W.E.B. Du Bois, born on this day in 1868, was a seminal American intellectual, author, and socialist and civil rights activist who co-founded both the Niagra Movement and the NAACP. Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community, and, after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University.
Du Bois was a prolific author notable for his polemics against racism. Among his works are "The Souls of Black Folk", a collection of essays, and "Black Reconstruction in America", which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that black people were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. Du Bois was also a Pan-Africanist and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for the independence of African colonies from European powers.
Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. Because of this, he was spied upon by the U.S. government, who eventually indicted him for acting as an agent of a foreign state while advocating for nuclear disarmament. Notably, the NAACP did not support Du Bois during his trial, which ultimately failed to convict him.
Nevertheless, he chose to leave the US behind him and emigrated to Ghana, at the invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah, where he spent the rest of his life. He died on the eve of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana.
"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." - W.E.B. Du Bois
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W.E.B Du Bois was brilliant. We still have so much to learn from his writings. If I could go back in time he would be one of the first people I would want to meet.