And now i am so pleased to introduce tonights speakers. Chad l williams is the samuel j. And Augusta Spector professor of history and african africanamerican studies at brandeis university. Hes the author, the Award Winning book torchbearers of democracy, africanamerican in the world war one era, and the coeditor of charleston syllabus readings race, racism and racial violence. His writings and op eds have appeared in the atlantic, the washington post, time the conversation, joining him tonight is Henry Louis Gates jr. Alphonse Fletcher University and founding director of the hutchins for african and African American research at Harvard University and emmy peabody Award Winning filmmaker literary journalist, cultural critic and institute and builder. Professor gates, his most recent books are stony the road and the black church. This is our story. This our song. Tonight, they will discuss chads latest book, the wounded world a sweeping story of hope betrayal, disillusionment and transformation and a one of a kind glimpse into how a crucial moment of International Crisis impacted one of the greatest american intellectuals of the 20th century. Robin d. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk the life and times of an american original the wounded world, a genuine masterpiece. Williamss account of dubois to complete his major treatise on black participation in the First World War is a window into the tragedies of industrial scale killing, colonialism and the color line changed. The world and a man we so excited to have them in store tonight. Please join me in welcoming Chad Williams and Henry Louis Gates judy gray. Stay here or. Good evening everyone. All right. Thank you so much for coming out this evening. Its truly an honor. Thank you, everyone. At harvard bookstore, the amazing staff for organizing event. Thank you very much, professor gates, for joining me this evening. Really excited to talk about the book and to engage with all of you about the book as well. I want to spend plenty of time for us to be in conversation with each other. I know professor gates has a long list of questions laid out here for me. I feel like im back in grad school. My general examinations or but first let me say a little bit about the origins of this book. And it really begins with a story and it begins october of 2000. I was a graduate at the time at Princeton University working on my dissertation, which would eventually become my first book. Torchbearers of democracy. And i was on one of my First Research trips to the university of massachusetts amherst, where w. E. B. Dubois is papers are housed, and ive been very responsible in advance and gone through the finding, and i saw reference to. Dubois world war one materials. And i no idea what it was. It sounded intriguing im going to be at umass. I might as well look for so i go to the library, the appropriately named w. E. B. Dubois library. I go to the special Collections Department and ask the librarian i would like to see these dubois one on one materials. I think it might be a folder, maybe a box, if im lucky. I sit down, wait at the table. The librarian returns with six microfilm reels. Wow. So now im really. What could this possibly. So some of you may remember what a microfilm machine like you had a roll load the film and crank the so i put the first reel in and there is a manuscript by w e. B. Dubois on the black in world war one that i knew nothing about the manuscript. I would continue to learn more about 800 pages long. In addition to the actual manuscript, all of duboiss Research Materials and the correspondence related to this project. He gave his book an incredibly evocative title, the black man and the wounded world. So just imagine i am a young bride, had graduate student stumbling an unfinished and unpublished manuscript by the great w. E. B. Dubois. I didnt know what to do with myself. Was stunned. Shocked, but really, more than anything else, i was confused. What this book, why didnt i know anything about . Why had no one written anything about it so mind was racing with questions. So my graduate advisor said, okay, you know, youre going to finish your dissertation, right . So i had to put the brakes on. Know my naive thought of trying to publish dubois as a book for him. But the question surrounding this discovery stage in my mind and ultimately i wanted to tell the story behind this book, this really remarkable story of w. E. B. Dubois, who. 1918 encouraged africanamericans to close ranks to the war to support the allied war effort, put his on the line, made one of the most controversial decisions of his life, of his career and put it his pacifist principles in supporting the war, believing that this would be a moment where africanamericans reconcile the warring ideals of their double consciousness in the throes of warfare and he was wrong. He would come to regret that decision really for the rest of his life. But the opportunity to write about the history of the war offered him a form of atonement as. Well as a type of vindicate action or at least so he believed. He spent 20 years trying to write get funding for and publish the black man and the wounded and ultimately was not successful. So i was fascinated by what this tells us about dubois what this amazing project tells us about his life work, his political evolution. What does it tell us about a man who, as i said in 1918, supported the war, but by 1951, 83 years old, was going be thrown in jail by the federal government for his antiwar activities. How do we explain evolution . How do we explain that . And duboiss remarkable really coincide with him trying to get the black and the wounded world ultimately finished and published. In the end, i was left with this question of failure. What does it mean to think about dubois failing to complete what would have been one of his most significant works of history . And ultimately, what does that tell us about world war one, its significance for africanamericans, for peoples of african descent more broadly but also what does that tell us about the struggles for race and democracy by black people in, the 20th century and beyond . Dubois as i titled his book the black man and the wounded world, and i think dubois was wrestling with an incredibly profound question what does it mean to live in a wounded world, what it mean to live in a world scarred hard by war, by racism and white supremacy, by violence, by economic, by empire those, are incredibly profound and weighty questions that dubois himself even struggled with. And i think theyre questions that were still struggling with today. So hopefully my book offers a glimpse into some of these Big Questions as well as a new way of thinking about the great w. E. B. Dubois. Great people have written. Yeah. Now what, i heard was that when you found the manuscript, you tried to white out dubois. His name and oh is that true to his daughters serious. I cant your question. Dont get me in trouble. There might be lawyers listening, so i dont know anybody who knows any thing at all about the great dubois. The great war. Probably thinks immediately of the piece that, as you mentioned, he wrote for the crisis magazine, which he was the editor, Founding Editor in july 1918 entitled close ranks first. What was dubois arguing, and second, why was he arguing it . And third, why was it controversial at the time and do you think its controversial in retrospect . Wow. So close ranks. Ranks. I would say, is one of duboiss most controversial that that he wrote through july 1918 issue of the crisis. And theres a lot of intrigue surrounding that at the time he was being considered for a captains and c in the military intelligence division. And there was belief that close ranks was written to kind of soothe the waters to make this captaincy offer go over to ease the concerns of white military officials in war department. But i think beyond kind of the larger intrigue is the message in close ranks where he declared that this was the war for democracy that this was going be the Pivotal Moment in the history of modern democracy on a global scale and africanamericans and other of african descent had to do their part and he encouraged africanamericans to set aside their special grievances lynching jim crow economic right put those special aside for time being and support their country ranks with their fellow white americans and the allied nations that are fighting for democracy. And he said we make no ordinary, but we make it gladly and willingly with our eyes lifted to the hills, this illicit a firestorm of controversy. Duboiss harshest critics labeled him a traitor to the race. If you think about who dubois was, someone who committed his life to the service, to the uplift of black people to be called a traitor to the race was probably the worst that you could levy at. I would think. But i think close ranks really gets at the central dilemma that dubois wrestling with in the souls of black folk, and in many of his other writings, this tension being black and being what it means be a patriot, what it means to be loyal to a country that is not loyal to you and dubois believed that the war would be the opportune city for africanamericans to prove their worth as american citizens. Where that tension, that double consciousness, those two unreconciled strive ins would indeed be reconciled and ultimately, as he realized as the legacy of the war unfolded in the immediate aftermath of war and throughout the 1920s and thirties, he that that was the wrong decision to make and he lived with the weight of that decision. I would argue really for the rest of his life. What was the voices really . I remember Woodrow Wilson as the president. Nice things and many scholars think he was the most racist other than the Andrew Johnson and there are a lot of candidates, the most racist for some reason the recent occupants white but what was his relationship with Woodrow Wilson and Woodrow Wilson you have to remember, was a southerner. Woodrow wilson screened birth of a nation arguably still the most racist film ever produced in the United States. What was relationship with Woodrow Wilson . Why in the world did he think that participation in the war, just like frederick argued and so many other black people, if only we show, only we show our patriotism. Yeah, only show our hair. The brass letters of the us on your chest. Thats right. Douglass, youre paraphrasing that was said if a black man where i wish i had the quote, i dont it but all a racist has to see yeah is name of a black man wearing know on bearing arms you know fighting for that will end racism so why in the world did he think this would be different particularly under one of the most racist president who reince who did segregation in federal offices in washington dc and why would dubois lets see. How old is he in 19 eight. Hes between 1868. 50, 50 years old. 51. The last captain was 50 years old. You ran into what was on dubois mind. Why did he want to be a captain of harvard . He wasnt. No, it wasnt wasnt like. So theres a theres a few things. Dubois and woodrow, really fascinating relationship in some ways. Kindred spirits and certainly they come from very backgrounds, very different trajectories. But they were both kind of molded in a moment in the intellectual milieu where democracy was valued. They were both democratic thinkers from their own unique perspectives. They both believed democracy as not just a form of government, but as an ideal as a way of life. Out dubois supported. Woodrow wilson for president in 1912. Again, very put aside his membership in the socialist party and felt that because woodrow was a more educated cult invaded southerner, wasnt rabid white supremacist that would bring a level of civility to to the white house even went so far as say he had the potential to be the next Abraham Lincoln. He was wrong about that decision as well. And very quickly came to to regret it. But both wilson and dubois, two men with huge egos, was two men who believed in the power, their own intellect and capabilities they thought that democracy could be achieved and spread on it on a worldwide scale as a result of the dubois thinking about democracy. See, in the specific context of black people and the broader African Diaspora, Woodrow Wilson, obviously, and more narrowly, but still under this interesting connection between these two men about what democracy at the time in terms of of duboiss belief that world war one could be different. I struggled with this because. On the one hand, youre right. Why he think anything would be different. It seemed just incredibly naive of dubois to believe that war one would be this chance formative moment for democracy and for black people in particular. But keep in mind, dubois was was a historian and he drew from the history of service in the american revolution, in the civil war, especially, that Frederick Douglass he saw war and black military service as an engine of social and political transformation with black soldiers specifically kind of at the tip of the spear. One of the boys, his closest friends who i talk about in the book was colonel young, colonel charles. I think about colin powell before. There was colin powell, right . He was the most esteemed, the most decorated black military figure in, the country he was one of the boys is closest black friends. They went way back all the way back to wilberforce. And Charles Young was someone who loved his country right, who believed that it was possible to be both loyal to your country, to serve your country, also be loyal to your race, to serve your race. So he was looking at individuals like Charles Young as kind of emblem of the possibilities of what the war could do for black people. And theres a lot of tragedy surrounding Charles Young as well as as i talk about in the book, which ultimately adds duboiss disillusionment after the war and belief certainly by the mid 1920s and into the 1930s that the war indeed was a complete tragedy and a failure, champ explained both and very few people here are since world war one, right when i was 19, at the end of my sophomore year at yale, i took a gap on a program funded by the carnegie corporations called five year b. A. So every year, 12 kids at yale in sophomore year, at the end of your sophomore year, you would be chosen. Youd have to. The one proviso was that you had to work in what we use the third world and i was premed like every smart little black i knew right . So i went and my fathers family were. And so through the anglican communion, as it was called, the diocese, West VirginiaSister Diocese was at the time called the diocese of central tanganyika. So i got job working at an Anglican Mission hospital. 4 hours into the bush from dodoma capital of tanzania and it had been a german for it. And lived in the german prison. I mean, they were five european missionaries there, and then they put there, they were all women, so they me, you know, isolated in what was the german prison . Just just across the sort of yard. And then the outskirts was a cemetery and it was the war did of german soldiers talk about helping understand the role of africa and. The boys wrote brilliantly about the role of africa in world war one, when he was deconstructing the reasons for the war can. You explain that a little bit. Sure, dubois wrote. What i think is one of the most brilliant articles, quite possibly in the 20th century in the Atlantic Monthly in 1915, titled the african roots of the war. And in this article he identified he pinpointed the origins of the war in the imperial copper amongst the different european belligerents for control of africa and its resources, both human and material. And it was these rivalries, these colonial rivalries which eventually came such a fever pitch that war exploded in europe. It was an incredibly brilliant analysis, far ahead of its its time and its analysis. And its an that he really carried forward through his attempting to write the black man and wounded worlds definitive history of of the war. So from start he saw the connections between the war and africa as well as African Peoples of african descent throughout the diaspora. More broadly in the book he tried to write, he actually devotes several chapters to talking about the impact of the war on the African Diaspora the transformations in panafrican and diasporic as a result of war. Keep in mind that in 1919 he travels france to conduct research for his book, but he also organizes a landmark Panafrican Congress. So hes thinking about the panafrican dimensions of the war, how this was really remarkable moment kind of in the genesis of a of a panafrican consciousness. But he also writes about the experiences of african troops in the french military, as well as in the british. He envisioned writing the chapter about other african, possibly in the german militarys and other places. So he has a very kind of global but but specifically african diasporic conceptualization of the war, which is attempting to articulate in in his book but also in his politics his Global Politics as well who who opposed them, who were dominant voices, other than dubois in this debate. Within, uh, within Community Bring that debate to life, perhaps bring that to debate to life. So i think that, you know, theres some misconception that all africanamericans where were gung ho about the war that some ways dubois is close ranks editorials emblematic of a black opinion and thats thats really not the case. I would argue