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Jahir Gonzalez

Professor Edmonds

AMH 2020-58

28 November 2022

A Brief Biography of W.E.B Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, or W.E.B. Du Bois, was born on February 23, 1868,

in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His mother and father, Alfred and Mary Silvina Du Bois,

were a part of a small population of freed black people. On his father’s side, his great-great-great

grandfather was of West African descent. He was brought over to America as a slave and started

his family there. However, his great-great grandfather who fought in the American

Revolutionary war, Tom Burghardt, earned their freedom. His mother’s side of the family had

been long time freed people. Being longtime landowners, the Williams family earned respect

among the community.

He had not experienced much racism in his life. During the 1870s in the gilded age, black

people had recently been freed by the 13th amendment. Unlike the south, the north did not have

much experience with slavery. There were not many farms up north; there were mostly industrial

jobs that European, Asian, and Spanish Immigrants worked. There was still segregation and

discrimination going on, but the south was more familiar in regard to hate crimes, and there were

more liberties for black people up north.

William Du Bois attended an integrated public school growing up. There were many

instances where Du Bois was targeted for being black. For the most part, he played nicely with

all the other kids and the teachers also respected him. His teachers noticed great potential in Du

Bois. They pushed him academically with opportunities to succeed. He loved school; he knew he
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would be an inspiration to black people in the future. Due to financial hardship in his family, it

was difficult for his mother to pay for his school. His mother had to decide if she was going to

pay for school or feed her family, so they got help from programs and local people so he could

attend school. His father left him and his mother when he was two, and his mother worked hard

to feed her family. She moved in with her parents and received help from her brother to be able

to feed her son. She died in 1885 from a stroke. Du Bois felt a resentment for himself for not

having a father. He felt disappointed because he was playing into the black stereotype of not

having a father.

After the death of his mother, Du Bois immersed himself into his studies. Being

recognized for his intellectual capabilities encouraged him to work harder in school. The

community respected him, and his school rewarded him with minor awards to boost his

confidence and it worked. He graduated from Searles High School in his hometown in 1884.

After he had graduated the top of his class, he decided that he wanted to attend college. When his

church found out about the news, they asked the people of the church to help raise money for his

tuition. With that, he attended Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee, a historically black

college, in 1885. Fisk community and surrounding areas were not subject to racist laws. He was

also popular at his school, and he was already outperforming most of the other students. Since it

was a historically black college and community, it was safe for him to live and study there. It

was not until he went further south that he noticed the culture shock.

After studying for two years, Du Bois wanted to get a job. During the summer, he went

south to teach at a school. He was naïve and did not believe the concerns people were

expressing. While travelling, he noticed how different the culture was. He did not teach at an

integrated school: instead, he taught eight black children in a small shed with desks made of
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scrap wood and chairs that were borrowed from a white woman and had to be returned at the end

of the day. Here he also encountered Jim Crow laws for the first time. He took notice of how

many dirt-poor black people lived in small wood huts. He grew fond of these communities but

witnessed hate crimes and lynchings. The entire south was a big culture shock for him. This

experience was one of many that would later inspire him to become a strong voice for civil rights

in the south.

He earned a bachelor’s degree at Frisk and graduated top of his class in 1888. Long

before he applied for Fisk, his dream school was Harvard University. With the $25 his church

congressional gave him each year, it would not have been enough to pay for Harvard. A college

graduate now, he was able to earn more for himself to afford Harvard. After countless summer

jobs and loans, he attended Harvard for three years. In 1890, he was awarded his second

bachelor’s degree in history. Soon after, he received a scholarship to attend the sociology

graduate school at Harvard, where his passion for social sciences began.

A couple years after receiving his second degree, he was invited to study abroad in

Berlin, Germany, with many great social scientists, like Max Weber. Weber was inspired by Du

Bois, so he used Du Bois as an example in his research to disprove racists theories on the

inferiority of black people. This challenged racist sociologist views. Du Bois had picked up an

interest in sociology during this time. He would later make major contributions to the new field

of sociology.

Soon after returning to America, Du Bois completed his graduate studies at Harvard. As

of 1985, he was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. With his newfound

leisure time, he decided to write about his time abroad. In the text, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B

Du Bois and The Birth of Modern Sociology, he speaks of the difference in treatment he received
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in Europe as opposed to America. There, he was not treated as sub-human; people were pleased

to talk to him. People paid him no mind as he walked down the street, and he was treated as

another random commuter. When people would recognize him from his work, they would stop to

ask him questions and refer to him as an inspiration. These encounters inspired Du Bois to be

more active in civil rights campaigns.

Prior to Du Bois completing his studies at Harvard, he began teaching at Wilberforce

University in Ohio. There, he taught classics and modern languages for two years, and he

completed his doctoral thesis, “The suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States

of America.”

During Du Bois’ time at Wilberforce University, he met his wife, then student, Nina

Gromer. They wed in 1896 in Gromer’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Shortly after they

marry, Du Bois wife gives birth to a son named Burghardt. He would tragically pass as an infant.

Still grieving, Du Bois and his wife conceived a second child, a daughter. She would follow in

her father’s footsteps and attend Fisk college. Du Bois would raise his daughter without religion.

While studying at Fisk, he found that religion was not a reliable scientific standard.

Beginning to feel like he accomplished all he could at Wilberforce, Du Bois felt no

passion for him to stay, so he transferred to another school. The University of Pennsylvania

offered Du Bois the opportunity to conduct a study. While he conducted his study, he would also

teach sociology classes since he had experience from his time abroad in Berlin. As this was his

new passion project, he would personally wall door-to-door to 2500 houses. After 835 hours, he

finished his first study: The Philadelphia Negro. It would be the first case study of a black

community in the United States; as it dealt with exclusion of black people in industrial job, black

single-parent homes, and the legacy of slavery. The study identified an issue with black political
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awareness. Du Bois called it the Negro Problem and he would list the appropriate political

responses. Soon after, the Academy of Political and Social Sciences would invite him to study

his own concept of the Negro Problem. Du Bois called his new study, The Study of the Negro

Problem, and it detailed the poor conditions black Americans were forced to live in, and how it

affected their ability to evolve. Then Du Bois would conduct a study for the American Negro

Academy in Washington, D.C. called The Conservation of Races, and in it he questioned race as

a theory. Ultimately, these works served Du Bois as learning tools. They helped him garner an

understanding of what the African American community were oppressed, compared to his

upbringing. He began to question the political values in America and how they purposefully keep

a racial hierarchy.

After he feels accomplished with his work in Philadelphia, he moves to Atlanta, Georgia

to permanently teach sociology. While there, he wrote a book called Souls of Black Folk. The

book contained a collection of his essays regarding race, labor, and culture. These ideas clashed

with popular civil rights leader Booker T. Washington. Washington believed that black people

were not to be involved in politics. He argued that the best way for black people to earn their

liberties were to submit to the white man. Washington felt that Du Bois claims were too much of

an effort. Du Bois believed that colored people should focus on politics and education, so they

can rationalize what lawmakers have their best interests. Du Bois and his supporters actively

reprimanded Washington’s for being too pro-white. They argued that he was holding the black

community back. This led to Washington being scolded for the Atlanta Compromise, a speech he

gave in favor of white rule. Washington valued wealth over education and true freedom.

In 1905, Du Bois, along with several other civil rights activists, travelled to Niagara Falls

to discuss a proposal that opposes the Atlanta conference. Their aim was to get black people to
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read these ideas through publication. They called this the Niagara Movement. However, there

was a problem that all the black owned publishers were in favor of Washington. Du Bois insisted

on starting his own magazine titled the Moon Illustrated Weekly. Its primary purpose was to

attack Washington and persuade the black community to think logically. However, the magazine

did not last long. After eight months, Du Bois had to shut it down due to lack of sales. So, he

made another magazine called The Horizon.

In his fight to prevail over Booker T. Washington, two tragedies hit the black community

in 1906. The first being President Theodore Roosevelt’s discharge of the 167 Buffalo Soldiers.

They were the first all-black, segregated, regiments of the U.S. Army. They were discharged for

a racial discrimination incident, in which they were falsely accused. It hurt the community

significantly since a lot of the soldiers were close to retirement, and it felt like their service was

for nothing. The second major tragedy was when riots broke out in Atlanta. The riots were

racially motivated by white people to attack black men. There were a lot of lynchings because of

false claims of black men sexually assaulting white women. After hearing about the incidents,

Du Bois immediately advised the black community to stop supporting the republican party,

which Washington favored. Du Bois was furious with the republican leaders for not assisting

black people during these times, especially when most of their supporters were black. Du Bois

took this as an opportunity to make Washington’s Atlanta Compromise look like a failure. He

pinned the tragedy on Washington.

Four years after the buffalo Soldiers incident, In the spring of 1910, the NAACP

(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded. The National

Negro Committee, who consisted of W.E.B. Du Bois and several other scholarly black men, had

discussed ways to improve their community and the NAACP was born. Since the government
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would not help the people; it would be better if they assisted their own community. The NAACP

was dedicated to campaigning for civil rights for all colored people. Du Bois wanted to ensure

that all people of color felt like they had a voice. Instead of using the term ‘blacks,’ he would use

‘colored,’ because he felt like it included everyone with dark skin. Since its founding, the

NAACP had a very diverse set of chief executives, white people included. They would need the

assistance of white spokespeople to get their message across to a wider audience.

Du Bois’ role in the NAACP was the position of Director of Publicity and Research. His

main focus was editing the monthly magazine, The Crisis. He wanted to use the magazine to

spread facts and disprove racist theories. It was open for anyone to read it, but its main audience

was white people who would listen to the cries of their neighbors. Du Bois would write about the

horrors that colored people endured just for existing. He would write about verbal assault,

unmotivated arrests, and mass killings. But lynchings bothered him the most. White people

would hunt black people on the street like animals and hang them in public areas to display like

trophies. Entire white families would go and watch the lynchings. Du Bois wrote about these

horrors in his magazine so people would hopefully see how awful colored people were being

treated. In 1911, he started a nationwide movement to pressure the Federal government to outlaw

lynchings.

Du Bois was also in favor of women’s rights. For the time, it was a controversial

statement to make, but he was intelligent enough to recognize the power of people. Although the

women’s rights movement consisted of primarily white women at the time, he would still

advocate for their freedoms. They were all against his fight for racial justice.

Being the editor of this very popular journal, he was given more opportunities to speak to

people in high positions. He was a part of the Socialist Party of America, which was led by
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mostly white men. Du Bois would be disregarded when it came to many big discussions.

Knowing they were stubborn, he would still attempt to correct them when they based their ideas

off racist claims.

Around 1931, the NAACP was in financial trouble because of the Great Depression. Du

Bois was scared that he was going to lose his job to due to cuts, so he resigned and returned to

Atlanta where his previous job was. There he changed his views on certain things and offended

the NAACP by saying that segregation is good for the colored community. The NAACP cut ties

with him immediately. From there, he started writing about Marxism. He was a big fan of Karl

Marx’s reasoning that African Americans are beneficial to the Economy. He was not a follower

of communism at all, he was just fascinated by fellow sociologist, Karl Marx’s work.

His life began to decline after he left the NAACP. He would attend his final racial

equality meetings around 1945, before his migration to Africa. Du Bois worked in Ghana as an

encyclopedia author. He moved his family to Africa with him so he could work on the

encyclopedia. And in 1963, he became a citizen of the Dominion of Ghana. He would later

revoke his U.S. citizenship so he could become a permanent resident. There he would spend the

rest of his short time working on his encyclopedia. Finally, he would die in Ghana, at the age of

95 on August 27, 1963.

His death did not go unnoticed in America. Civil rights activists and sociologists honored

Du Bois with a moment of silence. And as if it was a parting gift, nearly a year after he passed,

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. He had spent all of his life advocating for his

community, although many times he was pushed down, he would fight back harder. He was laid

to rest at the Osu Castle in Accra.

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Du Bois legacy remains strong today. Now, his reports and studies are fundamental to

sociology as we know it today. He is regarded as the father of sociology, and his legacy will

forever be synonymous with intellect and the passion to strive for a better future. If it were not

for his advocations, colored people may not have been able to live the lived they do today.
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Works Cited

Du Bois, W. E. B. “A Black Schoolmaster in the Postbellum South.” The Atlantic, Atlantic

Media Company, 23 Feb. 2018,

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1899/01/a-negro-schoolmaster-in-the-

south/400028/. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.

Nyce, Caroline Mimbs. “W.E.B. Du Bois at Fisk University.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media

Company, 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/web-

du-bois-at-fisk-university/624867/. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.

"Origin of the NAACP (1909)." The American Mosaic: The African American Experience, ABC-

CLIO, 2022, africanamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1514184. Accessed 28 Nov.

2022.

Stallings, Melissa. "Antilynching Movement." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2022,

americanhistory2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/256023. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.

"W.E.B. Du Bois." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2022, americanhistory2-abc—

cliocom.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/Search/Display/1187799. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.