THE LIFE OF W'EB' DUBOIS

1
THE LIFE OF W.EB. DUBOIS

• Kay Daugherty
• Jeff White

• A Pioneering sociologist, historian, novelist,
  playwright, and cultural critic.

2
His Life

• Full name was William Edward Burghardt Dubois
• Born February 23rd 1868
• He died August 27th 1963
• Was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

3
Family Life

• Mothers name Mary Burghardt Du Bois
• He lived in a cottage that his parents rented
  from Jefferson and Minerva McKinley
• His father left when he was very young, leaving
  two boys and mother very poor

4
Education!

• Attended school at Fisk, Harvard, and The
  University of Berlin
• Dubois earned his second Bachelors degree from
  Harvard
• Served as a professor of Latin Greek for
  Wilberforce and the University of Pennsylvania
• Also served as a professor of Economics and
  History at Atlanta University

5
Theories and Accomplishments

• While he was at the University of Pennsylvania,
  he conducted a research project in Philadelphias
  seventh world slums
• This project gave him the opportunity to study
  blacks as a social system
• His research revealed the negro group as a
  symptom not a cause of their social environment
• This was the first time a scientific approach was
  used to study this issue, which is why Du Bois is
  now acknowledged as The Father of Social Science

6
Targets of His Studies

• Negro morality
• Urbanization
• Negroes in Business
• College-Bred Negroes
• The Negro Church
• Negro Crime

7
Controversies

• Dr. DuBois had an on-going ideological
  controversy with Booker T. Washington
• From 1895 to 1910 Washington was the most
  powerful black man in America Every grant, job
  placement or endeavor concerning blacks was
  brought straight to Washingtons doorstep
• This power however was not the reason DuBois
  had ideological controversy with Washinton, In
  fact DuBois loved the idea that a black man held
  such a position

8
Controversies Continued

• DuBoiss problem with Washington was that
  Washington would say one thing to the
  African-American people and then do another.
• For example Washington would preach to the
  African-American people that no political action
  needed to be taken at the time. Then on the other
  hand Washington would dictate Negro political
  objectives from Tuskegee

9
His Written Work

• DuBois published his famous book, The Souls of
  Black Folks. One chapter entitled "Of Booker T.
  Washington and Others" contains an critical
  debate on the general attitude of Washington.
  DuBois reduced the chapter himself to keep the
  most notorious and bitter remarks out of it. Yet,
  it still was more than enough to gain
  Washington's continued hatred for him.

• For years, he was editor of The Crisis and other
  progressive journals, and was an international
  spokesperson for peace and the rights of
  oppressed minorities
• Du Bois wrote a number of books on civil right
  issues including
• The Philadelphia Negro (1899)
• The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
• John Brown (1909)
• The Negro (1915)
• The Gift of Black Folk (1924)
• Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
• Dusk of Dawn (1940)
• Color and Democracy (1945)

10
NAACP

• In 1905, he was the principal founder of the
  Niagara Movement a civil rights protest
  organization, in opposition to Booker T.
  Washingtons appeasing attitude towards racial
  discrimination.
• The organization called for direct action against
  racial discrimination through protest, through
  the use of the courts, and through education of
  the American people.
• Four years later, he was a principal organizer of
  the National Association for the Advancement of
  Colored People (NAACP).
• Its mission was to included both blacks and
  whites. From 1910 to 1934, as the NAACP Director
  of Publicity and Research and editor of its
  magazine (the Crisis), he combined his
  experimentation in literature, his understanding
  of American culture, and the rhetoric of protest.
  He was, for nearly a quarter century, the
  undisputed intellectual leader of a new
  generation of African Americans.

11
Later Years

• A recipient of the World Peace Council Prize
  (1952)
• And the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize (1959)
• Du Bois became a member of the Communist party in
  1961 and a citizen of Ghana, where he served as
  director

12
Admirers

• Was said to have been driven by spirited
  devotion and scholarly dedication to attack
  injustice and defend freedom
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. later wrote, Cannot
  ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to
  reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless
  explorer and a gifted discoverer of social
  truths

13
Legacy With DuBois

• Blacks are still studied as a social system
• Urbanization
• Crime with the African American Community is
  still studied and discussed on how to stop it
• NAACP still exist today
• Pop culture references towards his such as Hip
  hop artist Talib Kweli refers to him in "Gun
  Music" with
• Bringing the funk of dead bodies, go ahead bring
  in your boys
• You'll see the souls of black folk like W. E. B
  Du Bois.
• A character from the cartoon program The
  Boondocks is named Thomas Du Bois, a possible
  reference to W. E. B. Du Bois.

14
Conclusion

• At the age of 91 moved to Ghana where he became a
  naturalized citizen. William Du Bois died in
  Ghana on 27th August, 1963. He was honored by a
  state funeral and buried in Accra.
• 1877-1965