiritual movement. It responds to the fierce urgency of now; and the need to act for social change.
The reading groups will be places for the development of knowledge that draws from and builds upon Du Bois’ writings. New ideas will be born. They will represent the strivings of the people of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Reads W.E.B. Du Bois will be a step towards a vision for a new world; a vision that sees the vast majority of humanity in control of its own destiny. In the words of James Baldwin, “An old world is dying, and a new one, kicking in the belly of its mother, time, announces that it is ready to be born.”
A people armed with just ideas and political consciousness are a strong people. Such people cannot be easily manipulated. An educated people are more able to determine the course of their own history. They constitute a most powerful force, more powerful than violence and weapons. This force can only be developed when people take it upon themselves to study their history, and work from the simple awareness that when women, men and children think they are better able to determine the future.
Moral despair, resulting from uncertainty about the future, consumes millions of people. The country has immense poverty in the midst of obscene wealth. More than one-fourth of Philadelphians live in poverty, one in four households in North Philadelphia are struggling with childhood hunger. Too many children and adults cannot read; the schools are failing to equip thousands of children with literacy; thereby cutting them off from ideas and information.
The Black poor and working people are most affected. The defunding of public schools is an attack upon our children and our communities. The universities are failing in their responsibility to educate the people. We believe that people want to read and understand. It fulfills a human need to see one’s place in the world, to uncover the purpose of one’s life. This striving motivates us to take Du Bois’ words and ideas to the people of Philadelphia. “Philadelphia Reads W.E.B. Du Bois”, in the end, is a campaign of reading, discussion and literacy.
Moreover, it is not enough to be able to read words in a book, we must be able to interpret what we read through the lens of one’s life world and the strivings of ones community. Today’s culture of quick entertainment discourages understanding and leaves us helpless in times of crisis and change. It is only with a return to deep thought and study that we can imagine what better future might be.
In reading Du Bois, we return to the history of black Philadelphia, the tradition of radical thought, of jazz and of art which understands the world with clarity, and presents a vision for change. The poor in Philadelphia may have been denied elite culture, yet it is out of this denial that a great culture emerged. We wish to draw on these traditions of thought and knowledge by reading Du Bois.
Reading Du Bois means engaging in the battle for ideas of freedom, justice and equality. The battle for ideas which clarify our realities, against confusion and mis-education, is the most important things we can collective engage in. It cannot be won in a matter of hours and days. It requires patience and perseverance. It is a righteous, difficult and long battle. It is a battle against today’s pessimism and nihilism. Du Bois’ ideas start from an unshakable faith in the vast masses of people. As we enter upon this great campaign, in an atmosphere where too many see no future and no way out of the crises of everyday living, we are inspired by DuBois’ words “pessimism is cowardice”.
We look forward to the the campaign Philadelphia Reads W.E.B Du Bois as a year of concerted reading across the city. We hope to bring alive churches, mosques, schools, and union halls, with reading, thinking, learning and growing. Because reading is the pathway to knowing, the campaign to read Du Bois is a moral and spiritual movement. It responds to the fierce urgency of now; and the need to act for social change.
The reading groups will be places for the development of knowledge that draws from and builds upon Du Bois’ writings. New ideas will be born. They will represent the strivings of the people of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Reads W.E.B. Du Bois will be a step towards a vision for a new world; a vision that sees the vast majority of humanity in control of its own destiny. In the words of James Baldwin, “An old world is dying, and a new one, kicking in the belly of its mother, time, announces that it is ready to be born.”
