Person · 1868–1963
W.E.B. Du Bois
The sociologist, historian, and activist who co-founded the NAACP and defined Black intellectual life for half a century.
The defining intellectual of the [[great-migration]] era and [[reconstruction-politics|Black political thought]].
The first Black American to earn a Harvard PhD, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903), challenged Booker T. Washington's accommodation, and helped found the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, editing its magazine "The Crisis." He spent his life insisting on full equality and Pan-African solidarity, dying in Ghana in 1963.
On the timeline
- April 18, 1903W.E.B. Du Bois publishes "The Souls of Black Folk"
Du Bois's landmark book rejects accommodation, names the "color line" as the problem of the century, and demands full rights now.
- July 11, 1905The Niagara Movement
Du Bois and others launch a militant demand for full civil rights, a forerunner of the NAACP.
- February 12, 1909The NAACP is founded
The nation's most enduring civil-rights organization is established.
Resources
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- enabled·EventThe NAACP is founded
Du Bois was the intellectual force behind the NAACP's founding in 1909.