W.E.B. DuBois

In 1910, W.E.B. DuBois became the editor of The Crisis, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). DuBois used his position to articulate his views on racial issues in the United States. In this editorial, which originally appeared in the November 1920 issue of Crisis, DuBois takes up the topics of social equality and interracial marriage; he tries to clarify the NAACP's position on social equality, which he believes has been misunderstood by white Americans.

When The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was organized it seemed to us that the subject of "social equality" between races was not one that we need touch officially whatever our private opinions might be. We announced clearly our object as being the political and civil rights of Negroes...