W.E.B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt DuBois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, writer, editor, poet, freemason, and scholar. Although born in the United States, he became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963.

Civil rights activism

DuBois became arguably the most notable political activist on behalf of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. A contemporary of Booker T. Washington, he argued in print about African-American acceptance of issues such as segregation and political disenfranchisement. Labeled the "father of Pan-Africanism", Du Bois believed that peoples of African descent should, because of their common interests, work together to battle prejudice and inequality.

Related Topics:
African Americans - Booker T. Washington - African-American - Segregation - Political disenfranchisement - Pan-Africanism

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In 1905, Du Bois helped to found the Niagara Movement with fellow Harvard-educated black intellectual William Monroe Trotter, who was the first black Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard. This powerful alliance between Du Bois and Trotter turned out to be short-lived as they had a dispute over whether or not white people should be included in the organization and their struggle. Du Bois felt that they should, and with a group of like-minded supporters, helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Related Topics:
1905 - Niagara Movement - Harvard - Black - William Monroe Trotter - Phi Beta Kappa - White people - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - 1909

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Strangely enough for an organization with its goals, Du Bois was the only African American on the organization's Board at the time of its inception. At the NAACP, Du Bois worked as Editor-in-Chief of the NAACP's official publication entitled The Crisis for twenty-five years. From this literary position, Du Bois was able to utilize and elevate his position as a spokesperson for his race as well as to comment freely and widely on current events.

Related Topics:
African American - NAACP - The Crisis - Race - Current events

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This was made easier when, in 1910, he left his teaching post at Atlanta University (to which he would later return, from 1934–44) to work as publications director at the NAACP full-time. He wrote weekly columns in many newspapers, including the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the New York Amsterdam News, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Related Topics:
1910 - Atlanta University - NAACP - Newspapers - Chicago Defender - Pittsburgh Courier - New York Amsterdam News - San Francisco Chronicle

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In 1913, Du Bois wrote The Star of Ethiopia, a historical pageant, to promote African-American history and civil rights.

Related Topics:
1913 - The Star of Ethiopia

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DuBois became increasingly estranged from Walter Francis White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, and began to question the organization's opposition to racial segregation at all costs. DuBois thought that this policy, while generally sound, undermined those black institutions that did exist, which DuBois thought should be defended and improved, rather than attacked as inferior. When he took this position in The Crisis, the board of directors of the NAACP rebuked him and barred him from criticizing other officers of the NAACP in its publications. DuBois quit the NAACP in 1934 to return to teaching at Atlanta University.

Related Topics:
Walter Francis White - 1934

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DuBois was a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.

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It is worth noting that while DuBois consistently worked against biological conceptions of racial inequality, DuBois still subscribed to some subtler hereditarian ideas. He wrote that the Talented Tenth of African Americans should be encouraged to have children. (Dorr, "Fighting Fire with Fire")

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