(1868–1963). A historian and sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois was a leader in the civil-rights movement in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. The aim of this movement was to bring about laws that gave equal rights to all the country's people, including African Americans.
Early life and career
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His parents were of African and European ancestry. An excellent student, Du Bois received a Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1895.
After leaving Harvard Du Bois taught college courses and studied black life in the United States. He looked at the conditions of black people in the slums of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in1899 published a book called The Philadelphia Negro. Du Bois believed that white people had low and unfair opinions of black people because they did not know enough about the black community. He hoped to change this through his writings.
The struggle for racial equality
Du Bois often disagreed with Booker T. Washington, an important African American leader of that time. Washington opposed the use of protest as a way to change society. He urged blacks to win the respect of white people by working hard at trades such as carpentry and brick making. Du Bois criticized Washington for accepting racial inequality. He also said that Washington did not see the importance of college education for blacks. Du Bois felt that higher education would provide the black community with capable leaders. His book The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, encouraged blacks to aim higher and to fight for equality.
In 1905 Du Bois began organizing groups to protest and demand equal voting and education rights. In 1909 he helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP, made up of both blacks and whites, worked against racial segregation laws. These laws were based on the idea that blacks and whites were separate races and needed to be kept separate. They had to go to separate schools, colleges, parks, cemeteries, restaurants, and theaters. From 1910 until 1934 Du Bois edited NAACP's journal, The Crisis.
Du Bois believed that even though blacks and whites should have equal rights, blacks should take pride in their differences from whites. He said that blacks should have arts and literature that would be separate from those of whites. Du Bois also believed in Pan-Africanism. This is the belief that all people of African origin have common interests and should work together in their struggle for freedom.
Retirement
In his later years Du Bois came to believe that the United States could not solve its racial problems. He felt that the only world power opposed to racial discrimination was the Soviet Union, which was a Communist country at the time. Du Bois joined the Communist party of the United States in 1961 and moved to the West African country of Ghana. He became a citizen of Ghana in 1963. He died there on August 27, 1963.