Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt

US black civil rights leader, educator, and sociologist

1st black to receive Ph.D. from Harvard University 1895 (in history)

wrote "The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870" 1896, "The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study" 1899, "The Souls of Black Folk" 1903, "Black Reconstruction" 1935, "Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept" 1940, "The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois" 1968

advocated direct civil rights activism, criticizing vocationally-oriented accommodation policy of Booker T. Washington

advocated uplifting of blacks through efforts of educated black elite (the Talented Tenth)

secretary of Pan-African Conference in London 1900

main founder of Niagara Movement 1905

general secretary of Niagara Movement 1905-1909

main founder of NAACP 1909

editor of NAACP journal "The Crisis" 1910-1932

main organizer of First Pan-African Conference in Paris 1919

chairman of sociology department at Atlanta University 1933-1944

resigned from NAACP 1934, criticizing NAACP for bourgeois orientation at expense of black proletariat

founded journal "Phylon" 1940

1st editor of "Phylon" 1940-1944

1st black admitted to National Institute of Arts and Letters 1943

became disillusioned with US and drifted leftward politically

joined Communist Party 1961

immigrated to Ghana 1961 (naturalized Ghanaian citizen 1963

renounced US citizenship)

Spingarn Medal 1920