The writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, including the first study of urban blacks in the United States, had a huge impact on African American communities during the 1900s. Du Bois believed in Pan- Africanism and played a major role in founding the NAACP. Although he left the United States for political reasons, he remained (and still does nearly fifty years after his death) an influential presence.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was one of the most important African American leaders in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. He made significant contributions as a journalist, sociologist, historian, novelist, pamphleteer, civil rights leader, and teacher. Among his many publications are sociological studies as well as studies of the slave trade (1896), John Brown (1909), and Reconstruction (1935).
Du Bois was born on 23 February 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1884, he graduated from Great Barrington High School as valedictorian of his class. In 1888, Du Bois graduated from Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee. It was while in Tennessee that Du Bois first experienced overt racial discrimination. Du Bois earned a second bachelor’s degree (1890)
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Washington (1856–1915). Washington urged African Americans to accept discrimination for the time being and encouraged them to elevate themselves through hard work. At first, Du Bois agreed with Washington; he applauded the famous 1895 Atlanta speech in which Washington argued for “segregated equality.” But changes within African American communities militated against Washington’s position as African American migration accelerated the growth of black ghettoes. Du Bois addressed Washington’s position in a chapter of his most widely known book, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), cogently arguing that Washington’s strategy could serve only to perpetuate the further oppression of African