Philosophy 21

“Peoples of the World, we American Negroes appeal to you; our treatment in America is not merely an internal question of the United States. It is a basic problem of humanity; of democracy; of discrimination because of race and color […].”

Quote: Letter to the newly founded United Nations: "An Appeal to the World: A Statement of Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of Negro Descent in the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress.” Picture: By Unknown author. WIkimedia. Creative Commons.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was an American human rights activist and civil rights activist as well as philosopher, sociologist and historian.

In the letter to the newly founded United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights implemented with reference to the experiences of National Socialism, Du Bois links the situation of black people in the USA with general questions of human rights. While the USA, as an ally in Europe, was instrumental in the liberation from fascism and injustice, black people in the USA continue to be denied basic rights. Du Bois appeals to the world community not to leave the unjust treatment of black people to the USA as a domestic political problem, but to apply the standard of general humanity and democracy to the USA as well.

*Thomas C. Holt (2008): "Du Bois, W. E. B.", in: African American National Biography, Henry Louis Gates Jr. a. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (eds.). New York: Oxford UP. *W.E.B. Du Bois (1947): "An Appeal to the World : A Statement of Denial of Human Rights to Minorities…”,

1947