W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 – 1963)

Du Bois and his mother Born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois would go on to live a life of national and international importance. He was the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard University, helped found the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), edited its magazine The Crisis, and wrote the influential Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois wrote sixteen books on sociology, history, race relations and politics plus many more articles and works of fiction. His work elevated him to the position of one of the most influential intellectual minds of the twentieth century. Du Bois was an early leader in the U.S. civil rights movement. His untiring activism in the struggle for racial justice inspired millions worldwide and later he became a key founder in the Pan Africanist movement. Often controversial, Du Bois alienated nearly as many as he inspired (Lewis 1993). In his later years, Du Bois joined the Communist Party, leading to political difficulties in the United States.

W.E.B. Du Bois The President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, invited him to become editor of the Encyclopedia Africana at the age of 93. He eventually assumed Ghanaian citizenship and lived out the rest of his life in Africa. W.E.B. Du Bois died there on August 27, 1963, receiving a state funeral, on the eve of the historical March on Washington. Roy Wilkins, then executive director of the NAACP, announced Du Bois’ passing to the more than 250,000 in attendance. He said of Dr. Du Bois, "at the dawn of the twentieth century, his was the voice calling you to gather here today in this cause." Du Bois is buried in Ghana, memorialized by his adopted nation, for his contributions to the struggles of oppressed peoples worldwide, and for his involvement in Pan-Africanism.