10 Remarkable Insights About W.E.B. Du Bois

Born just three years after the conclusion of the Civil War, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois witnessed the early stirrings of the Civil Rights movement. A scholar, social theorist, and activist, Du Bois played a pivotal role in transitioning from one era to another. Not only did he contribute profoundly to the ongoing dialogue on racial injustice, but he also actively engaged as an organizer, putting his beliefs into action. His enduring legacy is solidified through his social scientific work and the organizations he helped establish in the fight for social equity. Here are 10 key facts about W.E.B. Du Bois.

1. W.E.B. Du Bois became the first Black American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Du Bois spent his early years at the historically Black institution, Fisk University, from 1885 to 1888, before pursuing a second bachelor's degree at Harvard College. In 1892, he received a grant from the John F. Slater Fund to study at the University of Berlin. However, his academic journey did not stop there. In 1895, Du Bois made history as the first Black American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard, with his dissertation titled “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in the United States of America: 1638-1871.” During his time at Harvard, he was mentored by the renowned philosopher and psychology pioneer, William James, who greatly influenced Du Bois’s intellectual development.

2. He pioneered the first major case study of a Black community in the U.S.

“The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study,” published in 1899, was the outcome of Du Bois’s survey of Philadelphia’s Black residents conducted from 1896 to 1897. The study, which included 5,000 personal interviews, aimed to uncover the social challenges unique to the Black community. It wasn’t just the first major case study of a Black community, but also one of the earliest examples of sociological research using data-driven, statistical methods.

Du Bois concluded that the core of these problems stemmed from the way Black Americans were viewed, emphasizing that these issues would be alleviated if white people began to see Black individuals as equals rather than as inferior: “Again, the white people of the city must remember that much of the sorrow and bitterness that surrounds the life of the American Negro comes from the unconscious prejudice and half-conscious actions of men and women who do not intend to wound or annoy.”

He also identified the historical roots of the so-called “Negro Problem,” including the enduring effects of systemic slavery and discriminatory housing policies that forced Black people to pay higher rents for substandard living conditions.

3. He released The Souls of Black Folk in 1903.

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois introduced his concept of “double consciousness,” a psychological condition faced by marginalized groups in oppressive societies, where one’s sense of self is divided. Du Bois wrote, “One ever feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

Du Bois’s former professor, William James, praised The Souls of Black Folk when it was published. He also reportedly sent a copy of the groundbreaking work to his brother, the renowned American novelist Henry James.

4. Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement and disagreed with Booker T. Washington's philosophy.

During the Reconstruction Era in the South, Black Americans enjoyed more social freedoms and political engagement. However, as the 20th century approached, southern states began to limit voting rights and enforce segregation. In response, Booker T. Washington proposed the Atlanta Compromise—a strategy suggesting that Black Americans should refrain from protesting for civil rights as long as they had access to jobs and the justice system.

In opposition to Washington's approach of concession, Du Bois and newspaper editor William Monroe Trotter spearheaded the formation of the Niagara Movement in 1905. This organization fought for equal treatment, equal opportunities in both education and the workforce, and the right to “manhood suffrage.”

5. Du Bois’s ideas gained wider support following the Atlanta Race Riots of 1906.

Between September 22 and 24, 1906, in response to unverified reports of Black men assaulting four white women, over 10,000 white individuals rampaged through Atlanta, attacking every Black person they encountered. The riots led to numerous deaths (estimates vary between 10 and 100) and represented a gross miscarriage of justice, undermining Washington’s strategy of accommodation.

In the aftermath of the riots, Du Bois penned the poem “A Litany of Atlanta” and purchased a shotgun for protection. Du Bois, along with others, felt that President Theodore Roosevelt and his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, should have intervened with troops to stop further bloodshed.

Following an incident in Brownsville, Texas, in 1906, Du Bois declared in 1908 that if Taft secured the Republican nomination, Black Americans should cease supporting the Republican Party, which they had been loyal to since the time of Abraham Lincoln. He argued, “An avowed enemy [is] better than false friends.”

6. Du Bois was a co-founder of the NAACP.

Four years after the Niagara Movement, Du Bois helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), along with journalist Mary White Ovington and attorney Moorfield Storey. The NAACP was founded as a biracial organization focused on protesting and lobbying for equality, similar to the Niagara Movement. Its early campaigns included challenging Jim Crow laws in the South, opposing President Woodrow Wilson’s segregation policies in federal workplaces, and advocating for Black Americans' right to serve as officers in WWI. Within five years, the NAACP grew to 6,000 members across 50 branches. From 1910 to 1934, Du Bois served as the director of publicity and research, sat on the board of directors, and edited its influential magazine, The Crisis, which covered both arts and politics.

7. He was a global civil rights advocate.

Du Bois’s commitment to equality reached far beyond the United States. He played a key role in organizing several Pan-African Conferences, beginning with the 1900 conference in London. During this event, he delivered the “Address to the Nations of the World,” calling on the U.S. and European nations to combat systemic racism and end colonialism. He was also part of a three-person NAACP delegation to the 1945 United Nations founding conference. As both a writer and activist, Du Bois championed freedom and equality for the entire African diaspora, as well as for Africans on the continent.

8. He was a victim of McCarthyism.

The FBI opened a file on Du Bois, a self-identified Socialist, in 1942. During the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s, Du Bois—who chaired the anti-nuclear Peace Information Center—along with four others, was charged with failing to register the organization with the government. If convicted, they faced up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

However, the case never went to verdict. The judge dismissed it after defense attorney Vito Marcantonio informed him that Albert Einstein would testify as a character witness for Du Bois. (The two had a correspondence, and Einstein even contributed an essay to The Crisis.)

9. He became a Ghanaian citizen but never renounced his U.S. citizenship.

The consequences of McCarthy-era repression were severe for Du Bois. Many of his colleagues, including the NAACP, distanced themselves from him, and the organization never publicly defended him. Although he was never convicted, the U.S. government still revoked his passport for eight years. When Du Bois regained it, he traveled to Ghana in 1961 (at age 93) to assist with an encyclopedia on the African diaspora. In 1963, after the U.S. refused to renew his passport, Du Bois became a citizen of Ghana in symbolic protest. While some mistakenly list him among those who renounced their American citizenship, Du Bois never formally did so.

10. He passed away the day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech.

Du Bois passed away at the age of 95 in Accra, Ghana, on August 27, 1963. (His home in Accra, where he is buried, was transformed into the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, a museum commemorating his time in Ghana.) The following day, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his legendary speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where he famously shared his vision. It's almost as if fate had a poetic sense of timing.