| 1868 |
Born, February 23rd, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. |
| 1880-1884 |
Attends Great Barrington High School; Western Massachusetts Correspondent for the New York Age, the New York Globe and the Springfield Republican; graduates as class valedictorian. |
| 1885-1888 |
Attends Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; teaches in rural school districts during the summers; editor of the Fisk Herald; receives B.A. in 1888. |
| 1888-1890 |
Enters Harvard as a junior and receives B.A., graduating cum laude. |
| 1890-1892 |
Begins graduate study at Harvard. |
| 1892-1894 |
Studies at the University of Berlin with a fellowship from the Slater Fund. |
| 1894-1896 |
Teaches Latin and Greek at Wilberforce University in Ohio; marries Nina Gomer. |
| 1896 |
Receives Ph.D. from Harvard; his dissertation “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade” is published by Harvard University Press. |
| 1896-1897 |
Instructor of Sociology, the University of Pennsylvania; publishes The Philadelphia Negro. |
| 1897-1910 |
Teaches history and economics, Atlanta University; initiates the Atlanta University Studies. |
| 1903 |
Publishes The Souls of Black Folk. |
| 1905-1909 |
Founder and General Secretary of The Niagara Movement. |
| 1910-1934 |
Director of Publicity and Research, Member Board of Directors, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
| 1910-1934 |
Founder and Editor of The Crisis, monthly magazine of the NAACP. |
| 1919 |
Calls Pan-African Congress in Paris. |
| 1920 |
Receives the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP. |
| 1923 |
Special Ambassador Representing the United States at the inauguration of President King of Liberia. |
| 1934 |
Resigns from the NAACP. |
| 1934-1944 |
Returns to Atlanta University as Head, Department of Sociology; publishes Black Reconstruction. |
| 1944-48 |
Returns to NAACP as Director of Publicity and Research. |
| 1945 |
Attends founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco as representative of the NAACP. |
| 1948 |
Co-chairman, Council on African Affairs. |
| 1950 |
Chairman, Peace Information Center in New York City; candidate for U.S. Senate for New York Progressive Party. Wife, Nina Gomer Du Bois, dies and is buried in Great Barrington. |
| 1951 |
Indictment, trial, and acquittal of subversive activities charges brought against him by the Justice Department; marries Shirley Graham. |
| 1951-1959 |
Extensive speaking, writing, and international travel; wins Lenin Peace Prize in 1958. |
| 1961 |
Becomes member of the Communist Party, U.S.A. Invited to Ghana by President Kwame Nkrumah to edit the Encyclopedia Africana. |
| 1963 |
Becomes citizen of Ghana. Dies on August 27th and is buried with a state funeral in Accra. Du Bois’s death is announced by Roy Wilkins of the NAACP as the March on Washington begins on August 28th. |
