Education

W.E.B. Du Bois

Born February 23, 1868 · Great Barrington, Massachusetts · Joined the Ancestors August 27, 1963

The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, W.E.B. Du Bois was a scholar, activist, and intellectual architect of the modern civil rights movement who co-founded the NAACP.

Known For

Co-founder of the NAACP

Key Work

The Souls of Black Folk

Education

First Black Harvard Ph.D.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and showed academic brilliance from an early age. In 1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

His 1903 masterwork, The Souls of Black Folk, introduced the concept of "double consciousness" — the internal conflict of being both Black and American — and challenged Booker T. Washington's philosophy of accommodation. The book remains one of the most influential works in American intellectual history.

In 1909, Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and edited its magazine, The Crisis, for 25 years. He was a prolific author, sociologist, historian, and Pan-Africanist who spent his life fighting for the full humanity and equality of Black people worldwide.