Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory

by David W. Blight

Modeled on Jonathan Swift’s story “A Modest Proposal,” Du Bois called his satire “A Mild Suggestion.” Similar to Johnson’s parable on the Pullman car, Du Bois placed five characters on the deck of a ship: a Little Old Lady, a Westerner, a Southerner, a New Yorker, and a Colored Man. They are discussing the “Negro Problem” within hearing of the Colored Man, and suggest the usual solutions of education, work, and emigration. Finally they ask the black man his opinion. He sits down and lays out his “perfect solution.” He urges rejection of education because it will only lead to “ambition, dissatisfaction and revolt,” scorns work because it can only foment job competition and the disruption of social circles, and refuses emigration because it is impractical. Instead, he proposes that on January 1, 1913,

The story goes on to suggest killing all Blacks so that there will no longer be “a negro problem”