W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Richard Wright: Toward an Ecocriticism of Color

The Soils of Black Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Theories of Environmental Racialization

“…Other scholars have also identified the prevalence of environmental themes in Du Bois's work. Literary theorists and historians have focused on Du Bois's contribution to early twentieth-century debates on ecological conservation and the aesthetics of nature (Adams 2019;Beilfuss 2015;Claborn 2017;Hicks 2006;McCammack 2018;Oliver 2014;Raine 2013). Some social theorists have also grappled with Du Bois's environmental thought and have argued that he fits neatly as an early proponent of contemporary scholarship on how racism affects environments (Besek, Robinson, and Rosenbloom 2020;Clark et al 2018;Norgaard 2019;Pellow and Nyseth Brehm 2013;Smith 2014).…”

The ‘Natural’ Accord of DuBois and Washington: An Environmentally Racialized Consciousness

“…5,6 Research studies demonstrate that increased time spent in greenspace is associated with many health benefits, including a decreased risk of depression, anxiety, obesity, and diabetes symptoms as well as improved sleep, restoration, connection with others and sense of well-being. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Recognizing the benefits of greenspace on health and the need to improve the health of our communities, a group including practitioners, the National Park Service, National Environmental Education Foundation, and the Institute at the Golden Gate convened in 2013 to discuss how to implement a national movement to promote and encourage nature prescription programs for healthcare providers. 17 Nature prescriptions are similar to medication prescriptions but provide details on spending time in an outdoor space that includes a specific location, activity, frequency, and duration for the purpose of improving a specific health condition(s).…”

“…Through reflexive discourse, Washington postured a level of elitism within his private natural spaces, like the girdled Tuskegee Institute woods or his personal garden, and expressed “pity [for] the man or woman who has never learned to enjoy nature and to get strength and inspiration out of it”. 10,11 In these privileged natural surroundings with trees, birds and “the sweet fragrance that springs from a hundred plants”, Washington reveled in the absence of racial categorization and indulged in an existence “where no one can disturb or vex” him (Figure 1). 10 While castigated as a conciliatory figure with resistive and conformist politics at the expense of Black American civil rights, particularly with assertions that acquiesced segregation (“In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”), renounced agitation (“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly”), and subordinated demands (“More than this, he has no right to request”), Washington appealed for mutual economic development among Black and White southerners by way of industrial education and agricultural expertise.…”

Spending Time in Nature: The Overlooked Health Behavior

“…Through reflexive discourse, Washington postured a level of elitism within his private natural spaces, like the girdled Tuskegee Institute woods or his personal garden, and expressed “pity [for] the man or woman who has never learned to enjoy nature and to get strength and inspiration out of it”. 10,11 In these privileged natural surroundings with trees, birds and “the sweet fragrance that springs from a hundred plants”, Washington reveled in the absence of racial categorization and indulged in an existence “where no one can disturb or vex” him (Figure 1). 10 While castigated as a conciliatory figure with resistive and conformist politics at the expense of Black American civil rights, particularly with assertions that acquiesced segregation (“In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”), renounced agitation (“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly”), and subordinated demands (“More than this, he has no right to request”), Washington appealed for mutual economic development among Black and White southerners by way of industrial education and agricultural expertise.…”