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After completing graduate work at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and Harvard University, where he was its first African American to earn a doctorate, Du Bois rose to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of black civil rights activists seeking equal rights.
- W.E.B. Du Bois’ Childhood
- Education of W.E.B. Dubois
- The Philadelphia Negro
- W.E.B. Du Bois’ Sociological Studies
- 'The Souls of Black Folk'
- The Niagara Movement and Booker T. Washington
- NAACP
- W.E.B. Du Bois and Communism
- Encyclopedia Africana
- Sources
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Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868, Du Bois’ birth certificate has his name as “William E. Duboise.” Two years after his birth his father, Alfred Du Bois, left his mother, Mary Silvina Burghardt. Du Bois became the first person in his extended family to attend high school, and did so at his mother’s insistence. In 1883, D...
Du Bois initially attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, a school for Black students. His tuition was paid by several churches in Great Barrington. Du Bois became an editor for the Herald, the student magazine. After graduation, Du Bois attended Harvard University, starting in 1888 and eventually receiving advanced degrees in history. In...
Du Bois took a position at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896 conducting a study of the city’s Seventh Ward, published in 1899 as The Philadelphia Negro. The work took up so much of his time that he missed the birth of his first son in Great Barrington. The study is considered one of the earliest examples of statistical work being used for soci...
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offered Du Bois a job in 1897, leading to several groundbreaking studies on Black Southern households in Farmville, Virginia, that uncovered how slavery still affected the personal lives of African Americans. Du Bois would do four more studies for the bureau, two in Alabama and two in Georgia. These studies were ...
Du Bois and family moved to Atlanta University, where he taught sociology and worked on his additional Bureau of Labor Statistics studies. Among the books written during this period was The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of sociological essays examining the Black experience in America. Partially derived from his Atlanticarticle, it embraced Du B...
In 1903, Du Bois taught summer school at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee University, but friction between the two men led to Du Bois joining Washington’s rivals in the Niagara Movement, charged with seeking justice and equality for African Americans. That group failed, partly due to opposition from Washington, but during its existence Du Bois publi...
In 1910, Du Bois accepted the directorship of the recently-formed NAACP. He moved to New York City and served as the editor of the organization’s monthly magazine The Crisis. The magazine was a huge success and became very influential, covering race relations and black culture with Du Bois’ forthright style. The magazine stood out for its continual...
Du Bois’ radicalism continued in the public sphere, running as the Progressive Party’s candidate for Senate in 1950 and losing. He and other members of the Peace Information Center were charged as agents of a foreign principal, inspired by the organization’s Soviet leanings, but were acquitted in a trial in 1951. Following the death of his wife in ...
Du Bois first conceived of the Encyclopedia Africanain 1908 as a compendium of history and achievement of people of African descent designed to bring a sense of unity to the African diaspora. Unable to raise the needed funds, Du Bois wasn’t able to revisit the project until 1935, but it was disrupted by professional battles. Du Bois published some ...
W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute. Harvard University. DuBoisopedia. University of Massachusetts. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah, eds. W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868 – 1919. David Levering Lewis.
Learn about W.E.B. Du Bois, an African American writer, teacher, sociologist and activist who transformed the way that the lives of Black citizens were seen in American society. Explore his education, studies, books, movements and legacy in this comprehensive article.
Apr 3, 2014 · W.E.B. Du Bois was an influential African American rights activist during the early 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'
Sep 13, 2017 · W.E.B. Du Bois. First published Wed Sep 13, 2017; substantive revision Wed Dec 20, 2023. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) believed that his life acquired its only deep significance through its participation in what he called “the Negro problem,” or, later, “the race problem.”.
Mar 4, 2021 · His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, is a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America, challenged the prevailing...
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Learn about the life and achievements of W. E. B. Du Bois, a scholar, writer, editor, and civil rights pioneer. Explore his education, influences, publications, and activism in the African American National Biography.
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Published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a landmark of African American literature. A sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist, Du Bois was the preeminent Black American protest leader during the first half of the 20th century.
