Personal Vita
June 1, 1999
W. E. B. Du Bois
(Big Grand Daddy; Dr. Du Bois; Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois; Dr. William E. B. Du Bois; W. E. Burghardt Du Bois; William Edward Burghardt Du Bois; William Du Bois)
[Source: Du Bois, W.E.B. (1963). An ABC of color. New York: International Publishers.]
Strategy Hints
Some papers at Bird Library, Department of Special Collections, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.
S. I. A. Kotei, Ghana Library Board, Padmore Research Library on African Affairs, Accra, Ghana
[Source: Lester, Julius. (Ed.). (1971). The thought and writings of W.E.B. DuBois the seventh son volume II. New York: Random House.]
Bio/historical Note
Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, son of Mary (Burghardt) Du Bois and Alfred Du Bois. Married Nina Gomer in 1895. Children - son, Burghardt, died at a year and a half, and a daughter, Yolande. His wife died in 1950, and he married Shirley Graham in 1951. He received Lenin Peace Prize honorary doctorates in 1959 and an honary degree from the University of Ghana on his ninety-fifth birthday, February 23, 1963. He became a citizen of Ghana and died in self-imposed exile in Accra, Ghana in 1963.
[Source: Du Bois, W.E.B., Lewis, L.L. (Ed.) ( 1995). W.E.B. Du Bois a reader. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Inc.)
Birth Date
February 23, 1868
[Source: Du Bois, W.E.B. (1940). Dusk of dawn. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc.]
Death Date
August 27, 1963
[Source: Du Bois, W.E.B. & Aptheker, H. (Ed.) (1985). Against racism: unpublished essays, papers, addresses, 1887 - 1961. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.]
Education
1884--Graduates from high school in Great Barrington, MA as valedictorian.
1885-88--Attends Fisk University, Nashville, TN, receiving B.A.
1888--Enters Harvard as a junior.
1890--Graduates, B.A., cum laude, attracts national attention with commencement address, "Jefferson Davis: Representative of Civilization."
1892--Receives M.A. (history) from Harvard.
1892-94--Wins Slater Fund Fellowship for Graduate Study Abroad. Does graduate study, mostly in history and economics, at University of Berlin.
1895--Receives Ph.D. (history) from Harvard.
[Source: (Source: Du Bois, W.E.B.. Aptheker, H. (Ed.). (1985). Against racism: Unpublished essays, papers, addresses, 1887-1961. Amherst: University of Massachusets Press.]
Work History
1887-88--Works as chief editor of the Fisk Herald.
1894-96--Teaches Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University, Ohio.
1896--Publishes The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (Harvard Historical Studies no. 1). New York: Longmans, Green.
1897--Assistant instructor in sociology, University of Pennsylvania.
1910--Professor of economics and history, Atlanta University.
1910-34--Founder and editor of the Crisis.
1921--Founder and editor of the Brownies Book, a monthly children’s magazine.
1933--Teaches "Karl Marx and the Negro" at Atlanta University.
1944--Professor and Chairman of the Sociology Department, Atlanta University.
1944--Founder and editor of Phylon, a quarterly published at Atlanta University.
[Source: (Source: Du Bois, W.E.B.. Aptheker, H. (Ed.). (1985). Against racism: Unpublished essays, papers, addresses, 1887-1961. Amherst: University of Massachusets Press.]
Professional Interests/Associations
1900--Secretary to First Pan-African Conference, London Main founder and general secretary of the Niagara Movement.
1909--Participant in organizing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
1911--Participates in First Universal Races Congress, London.
1911--Joins the Socialist party.
1912--Resigns from Socialist party; helps organize first major Black breakaway from the Republican party.
1918--Fights against maltreatment of Black troops; leads in effort to enroll Black officers; heads massive Silent Protest Parade in New York City against lynching and Jim-Crow.
1919--Chief organizer of the Pan-African movement 1921 Chairs Second Pan-African Congress, London, Brussels, Paris.
1927--Leads Harlem Renaissance with Alain Locke; found Black theater in Harlem.
1930-33--Introduces economic cooperatives in Black communities.
1943--Organizes Conference of Negro Land-Grant Colleges.
1945--With Mary McLeod Bethune and Walter White, serves as consultant to U.S. delegation at founding of the United Nations, on behalf of the NAACP.
1948--Becomes co-chairman (with Paul Robeson) of the Council on African Affairs.
1949--Helps organize International Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace (Waldorf Conference); participates in World Peace Congress in Paris and International Peace Congress in Moscow.
1950--Chairs Peace Information Center; helps lead national campaign to ban the atomic bomb.
1961--Joins the Communist party; head of editorial board to produce an Encyclopedia Africana in Ghana.
[Source: (Source: Du Bois, W.E.B.. Aptheker, H. (Ed.). (1985). Against racism: Unpublished essays, papers, addresses, 1887-1961. Amherst: University of Massachusets Press.]
Publications
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1963). An Abc of color. New York: International Publishers.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Co.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1921). Darkwater: Voices from within the veil. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1924). The Gift of black folk: Negroes in the making of America. Boston: Stratford Co.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1965). The Suppression of the African slave–trade to the United States of America 1638-1870. New York: Russell & Russell Inc.(First published in 1898).
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1945). Color and democracy: colonies and peace. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1940). Dusk of dawn. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Related References
Aptheker, H. (Ed.). (1978). The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois Volume III 1944-1963.
Atlanta University publications the American Negro history and literature. (1968). New York: Arno Press and The New York Times.
Hughes, L. (1962). Fight for freedom the story of the NAACP. New York: W.W.Norton & Co. Inc.
Kellogg, C. F. (1967). NAACP a history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.
Lewis, D. L. (Ed.). (1995). W. E. B. Du Bois a reader. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Inc.
Logan, R. W. (Ed. ) (1971). W. E. B. Du Bois a profile. New York: Hill and Wang.
The Negro Problem a series of articles by representative American Negroes of today. (1969). Miami: Mnemosyne Publishing Inc.
Miscellaneous
W.E.B. Du Bois was considered an attractive man and popular with women. Although he was married to his first wife for over fifty years, he admits to not being the best of husbands. She carried on the business of running the household, while he dealt with the weightier issues of race relations and world peace. His wife was never the same after the death of their young son, and Du Bois himself states that he suffered a nervous breakdown after the tragedy. He was considered aloof and arrogant by many and had few close friends. Even his very good friends addressed him as "Doctor." In reality he states that he was very shy and uncomfortable in informal situations. He was also an agnostic and anticleric.
Du Bois was a controversial person in his own time. His disagreement with Booker T. Washington, his exit from the NAACP in 1934 and 1948, and his association with the socialist and communist parties stirred up much national debate for this first Black Harvard graduate who faced issues of race, equality, education, socialism, war and peace.
[Source: Du Bois, W.E.B., Lewis, L. L. (Ed.) (1995). W.E.B. Du Bois a reader. New York: Henry Holt and Co.]
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