W.E.B.Du Bois

“Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destory the United States.”

W.E.B. DuBois

(1868-1963) — Sociologist, Historian, Pan-Africanist, Author, Editor, Civil Rights Activist, Co-founder of the N.A.A.C.P.

By The Staff

William Edward Burghardt DuBois founded the Niagara Movement and co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He supported Pan Africanism and championed the idea of intellectual and complete equality for African-Americans. He was arguably the most important African-American intellectual of the early 20th century.

DuBois was born Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His parents, Alfred and Silvina DuBois, were part of a free black community in Great Barrington, where DuBois attended integrated public schools. His instructors encouraged his intellectual growth. With donations from the congregation at his church, DuBois was able to attend college. He was the first African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University, in 1895. His achievements in academics form the foundation of his belief in the power of education.

During his life, DuBois championed the idea of intellectual and complete equality for African-Americans.

As leader of the Niagara Movement, an African-American activist group that advocated equal rights for blacks, DuBois gained national prominence. It was named for Niagara Falls because hotel accommodations were not available to blacks in the United States, so DuBois booked the meeting north of the border in Canada. His ideology put him in direct opposition to Booker T. Washington, whose Atlanta Compromise held that blacks should submit to whites and their political power as long as blacks could receive a basic education and due process of law. 

A level playing field

Upon graduating from Harvard, DuBois began a long and distinguished academic career. He published the first case study of a black community, “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study,” in 1899. As part of the study, he created the phrase “the talented tenth,” which referred to the possibility of one in 10 black men becoming leaders of their race. In 1903, he published The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of 14 essays.

DuBois co-founded the NAACP with eight other activists, among them Ida B. Wells, on Feb. 12, 1909. The association’s mission was to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all people and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

DuBois supported Pan Africanism, defined as the idea or advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the African nations. He helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to free African colonies from European powers.Historicatures mark

DuBois died at age 95 in the Republic of Ghana on Aug. 27, 1963, the day before the historic March on Washington.

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