Why W. E. B. Du Bois Became a Marxist

W. E. B. Du Bois, the father of American sociology, visited the Soviet Union in 1926, declaring afterwards that “I am a Bolshevik.” He undertook an intensive study of Marx, Engels, and Lenin in 1933-34, when he was 65 years old, in an effort to become what he called a “perfect Marxist.” He was clearly influenced at this time by a group of so-called Young Turks in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) who advocated for building a strong interracial labor movement in the U.S. Du Bois’s radicalization would result in his resignation from the NAACP in 1934. His magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880, published in 1935, and his subsequent writings reflect his turn to Marxism, a theoretical move he thought essential for understanding racism and racial oppression. This paper examines the reasons why Marxism appealed to Du Bois, and why he turned to Marxism in the 1930s, despite his strong misgivings at the time with the politics of the Communist Party in the United States.