a program they cannot build manhood. No, by God, stand erect in a
mud-puddle and tell the white world to go to hell, rather than lick boots
in a parlor."

Both Walter White and James Weldon Johnson took on the task of countering
DuBois's position. Johnson argued that DuBois ended where Washington
began. He noted that the conflict between integration into a biracial
society and withdrawal into black separatism had existed throughout
American history. There had always been a minority who wanted to build a
separate community, but he said that what was favored by the majority was
to gain entrance into American society. Yet the daily insults which were
felt even by the most avid integrationists led them to curse white
society and, at times, to consider retreat into isolationism. According
to his point of view, Johnson pointed out, isolationism had to be based
on economics and although one could talk about black capitalism and could
even develop some prospering businesses, the economic realities favored
mass production and economic interdependence. Separate black institutions
were always contingent institutions which were subservient to the country
as a whole. Therefore they could never really be free or independent.
The separate society would always be subject to external control by the
larger economic and political institutions on which it relied. Johnson
also noted that integrationists like himself had been charged with
failing to see the intensity of the institutional racism which existed
all about them. He denied this and claimed that racism and discrimination
were patently obvious. To the contrary, he suggested that the real danger
was in overemphasizing their importance and becoming paranoid.

After the Second World War, DuBois Joined the N.A.A.C.P. staff for
another short period. However, his disillusionment with society had
deepened, and he was ready to consider even more radical solutions than
before. He had become increasingly convinced that racism was a world
problem and not merely an American problem. The series of Pan-African
Congresses which he had helped to organize forced him to see a connection
between American racism and European imperialism in Africa. At the same
time, communism was representing itself as the foe of both racism and
imperialism, and for many of the oppressed peoples throughout the world
the communist claim had become attractive. To the N.A.A.C.P. it seemed
that DuBois's new "pink" ideas