William Edward Burghardt DuBois

W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois in 1918
Born	William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-02-23)February 23, 1868 Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 27, 1963(1963-08-27) (aged 95) Accra, Ghana
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Fisk University Harvard University University of Berlin
Known for	The Souls of Black Folk Black Reconstruction in America The Crisis
Spouse(s)	Nina Gomer (m. 1896; d. 1950) Lola Shirley Graham, Jr. (m. 1951; his death 1963)
Awards	Spingarn Medal 1920 Lenin Peace Prize 1959
Scientific career
Fields	Civil rights, sociology, history
Institutions	Atlanta University, NAACP
Thesis	The suppression of the African slave-trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870 (1896)
Doctoral advisor	Albert Bushnell Hart
Influences	Alexander Crummell William James
Signature

External video

Presentation by Manning Marable on W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat, February 8, 2005, C-SPAN

External video

Presentation by Kwame Anthony Appiah on Lines of Descent, April 29, 2014, C-SPAN

External video

Booknotes interview with David Levering Lewis on W.E.B. Dubois: The Biography of a Race, 1868-1919, January 2, 1994, C-SPAN

Presentation by Lewis on W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 at the Atlanta History Center, October 30, 2000, C-SPAN

Interview with Lewis about W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963, April 29, 2001, C-SPAN

Presentation by Lewis about his Du Bois biographies at the National Book Festival, September 8, 2001, C-SPAN

Presentation by Lewis and Deborah Willis on their book A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress, October 29, 2003, C-SPAN

William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois (/duːˈbɔɪz/ doo-BOYZ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership.