W.E.B. Du Bois Biography

W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He lived with his mother who died in 1884 because his father left his family when Du Bois was young. He graduated from his high school being the only African American student in his class. He got a scholarship and attended Fisk University. He graduated with a bachelor degree and enrolled in Harvard University. He graduated Harvard University with a B.A. degree and became the first African American to graduate with a degree from Harvard. In 1896 he married Nina Gomer and had two children. The Souls of Black Folk:Essays and Sketches was published by Du Bois in 1903. In 1905, Du Bois establish the Horizon in Washington D.C. It was a publication for the Niagra Movement which was an organization of African American intellectuals founded by Du bois in 1905. in 1910 he became the director and research for the NAACP. In the same year, he also founded Crisis which was a magazine which lasted for almost 25 years. In 1919 Du Bois helped organize the second Pan-African Congress in Paris after taking interest in Africa. He also took interest in teaching, conducting research, and writing in the years 1934 to 1940. Du Bois eventually rejoined the staff for the NAACP in 1944. He even ran for U.S. Senate in 1948. His wife died in 1950 and just a year later, married Shirley Lola Graham. In 1961 he moved to Accra Ghana and about a year later he became a citizen of Ghana. He began working on, "The Encyclopedia of Africana," but was not able to finish it because of his death in 1963.

Du Bois also had many accomplishments. For instance, in 1895 he became the first African American to receive a PHD from Harvard University. The Souls of Black Folk was a book written by him, which was published in 1903. In 1905, he made a call for action for the freedom of African Americans. This resulted in the first civil rights organization in the country called, Niagara Movement. He also wrote a poem called, The Song of the Smoke written in 1907. In 1927 he wrote another poem called, A Litany of Atlanta.

-Sophie