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William Edward Burghart DuBois, born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was a legend in his own time and has been regarded as the dean of Negro intellectuals. He was awarded scholarships to attend Fisk and Harvard universities as well as the University of Berlin; he was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Among his many achievements, DuBois founded and was first editor of Crisis magazine. Later, he founded a Negro quarterly, Phylon, while teaching at Atlanta University.
In one of DuBois’ books, The Soul of Black Folks (1903), the well-known conflicting views between him and Booker T. Washington were carried out even further. in this book he attacked Washington’s policy of doing nothing to fight segregation and discrimination. He also criticized Washington for not being interested in the education of bright young Blacks. In 1905, DuBois headed the Niagara Movement, which aimed at terminating racial segregation and discrimination. DuBois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and he started the first Pan American Congress in Paris in1919, which aimed at increasing worldwide awareness of the conditions and status of Negroes. DuBois lived in Ghana and was working on a book entitled Encyclopedia Africana at the time of his death on August 28, 1963.
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