Du Bois, W(illiam) E(dward) B(urghardt) (1868-1963)

US educator and social critic. Du Bois was one of the early leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the editor of its journal Crisis 1909-32. As a staunch advocate of African-American rights, he came into conflict with Booker T Washington, opposing the latter's policy of compromise on the issue of race relations.

In 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, which was merged with the newly founded NAACP in 1909. His book Souls of Black Folk (1903) emphasized his revolt against the principles of Booker T Washington. He was also a pioneer of Pan-Africanism, the belief that all people of African descent should join together to fight against discrimination.

Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1888, and earned a PhD from Harvard in 1895. He taught economics and history at Atlanta University 1897-1910, returning in 1932 to teach sociology. In 1944 he rejoined the NAACP as research director. Du Bois then began to shift from a non-ideological radical position towards a Marxist and pro-Soviet viewpoint, and he joined the Communist Party in 1961. In 1962 he went to live in Accra, Ghana, where he died. The Autobiography of W E B Du Bois was published posthumously in 1968.