When he was in his mid 20s, Charles White provided the cover illustration for a pamphlet, published in 1946, Behold The Land, by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. Throughout his working life, White provided drawings for several Du Bois publications and a recording of his autobiography. Several years after Behold The Land was published, Charles White provided another cover illustration for a small pamphlet of a text by W. E. B. Du Bois, I take my stand for peace, published in 1951. The illustration, which was dramatically cropped, would again be utilised a decade later, when it was used on the cover of a Folkways recorded autobiography of Du Bois. "I take my stand for peace" had first appeared in the magazine Masses & Mainstream, April 1951, Volume 4, Number 4. A short time later it was reprinted in the highly portable form of this 16 page pamphlet, which measured not much more than 12 centimeters in height. The pamphlet presented Du Bois' anti-war views and his arguments for peace activism, and protest against government efforts to curb political non-conformists. White's striking portrait of Du Bois appeared against a dark brown background.
Reading the pamphlet nearly 70 years later, we cannot help but be struck, not only by Du Bois' eloquence and the forcefulness of his messages, but also the extent of an enduring relevance of his sentiments in I take my stand for peace. Page after page, paragraph after paragraph, Du Bois' words read like 21st century protest. Among his concluding sentiments: "I want progress; I want education; I want social medicine; I want a living wage and old age security; I want employment for all and relief for the unemployed and sick; I want public works, public services and public improvements. I want freedom for my people. And because I know and you know that we cannot have these things, and at the same time fight, destroy and kill all around the world in order to make huge profit for big business; for that reason, I take my stand besides the millions in every nation and continent and cry Peace – No More War!"