Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868–1963)

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a central figure in the initiation of the Negro protest movement in America, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an advocate for equal rights, a persistent critic of colonialism, the architect of Pan-Africanism, and a preeminent scholar of the black race. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He studied at Fisk and Harvard Universities in the United States and the University of Berlin in Germany. In 1895, he became the first African American to obtain a Ph.D. from Harvard. His “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade”of 1869 opened the authoritative Harvard Historical Studies series. In 1894 to 1896, he served as professor of Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University, and in 1896 and 1897, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

His academic career was primarily associated with Atlanta University. Du Bois was first there between 1897 and 1910 as professor of history and economics. Alongside teaching, he completed The Philadelphia Negro in 1899—an exemplary empirical research in urban sociology with anthropological and demographic dimensions. It is considered the first attempt by an American social scientist to develop a methodology for the discipline of sociology.

In Atlanta, Du Bois organized a series of conferences on urban black people and authored a number of works that defined the situation of blacks in America in striking and insightful ways. Central among them was the much acclaimed The Souls of Black Folk of 1903, which has now gone through some 30 editions.

With these works, Du Bois had already asserted himself as a distinguished scholar. But he strongly felt that his academic pursuits would only be meaningful if they were practically linked to the historic demands of the epoch. For him, the greatest challenge of the 20th century was, in his memorable words, the “problem of the color line.”To deal with it meant to transform America into a racially integrated society and to achieve the unity and liberation of the whole of Africa. This new turn toward action was stimulated by the deterioration of the racial situation in America, especially in Atlanta, where Du Bois himself was subjected to all manner of restrictions and humiliation off-campus, and where he witnessed lynching every week.

Du Bois created a platform for his work that openly challenged the program and policies of Booker T. Washington. Instead of Washington's insistence on accommodation and submission by black people, Du Bois proposed a demand for equality through all possible means. In opposition to the philosophy of individual education, Du Bois outlined the prospect of the Talented Tenth, an intellectual elite that would lead the black masses to freedom and progress.

As a first step, in 1905, Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, which sought full citizenship rights for African Americans. He was its general secretary until 1909. In the same year, he was among the founders of NAACP, and from 1910 up to his resignation in 1934, he worked as its director of publicity and research. He was also the editor of its influential organ, The Crisis. Through this magazine, Du Bois effectively shaped the character of the organization, set the agenda for black protest, and made Africa an important theme and concern for black Americans.

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