Profile of the Day: W.E.B. Du Bois

Posted February 23, 2024 by Amanda | No Comment

Today we remember sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, who was born on February 23, 1868.

Image: W.E.B. Du Bois / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, CC0

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Mary Silvinia Burghardt and Alfred Du Bois. His mother’s family was a part of a small free black community in Great Barrington and they had long owned land in the area. His maternal second great grandfather, Tom Burghardt, was a slave and possibly earned his freedom by serving in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1895, Du Bois became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A sociologist, Du Bois devoted most of his life to studying African-American communities. Considered one of the most influential proponents of civil rights during the first half of the 20th century, Du Bois focused on combatting racism and fought for the equal rights of all people of color. In 1909, he co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Du Bois died on August 27, 1963 at the age of 95. His death came just one day before Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream Speech.”