“From the Suppression the Repression: Connecting the Ideological Lineage of W. E. B. Du Bois to Huey P. Newton” by Anthony Sean Neal, M.Div., D.A. Humanities ©Copyright 2016 @ Paine College, Dr. Anthony Sean Neal In 1896, the dissertation of W. E. B. Du Bois was published initiating a modern era of individuals who would aim the majority of their scholarly production toward the examination and explanation of human “beingness” through the lens of blackness with the intended purpose of creating a better lived experience. This burgeoning ethos can be seen in what Du Bois wrote in a diary entry, as graduate student at Harvard in 1890, “These are my plans: to make a name in science, to make a name in literature, and this to raise my race”( Lewis, 1995, p.3). Much of this scholarly output forms the foundation of an ethnic reflective canon that is useful in the understanding of the differences between the constructive philosophies which have developed within the departments of Black Studies (African American, Africana, Africana Women, Afro- American, and Africology) and those that developed within traditional departments of such disciplines as Philosophy. This canon includes, but by far is not limited, such titles as The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire, Black Skin White Mask by Franz Fanon, Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman, Blues People by Leroi Jones, and Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton. The significance of this ethnic reflective canon has many implications, but for the purposes of this study the significance is twofold: It demonstrates an intentional effort among Black scholars of the modern era to participate in the movement for Black freedom through the creation of ideas and scholarly production; secondly, it demonstrates that beginning with W. E. B. Du Bois, a school of philosophy or critical thought