1. W.E.B. DUBOIS: 1868 - 1963

2. FAMILY HISTORY Mother: Mary Silvina Burghardt African American – family was part of a small group of free blacks living in Great Barrington, MA Descended from Dutch and African ancestry Father: Alfred DuBois From Haiti Descended from French and African ancestry Married: February 2, 1867 William Edward Burghardt DuBois born February 23, 1868

3. FAMILY HISTORY - CONTINUED Father deserted the family when William was two years old Grew up very close to his mother Moved from town to town surviving on money made from odd jobs Given the demographics of Great Barrington, William seldom thought of himself as different because of skin color Until adolescence when a white girl rejected him because he was Black

4. FAMILY Married to Nina Gomer, 1896 till her death in 1950 Student he met while teaching in Ohio Fathered two children Burghardt – son who died as a baby Yolande – daughter Remarried to Shirley Graham in 1951 Author, Playwright, Composer and Activist Stepson - David

5. EDUCATION Elementary and High School in Great Barrington Teachers recognized his intellectual abilities and encouraged him to further his education Fisk University – BA 1888 Historically Black college in Nashville, TN Harvard University – BA 1890, MA 1891 University of Berlin – 1892 Graduate Work Harvard University – PhD 1895

6. MAN OF MANY HATS Historian Scholar Sociologist / Criminologist Novelist Editor Poet Publisher Propagandist Political Activist Civil Rights Activist Communist

7. SOCIOLOGIST / CRIMINOLOGIST Began writing on sociology of crime after PhD Established three significant parts to his criminology theory: Negro crime was caused by the strain of the “social revolution” experienced by Black Americans “Stratification” – belief that Black crime would decline as the African American population moved towards a more equal status with whites. “Talented Tenth” – belief that exceptional men of the Black race would be the ones to lead the race and save it from its criminal problems

8. NOVELIST: SIGNIFICANT WORKS The Philadelphia Negro – 1899 The Souls of Black Folk – 1903 John Brown – 1909 The Negro - 1915 Black Reconstruction – 1935 Black Folk, Then and Now - 1939

9. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK Most popular work - introduced “the color-line” referring to racial segregation that occurred after the abolition of slavery “twoness” referring to the dilemma of blacks seeing themselves as they are perceived by whites simultaneously with their own cultural identities

10. CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST Helped organize the “Negro Exhibition” at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris Published Credo in 1904 Written in prose-poem, it was his “statement of faith and human unity” Helped found the Niagara Movement in 1905 Generally considered to be the forerunner of the NAACP Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Proponent of Black Separatism Private and Public struggle with Booker T. Washington

11. COMMUNIST Chairman of Peace Information Center Signer of the Stockholm Peace Pledge Member of American Labor Party Great admiration for Joseph Stalin Even after others considered Communism “the god that failed” Visited Communist China between 1958 and 1961 Indicted in U.S. under the Foreign Agents Registration Act – acquitted Received Lenin Peace Prize in 1959 Joined Communist Party USA in 1961 Refused U.S. passport renewal in 1963 Became a citizen of Ghana Contrary to popular belief he never renounced his U.S. Citizenship

12. CONTEXT Defined as the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs: environment, setting In order to fully comprehend DuBois it is necessary to look at the environment he lived in during his life Life began in Victorian New England during Reconstruction America, before Jim Crow laws Life ended in post colonial Africa a year before U.S. legislation that ended de jure segregation and Jim Crow racism as custom and practice Major political and economic changes between 1868 and 1963 Two World Wars

13. IMAGES

14. WORKS CITED Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A., 1903; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/114/. 1996 www.bartleby.com/114/ Holt, Thomas C.. "Du Bois, W. E. B.." African American National Biography. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. Ed. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Oxford African American Studies Center. Sun Nov 06 14:00:58 EST 2011.. Lewis, David Levering. W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963. New York: Owl, 2001 Reesman, Jeanne Campbell and Arnold Krupat. The Norton Anthology of American Literature 7th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2007. Suggs, Jon-Christian, Dale Edwyna Smith and Wes Borucki. "Du Bois, W. E. B.." Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. Ed. Paul Finkelman. Oxford African American Studies Center. Sun Nov 06 13:40:31 EST 2011.. West, Cornel. "W. E. B. Du Bois: An Interpretation." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. Oxford African American Studies Center. Sun Nov 06 14:11:27 EST 2011..