“a black artist is first of all a black artist.”
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W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, writer, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. He completed graduate work at Harvard University, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. He was a professor at Atlanta University and over the cour…
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culture · American sociologist and activist (1868–1963) · historian · novelist · philosopher · writer · sociologist · social worker · human rights defender · photographer · poet · autobiographer · also W. E. B. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, WEB Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, W. E. B. du Bois, W.E.B. du Bois
Born 23 February 1868 · Died 27 August 1963 · Q158060
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[anti-miscegenation] laws leave the colored girls absolutely helpless for the lust of white men. It reduces colored women in the eyes of the law to the position of dogs. As low as the white girl falls, she can compel her seducer to marry her ... We must kill [anti-miscegenation laws] not because we are anxious to marry the white men
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2026· 5 entries
“[anti-miscegenation] laws leave the colored girls absolutely helpless for the lust of white men. It reduces colored women in the eyes of the law to the position of dogs. As low as the white girl falls, she can compel her seducer to marry her ... We must kill [anti-miscegenation laws] not because we are anxious to marry the white men”
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Public attention spiked: 4,842 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3× the usual 1,593, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 11,258 Wikipedia readers in one day, 7.1× the usual 1,593, with 8 article edits. Editors noted: script-assisted date audit and style fixes per MOS:NUM
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Public attention spiked: 15,591 Wikipedia readers in one day, 9.8× the usual 1,593, with 0 article edits.
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2004· 1 entry
Awarded National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame (2004).
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1963· 4 entries
Died 1963-08-27.
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“I believe that there are human stocks with whom it is physically unwise to intermarry, but to think that these stocks are all colored or that there are no such white stocks is unscientific and false.”
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“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”
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“The most ordinary Negro is a distinct gentleman, but it takes extraordinary training and opportunity to make the average white man anything but a hog.”
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1959· 1 entry
Awarded Lenin Peace Prize (1959).
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1953· 1 entry
“simple, calm, and courageous”
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1949· 2 entries
Du Bois spoke at the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace in New York: "I tell you, people of America, the dark world is on the move
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And later published in 1952 in the magazine Jewish Life
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1947· 1 entry
After Life magazine published a piece by Arthur M
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1946· 2 entries
Du Bois wrote articles giving his assessment of the Soviet Union; he did not embrace communism and he criticized its dictatorship
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“I am not a communist ... On the other hand, I ... believe ... that Karl Marx ... put his finger squarely upon our difficulties ...”
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1943· 2 entries
At the age of 75, Du Bois was abruptly fired from his position at Atlanta University by college president Rufus Early Clement
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Because the FBI was unable to discover sufficient evidence against Du Bois, but the FBI resumed its investigation in 1949, suspecting he was among a group of "Concealed Communists"
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1942· 1 entry
Investigating him for possible subversive activities
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1938· 1 entry
Because some board members believed that Du Bois was too biased to produce an objective encyclopedia
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1936· 2 entries
The Japanese ambassador arranged a trip to Japan for Du Bois and a small group of academics, visiting China, Japan, and Manchukuo (Manchuria)
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Which included visits to Germany, China, and Japan
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1935· 1 entry
Published his magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America
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1934· 1 entry
When Du Bois reversed his stance on segregation, stating that "separate but equal" was an acceptable goal for African Americans
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1932· 1 entry
Du Bois was selected by several philanthropies, including the Phelps Stokes Fund, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the General Education Board, to be the managing editor for a proposed Encyclopedia of the Negro,
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1931· 1 entry
Between the NAACP and the Communist Party, when the communists responded quickly and effectively to support the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American youths arrested in 1931 in Alabama for rape
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1929· 1 entry
A debate organized by the Chicago Forum Council billed as "One of the greatest debates ever held" was held between Du Bois and Lothrop Stoddard, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, proponent of eugenics and so-called scientifi
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1923· 1 entry
For the third Pan-African Congress, the circulation of The Crisis had declined to 60,000 from its World War I high of 100,000, but it remained the preeminent periodical of the civil rights movement
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1922· 1 entry
“s intention that Africa be ruled by African Americans. Du Bois wrote a series of articles in The Crisis between 1922 and 1924 attacking Garvey”
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1921· 2 entries
As an instance of a broad effort in the U
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To attend the second Pan-African Congress
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1920· 3 entries
Won Spingarn Medal (1920).
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It was aimed at black children, who Du Bois called "the children of the sun"
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Du Bois published Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, the first of his three autobiographies
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1919· 2 entries
In which more than 300 African Americans were killed in more than 30 cities
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To attend the first Pan-African Congress and to interview African-American soldiers for a planned book on their experiences in World War I
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1918· 1 entry
Predicted that World War I would lead to an overthrow of the European colonial system and the "liberation" of colored people worldwide – in China, in India, and especially in the Americas
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1917· 1 entry
Du Bois's colleague in the NAACP, Joel Spingarn, established a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States Armed Forces
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1915· 4 entries
The Atlantic Monthly carried a Du Bois essay, "The African Roots of the War", which consolidated his ideas on capitalism, imperialism, and race
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Du Bois published The Negro, a general history of black Africans, and the first of its kind in English
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Du Bois and the NAACP led the fight to ban the movie because of its racist portrayal of blacks as brutish and lustful
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It published an article with a year-by-year tabulation of 2,732 lynchings from 1884 to 1914
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1914· 1 entry
Deploring the dismissal of blacks from federal posts, and he supported William Monroe Trotter when Trotter brusquely confronted Wilson about the President's failure to fulfill his campaign promise of justice for blacks
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1913· 1 entry
His support for Wilson was shaken when racial segregation in government hiring was reported
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1911· 2 entries
Joined the Socialist Party of America on the advice of NAACP founders Mary White Ovington, William English Walling and Charles Edward Russell
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Attended the First Universal Races Congress in London and he published his first novel, The Quest of the Silver Fleece
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1910· 2 entries
“those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people”
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At the second National Negro Conference, the attendees created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
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1909· 1 entry
After five years of effort, he published a biography of abolitionist John Brown
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1905· 1 entry
Du Bois and several other African-American civil rights activists – including Fredrick McGhee, Max Barber and William Monroe Trotter – met in Canada, near Niagara Falls, where they wrote a declaration of principles oppos
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1904· 1 entry
On a visit to the US just ahead of the publication of the seminal The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
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1903· 1 entry
Popularized the term, the "talented tenth", applied to society's elite class
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1901· 2 entries
Du Bois wrote a review critical of Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery, which he later expanded and published to a wider audience as the essay "Of Mr
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“s autobiography Up from Slavery, which he later expanded and published to a wider audience as the essay”
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1899· 1 entry
While he was teaching at Atlanta University
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1897· 1 entry
Du Bois presented a paper in which he rejected Frederick Douglass's plea for black Americans to integrate into white society
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1895· 2 entries
Was the first African American to earn a Ph
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With Southern white leaders who dominated state governments after Reconstruction
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1892· 1 entry
Du Bois received a fellowship from the John F
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1891· 1 entry
Du Bois received a scholarship to attend the sociology graduate school at Harvard and earned a Master of Arts
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1890· 1 entry
Harvard awarded Du Bois his second bachelor's degree, cum laude
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1884· 1 entry
Graduated from Great Barrington High School with honors
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1870· 1 entry
Two years after their son William was born
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1868· 2 entries
Born 1868-02-23.
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In Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Alfred and Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois
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1867· 1 entry
In Housatonic, a village in Great Barrington
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1810· 1 entry
Immigrated to the United States with his father
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