W.E.B. Dubois: Books, Family, Biography, Accomplishments, Politics (1998)

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William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois (pronounced /duːˈbɔɪz/ doo-BOYZ; February 23, 1868 -- August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195051742/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp;=1789&creative;=9325&creativeASIN;=0195051742&linkCode;=as2&tag;=mg03-20&linkId;=21609f38ba999abe506a2bb0a3c6c113 Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta Compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the talented tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership. Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in their struggles against colonialism and imperialism. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to free African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia. After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United States military. Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. He wrote the first scientific treatise in the field of sociology; and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death. The NAACP awarded the Spingarn Medal to Du Bois in 1920.[275] Du Bois was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in 1959.[276] The site of the house where Du Bois grew up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.[277] In 1992 the United States Postal Service honored Du Bois with his portrait on a postage stamp.[278] A second stamp of face value 32¢ was issued on 3 February 1998 as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series. In 1994, the main library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was named after Du Bois.[279] The Du Bois center at Northern Arizona University is named in his honor.[280] A dormitory was named after Du Bois at the University of Pennsylvania, where he conducted field research for his sociological study "The Philadelphia Negro".[281] Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience was inspired by and dedicated to Du Bois by its editors Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.[282] Humboldt University in Berlin hosts a series of lectures named in Du Bois's honor.[283] Scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Du Bois in his 2002 list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.[284] In 2005, Du Bois was honored with a medallion in The Extra Mile, Washington DC's memorial to important American volunteers. The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Du Bois annually on August 3. Du Bois was appointed Honorary Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_e_b_dubois