DuBois, William Edward Burghardt

(1868–1963)

American black activist and social philosopher. Born in Maryland, Dubois was educated at Fisk university, Tennessee, and Harvard. He taught at Wilberforce College, the university of Pennsylvania, and then at Atlanta College from 1897 to 1910, when he became director of research for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples, and editor of their journal Crisis . DuBois argued that African Americans should conserve their cultural differences, while insisting on equal opportunities for development. If successful, coloured people could overcome results of racial prejudice such as the ‘double consciousness’ that prevented them from achieving true self-realization. He gradually lost faith in moral suasion, becoming a Communist in 1961, and died in Ghana. His books include The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899), Soul of Black Folk (1903), and Colour and Democracy (1945).