Dr. Joy James, 29th annual Du Bois Lecture on September 12th 2024.

Recording of the Dr. Joy James live stream, from the 29th annual Du Bois Lecture on September 12th 2024.
Did W.E.B. Du Bois's Rejection of Ida B. Wells Project Trauma and Alienation against Black Rebellion?
This meditation on Black leadership compares and contrasts W.E.B. DuBois's Souls of Black Folk and Ida B. Wells's Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. Both historical icons worked to co-found the NAACP as a resistance to anti-Black violence and repression, yet only one leader was pushed out of the NAACP because of their radical resistance to lynching. Transcending the Talented Tenth notes Du Bois's and Wells's diverse politics of struggle. As their political heirs, today, we witness the rise of elite Black leadership amid the demise of mass Black Liberation. Du Bois's repudiated elites (the "talented tenth") continue to shape the meaning of contemporary "Black Power" by depicting it as largely access to state, corporate, and military-police powers. If trauma, alienation, and purchase crush resistance, could Du Bois's and Wells's legacies instruct a talented mass how to emancipate the "talented tenth" from elite capture?