In February 1926 W. E. B. Du Bois sponsored a symposium, “The Negro in Art,” in The Crisis to spark debate about the appropriate course for the arts. He feared that black writers were jeopardizing the civil rights cause by depicting the “Negro underworld” versus the Talented Tenth to appease white patronage. He espoused his own view in this manifesto, in which he insisted that “all art is propaganda”—a tool for race uplift. To illustrate his point, he wrote Dark Princess (1928), a novel about a plot by the darker races to end European imperialism. Du Bois’s substantial writings included five novels, poetry, short stories, and a historical pageant.
In February 1926 W. E. B. Du Bois sponsored a symposium, “The Negro in Art,” in The Crisis to spark debate about the appropriate course for the arts. He feared that black writers were jeopardizing the civil rights cause by depicting the “Negro underworld” versus the Talented Tenth to appease white patronage. He espoused his own view in this manifesto, in which he insisted that “all art is propaganda”—a tool for race uplift. To illustrate his point, he wrote Dark Princess (1928), a novel about a plot by the darker races to end European imperialism. Du Bois’s substantial writings included five novels, poetry, short stories, and a historical pageant.