W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, born in Massachusetts, became one of the most influential African-American leaders of the first half of the twentieth century. As a scholar, professor, editor, and advocate, Du Bois dedicated his life to the struggle for African-American equality. A graduate of Fisk University and the first African American to earn a PhD at Harvard, Du Bois taught at Atlanta University (1897-1910, 1934-1944), his office located in nearby Fountain (Stone) Hall. While living in Georgia he witnessed the Atlanta Race Massacre (1906), wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and Black Reconstruction (1935), and outspokenly opposed lynching and Jim Crow laws. Du Bois was prominent in the creation of the NAACP in 1909 and promoted Pan-Africanism. In 1961 he joined the Communist party and moved to Ghana, where he died in 1963.