Du Bois, W. E. B.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was one of the leading social thinkers, civil rights leaders, sociologists, and public intellectuals of the 20th century. He was a pioneering figure in the American Civil Rights Movement and in the development of Pan-Africanism. In addition to his significant contributions to the study of African American life, he carried out important work in history and was a pioneering sociologist of the early 20th century. His Souls of Black Folk (1903) continues to be one of the central texts of the 20th century and remains in print in many editions. His comment that color was the 20th century's biggest problem has been widely quoted and influential. For Du Bois the color line provided the impetus for his scholarly and political work and was the lens through which he analyzed the world.

Du Bois played a central role in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before shifting later in life to Pan-Africanism. He died in Ghana as a citizen of that country, after leaving the United States in 1961, embittered by the lack of progress in reducing racism and prejudice and convinced that American capitalism could not reform itself. In terms of American urban history, perhaps his greatest contribution is the classic urban sociological study The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899. His early life provides the context for understanding how he approached that work.

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois had an unusual childhood that shaped his views and perspectives on the world. Raised by his mother after his father deserted them, Du Bois grew up in a mostly white milieu, and although he and his mother were not [Page 228]well off, wealthier town residents gave his mother work and provided additional help to them. He had a relatively sheltered childhood and, although poor, grew up playing with the children of wealthier townspeople and was generally accepted by them. His intelligence and talents were recognized early by others in the community and schools, and they provided support for him in pursuing his education. This somewhat privileged upbringing gave him a sense of himself as a member of the elite. It also contributed to a sense of reserve which characterized Du Bois throughout his life. In many ways, he was a proper Victorian gentleman.

His education at Fisk College in Tennessee was not only in the classroom. He was exposed to a wide variety of African American life both on and off campus, as well as to the racism and prejudice endemic in the South at that time. He received his bachelor's degree from Fisk; then he received a second bachelor's degree from Harvard and entered graduate school there. His graduate career took him to Germany, where he studied with Max Weber, one of the founders of sociology. In 1890, with a monumental dissertation on the “Suppression of the African Slave Trade,” Du Bois received his Ph.D. from Harvard, the first African American to do so. Unable to secure a teaching position at a white college, much to his shock, Du Bois began teaching at Wilberforce College in Ohio. He taught a variety of topics, but he was not allowed to teach a course in sociology. After 2 frustrating years at Wilberforce, Du Bois was invited to come to Philadelphia to carry out a sociological study of the city's African American community.

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