“Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.” – W. E. B. Dubois
Point #1
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, scholar and activist, was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Point #2
In 1885, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to Attended Fisk University, where he first encountered Jim Crow laws. After earning his bachelor’s degree at Fisk, Du Bois entered Harvard University. He paid his way with money from summer jobs, scholarships and loans from friends. After completing his master’s degree, he was selected for a study-abroad program at the University of Berlin. While a pupil in Germany, he studied with some of the most prominent social scientists of his day and was exposed to political perspectives that he touted for the remainder of his life.
“But what of black women?… I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.” – W. E. B. Dubois
Point #3
He co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) in 1909 and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to free African colonies from European powers.
Point #4
Criticized Booker T. Washington for not demanding equality for African Americans, as granted by the 14th Amendment. Du Bois fought what he believed was an inferior strategy, subsequently becoming a spokesperson for full and equal rights in every realm of a person’s life.
Point #5
W.E.B. Du Bois died one day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington (August 28, 1963). at the age of 95, in Accra, Ghana, while working on an encyclopedia of the African Diaspora.