There are many interesting online pages with biographical details of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and various aspects of his life, writings, and activities.

This web page is organized according to the following sections
(with the sections being internally alphabetized):

  * Autobiographical Works by Du Bois
  * Biographies: Notes, Overviews, and Longer Works
  * Tributes, Obituaries, and Commemorations
  * On Du Bois' Scholarship and Activism
  * Booker T. Washington and Du Bois
  * Other Aspects of Du Bois' Life

Clicking on the hyperlinks will transport you to the corresponding section below.

I have written a biographical profile of Du Bois [link below], which is available at The Literary Encyclopedia.

Robert W. Williams  [R.W.'s bio] 

LATEST UPDATE (as of 10 October 2009)
Posted below are links to several video-taped course lectures by Dr. Clayborne Carson of Stanford University.


"Prof. William Edward Burghardt DuBois." This is an entry on Du Bois in a publication, "Harvard College - Class of 1890" (published in 1909). The details of his accomplishments from the early 1900s seem to have been sent in by Du Bois himself -- as judged by the quotations provided. This is the text of the entry and not a graphics image. It is part of the digital Collection at the Memorial Hall Museum, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

"The Shadow of Years." This autobiographical piece is Chapter I in DuBois' Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil (NY: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1920). It ranges from his early years to about 1918, the period of his 50th birthday. [WEBDuBois.org has a Darkwater web page.]

"DuBois' Recorded Autobiography at C-SPAN Radio" [Partial].
This oral history by DuBois was recorded in 1960; it is from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Only about one hour of it can be heard as streaming RealAudio from the American Political Archive at C-SPAN Radio.
* To locate the recording: in the top center of the web page there is a small box/area with various programs listed; click on the direction arrows to move through the available radio programs until you come to the DuBois program.
* DuBois' oral history can be purchased at the Smithsonian Folkways site.

Selections from Du Bois's 1968 Autobiography are found at Dr. Larry Ridener's site, Dead Sociologists' Society (DSS). The book, whose full title is The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century, was posthumously published in 1968 (NY: International Publishers). [The DSS excerpts are available on one page from Dr. Ronald Bolender.]
* The selections offered are "Birth and Family" (ch. vi); "Harvard in the Last Decades of the 19th Century" (ch. ix); "The Niagra Movement" (ch. xiv); "The NAACP" (ch. xv); "My Character" (ch. xvi); "Work for Peace" (ch. xx); "My Tenth Decade" (ch. xxiii); and "Postlude."

  [ Alphabetized by Author (including those by "Anonymous") ] "Sociologist, with a Grand Agenda, W.E.B. Du Bois. Bio at the African American Registry.

"W.E.B. Du Bois in Georgia" by Derrick P. Alridge, University of Georgia (dated 14 May 2003). This essay is part of the online New Georgia Encyclopedia. Alridge writes:
Du Bois' years in Georgia were some of the most productive in his seventy-plus years of scholarship and activism. While he has most often been associated with New England, it was in Georgia and other parts of the South that Du Bois focused much of his studies on black social conditions.

"Writers of the Day -- Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois." An anonymous 1897 sketch of Du Bois early in his career, the piece was published in the Boston-based periodical, The Writer -- whose subtitle was "A Monthly Magazine to Interest and Help all Literary Workers." The entire passage on Du Bois is as follows:     Dr. William E. Burghardt Du Bois, whose paper, "Strivings of the American Negro," [sic] in the Atlantic Monthly for August has attracted wide attention, has recently been elected assistant professor of history and economics in Atlanta University, and is one of the best trained of the younger men who are devoting themselves to the uplifting of their race. Born in Massachusetts, a graduate of Fisk University, and having also a bachelor's degree from Harvard College, he has devoted himself for several years to advanced study in the graduate department of Harvard University and in the leading universities of Europe. He received the degree of doctor of philosophy from Harvard. His work everywhere received marked attention, and his publications, including a large volume in the Harvard Historical Series on "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade," and various contributions to periodical literature, have all won high praise. During the past year Dr. Du Bois has been assistant in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and has had charge of an investigation by the university of the condition of the negro population of the seventh ward in the city of Philadelphia. He has thus been brought into personal contact with many of the most practical sides of the negro question. Note 1: "Negro" is not capitalized in the original text.
Note 2: The full citation is: Anonymous. 1897. "Writers of the Day -- Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois." The Writer, Vol. X, No. 11 (November):167.
(Details about this particular work can be found at Google Books' More-about-this-book page).
Note 3: Web locations for Du Bois' "Strivings" essay -- which is actually titled "Strivings of the Negro People" -- are listed on the Souls page of <www.webdubois.org>.

An anonymous biographical sketch of DuBois published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (September 1897) [download page for the complete volume]. Located in the "Personal Notes" section, under the "America" heading, the piece in its entirety reads:
    Atlanta University.---Dr. William E. Burghardt DuBois has been appointed Professor of Social Science and History at Atlanta University. Dr. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868, at Great Barrington, Mass., and obtained his early education in the public schools of his native town. He entered Fisk University in 1885 and graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1888. He then entered Harvard University, receiving the degree of A. B., cum Laude, in 1890. He pursued post-graduate studies at Harvard* for two years, receiving the degree of A. M. in 1891, and then attended the University of Berlin for three semesters during 1892-94. The succeeding two years he was Professor of Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, and in 1895 received the degree of Ph. D. from Harvard.† He has been Assistant in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania during the past year, and has had charge of an investigation into the condition of the negroes of Philadelphia. Dr. DuBois is a member of the American Historical Association and of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He has written a series of articles on social reforms among the negroes for the New York Age. Besides this he is the author of the following books:
    "The Enforcement of the Slave Trade Laws." Transactions of American Historical Association, 1892.
    "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America." Pp. 335. New York, 1897.
    "The Conservation of Races." Pp. 16. Washington, 1897.

 [Footnotes at the bottom of the page:]
     * See Annals, Vol. i, p. 296, October, 1890.
     † Ibid., Vol. vi, p. 301, September, 1895.
Note 1: "Negro" is not capitalized in the original text.
Note 2: The full citation is: Anonymous. 1897. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 10, no. 5 (September): p. 104. [This page number uses issue pagination, which is equivalent to the volume pagination of p. 252.]
Note 3: The footnotes were references to earlier issues of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science that presented very brief notices about DuBois' graduation dates.

"On Du Bois's move to Africa" by Herbert Aptheker. Published in Monthly Review (December 1993). [This link is to the printer friendly version at www.FindArticles.com.]

"W.E.B. Du Bois (1863-1963)." Forrest Baird offers a biographical sketch and then comments on Du Bois' philosophical influences, specifically G.W.F. Hegel, in The Souls of Black Folk.

"W.E.B. Du Bois as a Study Abroad Student in Germany, 1892-1894" by Hamilton Beck. This essay -- from Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad (v. II, Fall 1996) -- highlights DuBois' experiences as they relate to the formation of his sense of self-identity as well as his later intellectual development.

"W.E.B. DuBois, Scholar, 1868-1963." This brief bio of Du Bois is part of the Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement at Bridgewater State College.

W.E.B. Du Bois: Negro Leader in a Time Of Crisis
by Francis L. Broderick (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959). This is a well known biography. The full text of the book is available:
(1) from the Text Archive at the Internet Archive in DjVu format (here is the specific download page for the entire book);
or
(2) at the Universal Library, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University, in an online version of separately viewable pages in TIFF (the default), text, and HTML formats (this is the book's first digital page);
or
(3) at the Digital Library of India in online formats of individual pages (here is the book's start page).
Note: The default setting of the online viewer at the Digital Library of India displays a TIFF image file, which on my computer pops up a dialog box asking how I wish to access the TIFF file. I cancel this dialog box and, from the viewer interface, I select "HTML" from a drop-down menu box containing possible viewing formats. (The "GIF" option does not seem to work for this particular book).
* Also please note a book review: Jean Blake wrote a review of Broderick's book (International Socialist Review, Vol.21 No. 1, Winter 1960).

"W.E.B. Du Bois Biographical Essay" by Kerry W. Buckley (W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst). Buckley provides a straightforward précis. A timeline is available of Du Bois' life. [Links were updated on 14 November 2005.]

"Du Bois, W.E.B." by James Campbell. This is a biographical piece in the Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Routledge, 2003). Campbell outlines Du Bois' life, but concentrates -- appropriately for its venue -- on the literary dimensions. Of note, Campbell discusses DuBois' initial support for, but later dissatisfaction with, the "New Negro movement" as embodied in the Harlem Renaissance.

Dr. Clayborne Carson lectured on Du Bois and other persons and events of the 20th Century as part of his Fall 2007 "Introduction to African-American History" course (HIST 166) at Stanford University. He is a Professor of History there and also the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute (faculty page). The video-taped lectures most directly relevant to this site are as follows:
* Lecture 1 (~44 min. duration ). DuBois is the starting point for the course. This lecture covers biographical details of DuBois's life; Dr. Carson discusses The Souls of Black Folk, the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, Marcus Garvey, and the marriage of Yolanda Du Bois to Countee Cullen.
* Lecture 2 (~62 min. duration). The lecture discusses DuBois during the 1930s, with details provided on the Scottsboro case and Communism, DuBois's tensions at the NAACP, Black / White issues in the labor movement, race relations during the Roosevelt Presidency, and Mary McCleod Bethune.
* Lecture 3 (~79 min. duration). Shirley Graham is the focus of this lecture, which offers a bio of her life and details of her actions in the 1940s: her ties to the NAACP and to the Communist Party, as well as her relationship with DuBois and her later marriage to him. The lecture also covers the politics of World War II and the Cold War with regard to W.E.B. Du Bois.
* Other video-taped course lectures by Dr. Carson and guest speakers discuss the significance of such activists as Paul Robeson, Bayard Rustin, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, Jr., women in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and Angela Davis.

"W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt)," a biographical sketch written by Richard A. Couto [faculty homepage]. It is available at the online version of the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, which is a co-sponsored project of the University of Tennessee Press and the Tennessee Historical Society.

His Day Is Marching On; A Memoir of W. E. B. Du Bois
by Shirley Graham Du Bois (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1971). Du Bois' second wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois (1906-1977) wrote this biography of her husband. The full text of the book is available at the Digital Library of India.
* Note: The default setting of the online viewer at the Digital Library of India displays a TIFF image file, which on my computer pops up a dialog box asking how I wish to access the TIFF file. I cancel this dialog box and, from the viewer interface, I select "GIF" from a drop-down menu box containing possible viewing formats. (The "HTML" selection does not seem to produce very legible text for this particular book).

"Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868–1963)", an encyclopedia entry by Stephen D. Glazier [faculty page]. Glazier provides an overview of Du Bois' life and accomplishments, including the areas of scholarship and activism. The page is an entry from the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2004).

"W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)" [PDF file]. This essay provides an extensive overview of some of the major events and achievements in Du Bois' life. It is a chapter within Black Stars of the Harlem Renaissance, edited by Jim Haskins, Eleanora Tate, Clinton Cox, and Brenda Wilkinson (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2002). [An HTML version is available via <Google.com>.]

"DuBois, William Edward Burghardt." In 1913 the Harvard Alumni Association published a directory of brief biographical sketches about its graduates. Du Bois' listing is on p. 234:
DuBois, William Edward Burghardt [c 1888-90, A.B.;
g 1890-3, A.M. 1891, PH.D. 1895; A.B. Fisk (Tenn.) 1888.
Edit. Lit.] "The Crisis," 26 Vesey St. New York, N.Y. One can compare this 1913 entry with the 1919 sketch posted below. For example, Du Bois's previous bachelor's degree from Fisk was indicated here.
Note 1: The entry detailed Du Bois's undergraduate years (the "c") and degree earned as well as his graduate school within Harvard (the "g"), complete with matriculation dates and degrees earned. It also listed his current occupation as an editor, with The Crisis as the place of employment (the address was presumably a work address). (Legend: c = "College"; g = "Graduate School of Arts and Sciences"; Edit. = "Editorial Work"; Lit. = Letters).
Note 2: The full citation is: Committee of the Harvard Alumni Association. 1913. Harvard University Directory: A Catalogue of Men Now Living Who Have Been Enrolled as Students in the University; Including Also Officers of Instruction and Administration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (A few more details about this particular work can be found at Google Books' More-about-this-book page).
Note 3: As with the 1919 Harvard Alumni Directory entry (posted below), Du Bois's race is not mentioned. See Note 3 for the 1919 Harvard Alumni Directory.
Note 4: The Preface by the Committee members conveyed the purpose of the work (p. v): [T]he Directory will provide a means whereby all Harvard men living in any town, city, state, or section can be reached, whether for their own social advantage, or for cooperation in undertakings for the immediate benefit of the University.
What might have been Du Bois' comments on such a purpose and its actual practice?

"DuBois, William Edward Burghardt." The Harvard Alumni Association in 1919 published a directory with biographical notices
on thousands of its alumnae. Du Bois' listing (p. 203), like the others, is quite terse: DuBois, William Edward Burghardt [c 88-90, A.B.;
g 90-93, A.M. 91; Ph.D. 95. Edit.] Room 622, 70 Fifth Ave.,
New York, N.Y. Note 1: The details specify Du Bois's undergraduate years and degree earned; his particular graduate school within Harvard, along with matriculation dates and degrees earned; his current occupation as editor (of The Crisis); and an address (home? workplace?). (Legend: c = "College"; g = "Graduate School of Arts and Sciences"; Edit. = "Editorial Work").
Note 2: The full citation is: Harvard Alumni Directory Office. 1919. Harvard Alumni Directory: A Catalogue of Former Students Now Living: Including Graduates and Non-Graduates, and the Holders of Honorary Degrees. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Alumni Association.
(Details about this particular work can be found at Google Books' More-about-this-book page).
Note 3: It is interesting to observe that the Harvard notice does not include Du Bois' race (or anyone else's). His racial heritage is often mentioned by the "who's-who"-style biographical dictionaries of the early 20th century.

"Du Bois, W.E.B." by Thomas C. Holt. This biographical sketch is from the online version of The Reader's Companion to American History (NY: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1991).

"A Biographical Sketch of W.E.B. DuBois," by Gerald C. Hynes, is located at the Du Bois Learning Center. In addition to standard biographical details, Hynes discusses DuBois in relation to his sometimes tense relationships with, among others, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, the NAACP, and the U.S. government. [Another site for Hynes' sketch.]

"W.E.B. DuBois Biography." The Kansas Humanities Council has produced the web stite, "Crossing Boundaries: African American and American Culture," of which this interesting biography is part. There are also biographies of Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sojourner Truth, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

"W.E.B. Du Bois" by Stephen C. Kenny (from the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 2002 Gale Group). [It is available free at www.FindArticles.com.]

A short note on DuBois in Progress of a Race, Or, The Remarkable Advancement of the Afro-American Negro from the Bondage of Slavery, Ignorance and Poverty to the Freedom of Citizenship, Intelligence, Affluence, Honor and Trust by Henry F. Kletzing and William H. Crogman (Atlanta: J.L. Nichols & Co., 1898). Booker T. Washington wrote the Introduction.
    The authors provided an overview of the influential role that African Americans occupied throughout U.S. history and presented a multitude of vignettes outlining the accomplishments of various African Americans. The book's brief biographical sketch about Du Bois (viewable via Google Books on p. 490) is presented below in its entirety:
   Prof. W. E. Burghardt Dubois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, February 23, 1868. He was educated in the public schools, and at Fisk University, Harvard University and the university at Berlin. He was two years a fellow of Harvard, and holds her degree of Ph. D. He taught at Wilberforce, Ohio, two years, and was assistant in sociology in the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, for the purpose of studying the Negro in Philadelphia. He is at present professor of economics and history in Atlanta University. Professor Dubois is the author of "Suppression of the African Slave Trade," also "Harvard Historical Students, No. I." He was married in 1896 to Nina Gomer, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Of his appointment as professor in Atlanta University the Independent says: "We are very glad that this institution, devoted to the education of colored people, has elected to so important a professorship a thoroughly competent colored man." Note 1: "Dubois" and "Ph. D." are presented here as they were rendered originally in the biographical sketch. "Harvard Historical Students" should read "Harvard Historical Studies". No italics or other font changes were used to designate "Suppression of the African Slave Trade" or "the Independent".
Note 2: A few other details about this particular work can be found at the Google Books' About-this-book page.

"W.E.B. Du Bois", an anonymously written bio at the N.A.A.C.P. web site. The sketch provides an overview of Du Bois' life and accomplishments, emphasizing his efforts as a racial activist, a Pan-Africanist, and a scholar. Also highlighted is the scholarly importance of Du Bois' The Suppression of the African Slave Trade (1896), Black Reconstruction (1935), and The World and Africa (1947), among other publications. The piece briefly mentions the disagreements between Du Bois and the N.A.A.C.P.:
In 1934 Du Bois resigned from the NAACP board and from the Crisis because of his new advocacy of an African American nationalist strategy: African American controlled institutions, schools, and economic cooperatives. This approach opposed the NAACP's commitment to integration. However, he returned to the NAACP as director of special research from 1944 to 1948.

"W.E.B. DuBois" by Robert J. Norrell (at the Victory Over Violence web site). This is an overview of Du Bois' life which was originally posted in the Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia, 2001, as "Du Bois, W. E. B." [page 1; page 2].

"Du Bois, W(illiam) E(dward) B(urghardt)" by Elliott Rudwick. This is an entry from the Encyclopædia Britannica Guide to Black History. Rudwick is the author of W.E.B. DuBois: A Study in Minority Group Leadership (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960) and W.E.B. DuBois (New York: Atheneum, 1968). [Page mirrored at NPR].

"W.E.B. DuBois' 136th Birthday Celebration." Tavis Smiley on NPR's "The Tavis Smiley Show" interviewed David Levering Lewis on the significance of Du Bois. This 3:37-minute interview was first aired on 23 February 2004; it is available in two audio formats (Real player or Windows Media player).

"W.E.B. Du Bois Fact Sheet" [PDF: 221K] from the TransAfrica Forum, Arthur R. Ashe, Jr. Foreign Policy Library, August 2003 (Letitia D. Mosby, researcher). This document concentrates on DuBois in relation to African topics, like decolonialization and independence movements.

"Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.)." Kate Tuttle wrote this sketch of DuBois's life for the Encarta Africana, an online encyclopedia.

W.E.B. Du Bois Biography. The W.E.B Du Bois College House web site (University of Pennsylvania) hosts this bio.

"W.E.B. DuBois" at Wikipedia: contains basic biographical information with hyperlinks to other related entries. Wikipedia is a free, multilingual, online encyclopedia which is edited collaboratively on and across the Internet.

"Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868-1963)" by Robert W. Williams. This biographical piece is located at The Literary Encyclopedia. Please note: to read more than the first 600 words of this article will require a daily, monthly, or yearly membership at The Literary Encyclopedia.

"W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)" by Frederick Woodard [faculty page]. This bio offers a concise overview of the multifaceted Du Bois, sketching his literary, editorial, activist, and social science endeavors. It is part of the web site for The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 4/e (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001).

"Jim Crow Stories - People - W.E.B. Du Bois." This biographical piece by Richard Wormser is part of a larger web site of resources supporting the 2002 WNET - PBS series entitled "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow" [home page]. The site's resources include details of the historical periods leading up to and spanning the Jim Crow era with sketches of significant people and events, as well as material for teachers. Also included are first-person narratives. Wormser is the co-writer and co-director for the PBS series [credits page].

"Du Bois Homesite Dedication, 1969." This is a .wmv streaming video of some of the ceremonies on 18 October 1969 that were part of the dedication of Du Bois' Great Barrington, MA home. Ossie Davis narrated it. The video runs 8 min. 18 sec. and contains a short segment of a speech by Julian Bond. The video is available on the Digital Du Bois page, which is maintained by the Special Collections & University Archives housed at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

"W.E.B. Du Bois and Great Barrington" at the DuBoisweb.org site. An informative piece on Du Bois' childhood in Great Barrington, MA, it also provides a useful discussion of the various ways that people and groups in the city have recognized Du Bois and his achievements. The essay highlights the controversies surrounding how to -- indeed, whether to -- honor his memory in the city.
* DuBoisweb.org offers a chronology of Du Bois' life and lists of dissertations and secondary sources on Du Bois, as well as of memorials honoring him.

"Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois" by Bill Fletcher, Jr. Published in the online journal Theory & Science (Fall 2003), this short essay highlights DuBois' significance on the international stage.
[Another site for this essay is at the Sacramento Observer (posted 5 September 2003).]

The "Du Bois Memorial Center for Pan-Africa Culture" at GhanaExpeditions.com, a site partnered with the government of Ghana and other organizations to promote tourism. The web page briefly covers DuBois' years at what became the Memorial Center. There are several photos, including the Center itself and DuBois' grave site. [For other pictures of the grave site see the Find a Grave Cemetery Records page on DuBois.]

"Venerating Ancestor William Edward Burghardt DuBois" by Geoffrey "Jahwara" Giddings. This essay examines DuBois' thought from an Afrocentric perspective in the tradition of Molefi Kete Asante.

 Tribute to Dr. William E. Burghardt DuBois by Leslie O. Harriman. The tribute is subtitled: "Statement by Ambassador Leslie O. Harriman (Nigeria), Chairman, at a Special Meeting of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid on the 110th Anniversary of the Birth of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, February 23, 1978."

"W.E.B. Du Bois Dies in Ghana; Negro Leader and Author, 95." The New York Times published DuBois' obituary on 28 August 1963.

"W.E.B. Du Bois and the Struggle Against Racism in the World" by Herbert Aptheker. Aptheker, editor of many volumes of DuBois' writings, published this essay in a work sponsored by the United Nations Centre against Apartheid, July 1983.
[Here is an obituary of Aptheker (1915-2003) by Clayborne Carson in the Organization of American Historians Newsletter.]

The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States (1921) by Benjamin Griffith Brawley (1882-1939). In the book, Brawley covered the biographies and accomplishments of various African American in the areas of literature, painting, sculpting, and oratory, including Phillis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, William Stanley Braithwaite, Henry O. Tanner, Meta Warrick Fuller, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. Brawley noted Du Bois in numerous places thorough the text, but detailed Du Bois extensively in Chapter V. Regarding Du Bois' achievements in social science, Brawley wrote (p. 51):
He has made various investigations, frequently for the national government, and has contributed many sociological studies to leading magazines. He has been the moving spirit of the Atlanta Conference, and by the Studies of Negro Problems, which he has edited at Atlanta University, he has become recognized as one of the great sociologists of the day, and as the man who more than anyone else has given scientific accuracy to studies relating to the Negro.
Brawley reached the following overall assessment of Du Bois in the concluding paragraph of Chapter V (pp. 65-6):
    W. E. Burghardt DuBois is the best example that has so far appeared of the combination of high scholarship and the peculiarly romantic temperament of the Negro race. Beneath all the play of logic and statistic beats the passion of a mighty human heart. For a long time he was criticised as aloof, reserved, unsympathetic; but more and more, as the years have passed, has his mission become clearer, his love for his people stronger. Forced by the pressure of circumstance, gradually has he been led from the congenial retreat of the scholar into the arena of social struggle; but for two decades he has remained an outstanding interpreter of the spiritual life of his people. He is to-day the foremost leader of the race in America.
[Note 1: The full citation: Brawley, Benjamin Griffith. 1921. The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States. New York: Duffield & Company.]
[Note 2: Archive.org has several books by Brawley available online: listing. Google Books offers a few other Brawley works: search results.]

"W.E.B. DuBois in Philadelphia" by By Rebecca Cooper. A guided tour through the area of Philadelphia where Du Bois lived and conducted research in 1896-1898 for his book, The Philadelphia Negro. It also contains biographical details of DuBois' life.

"On the 100th Anniversary of the Publication of 'The Souls of Black Folk' a Look at the Life of W.E.B. Dubois", a "Democracy Now" radio show which was originally broadcast on 18 April 2003, with hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. The significance of The Souls of Black Folk is examined, but the majority of this 37:29 minute broadcast covers highlights from Du Bois' life. There are autobiographical pieces spoken by Du Bois himself (from 1951 and the early 1960s) as well as commentary by David Levering Lewis and by Du Bois' stepson, David DuBois. The emphasis of the broadcast lies on Du Bois' socialism and the theoretical conjuncture of race and class in his later analyses of social oppression. Also discussed are the U.S. government's concerns over his radical ideas and speeches. The show is available for listening online in RealPlayer audio format.

"W.E.B. Du Bois and His Work" by William Gorman. This was originally published in the Marxist periodical, Fourth International, vol. 11, no. 3 (May-June 1950): pp. 80-86. Gorman applauds Du Bois' pioneering sociological analyses and the concept of African American agency expounded in Black Reconstruction, but he also criticizes Du Bois' application of Marxian economics and the proletariat to an African American context. William Gorman is a pseudonym of George Novak. This text is also available at <http://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/works/1950/x02.htm>.

"Giant Steps: W.E.B. DuBois and the Historical Enterprise" [PDF: ~1.4 MB] (1998). Robert Gregg examines various books by DuBois in terms of the history of U.S. academic history [Gregg's home page]. The full citation is listed in the notes below. His analysis is at once both critical and sympathetic. Gregg writes (p.79):
    DuBois's historical writings can be broken up into three groups -- the social scientific, the cultural materialist, and the Marxist -- each marking a phase in DuBois's development. These parallel the stages of the historical profession's early development outlined by [Peter] Novick in That Noble Dream: first, the emergence of the notion of objectivity, with its belief in "facts" and the inductive method; second, the gradual emergence of a "genteel insurgency" among Progressive historians promoting deductive reasoning; and last, "the stalling of the professional project" in "divergence and dissent" in the period following World War One. While DuBois paralleled these changes, he either remained apart from the profession's development or, when involved, was virtually unrecognized for his contributions. In part, this was because at each stage of his development DuBois consciously deviated from the work of his white counterparts.
    DuBois's early writings, reflected in The Suppression of the African Slave- Trade and The Philadelphia Negro, resembled the output of many scientific historians working at this time, except that in both books he only half-suppressed his idealism and allowed tensions and subtleties to surface that would seldom be evident in other historians` works. [. . . . ]
    DuBois's writings during the second phase, particularly The Souls of Black Folk, John Brown, and The Negro, were "insurgency" plain and simple and not the least "genteel," even though they incorporated ideas that resembled the cultural materialism to be found among some other Progressives. [. . . . ]
    The third period, reaching its fruition with the publication of Black Reconstruction in America and Black Folk [Then and Now], witnessed DuBois's rejection of many Progressive notions and the adoption of Marxist terminology, taking him down paths that few, if any, white American historians were willing to follow. [. . . . ]
Note 1: The end notes were omitted from the quoted passages.
Note 2: Full citation: Robert Gregg. 1998. "Giant Steps: W.E.B. DuBois and the Historical Enterprise." Pp.77-99 in Michael B. Katz and Thomas Sugrue (Eds.), W.E.B. Du Bois, Race and the City: The Philadelphia Negro and its Legacy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

"Black Studies in the Department of Labor, 1897-1907", by Jonathan Grossman, discusses Du Bois' studies conducted under the auspices of the Bureau of Labor, with emphasis on Du Bois within the context of other research on African American workers in that era, as well as Du Bois vis-à-vis the politics of the U.S. Bureau of Labor. It was originally published in the Monthly Labor Review, v.97, no.6 (June 1974): 17-27. [Brief bibliography of "Early Department of Labor Black Studies".]

"Du Bois's Century" [2.3 meg PDF file] by Ira Katznelson. This was originally a presidential address to the Social Science History Association. It was published in Social Science History, 23:4 (Winter 1999): 459-474. [An HTML version is available as part of a sample journal issue at Project MUSE® of Johns Hopkins University.]

"Du Bois and the Challenge of the Black Press," by David Levering Lewis, examines The Crisis under Du Bois' editorship (The Crisis, July 1997). Du Bois, writes Lewis, "believed passionately in the high obligation of advocacy journalism to challenge, educate, expose, and prescribe." Lewis' essay outlines some of the personal and social consequences of that obligation.

"Social Scientists Wrestling with Race and Nation. African-American W.E.B. Du Bois and Cuban Fernando Ortiz Compared"
by Alessandra Lorini [in ACHAB: Rivista di Antropologia, N.11 (Novembre 2007): 34-46]. [To read this article one must download the entire issue, which is a 1-megabyte PDF file].
   Lorini notes the similarities and differences between Du Bois and Ortiz (1881-1969). Both social scientists combatted the racist ideas and policies that were used to justify political and social discrimination. In addition, each extensively researched his own particular country. For Lorini, differences between the two scholars included how each sought to understand the processes of racial interaction within particular national contexts. Ortiz argued that "transculturation" was at work: a new Cuban culture -- a mestizo one -- was formed by the fusing of African and European cultures. Du Bois, however, accepted the concept of "acculturation" as derived from Franz Boas and Melville Herskovits. It was not so much that a new U.S. culture was being formed, but rather that those of African descent had been contributing to American culture all along -- a viewpoint challenging claims that Anglo-Saxon whites were the primary creators of national progress.

"W.E.B. Du Bois: Education, Race and Economics from 1903-1961" by Paul T. Miller in The Journal of Pan African Studies [home page], Vol.1, No.3 (March 2006): pp.50-61 [issue TOC].
This is a ~50K PDF file.
   Using extensive quotations from Du Bois's works, Miller examines how Du Bois connected race, education, and political economy with varying emphases over the span of his life. Also considered are Du Bois's developing views on the significance of socialism for enhancing the promise of democracy and equality. Miller concludes (p.60):

"W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)" is written by Donald J. Morse for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [IEP]. After a brief summary of biographical details Morse outlines several scholarly interpretations of DuBois's philosophy. The author then concentrates on the DuBoisian concept of "double consciousness" from The Souls of Black Folk; he provides a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the work. Morse offers this conclusion of Souls:
Next, Morse describes DuBois's position on "second sight" -- a concept philosophically related to double consciousness -- and the significance of second sight as an epistemological perspective for understanding a White-dominated America from the vantage point(s) of oppressed African Americans. The author also highlights DuBois's views on imperialism and his (rather unorthodox) Marxism.

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Activist Life is an online exhibit created and maintained by the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Spanning DuBois' lifetime, this web site offers a collection of personal photos and photos of relevant documents. [Link was updated on 14 November 2005.]

"Materialism and Imagination" was published by Nicholas Veroli in the Journal on African Philosophy, Issue 2 (2003).
    In the essay Veroli argued that a key limitation in the classical exposition of materialism (e.g., classical Marxism) was that it conceptualized culture -- and by implication, imagination -- as part of a rigid base / superstructure model of society. In such a model, culture was considered part of the superstructure and deemed to be "mere" illusion; culture thereby was of a secondary epistemic status to the essential reality of the economic base. As a consequence, argued the author, the base / superstructure model limited our understanding of the role played by culture in perpetuating capitalism, as well as its role in creating a counter-public sphere, wherein multiple experiences and perspectives can be expressed creatively in opposition to capitalism.
    Veroli's central focus was on C.L.R. James, but he provided an extensive analysis of W.E.B. Du Bois as an important precursor to James. Veroli argued that Du Bois's philosophical significance lay in how he understood reality to include more than physically discernible phenomena: the reality faced by persons of color also included socially-constituted phenomenon, such as the reality of racism and its effects. Regarding Du Bois, Veroli wrote:
[ . . . ]  In brilliant pragmatist fashion he reveals the reality of raced subjectivity in terms of its consequences rather than on the basis of any biological, cultural, or psychological essence. This is perhaps where Du Bois's philosophical contribution is revealed at its clearest. He realizes, like few other thinkers in a philosophical tradition that extends back two-and-a-half millennia that appearance is real enough, that becoming is not subordinate to being or, to put the matter in more contemporary terms, that it is not because reality is socially constructed that it can therefore be consigned to the dumping ground of illusion. The reality of a symbolic nexus -- such as the African Diaspora -- is not simply to be judged on the basis of its correspondence to an actually existing referent but also on its effectivity in terms of registers other than a purely epistemological one (political, historical, cultural, etc…). That the concept of 'race,' for instance, is meaningless from a strictly biological standpoint in no way changes the fact that it has real effects quite independently of its epistemic status. Imaginary realities exist quite as surely as material ones, the only difference between the two being in their modalities of effect.

From this principle flows much of Du Bois's political activism from the thirties to the end of his life in 1963. For it is also true that common history and struggle do not, in and of themselves, mean anything if there is not, added to them, a common structure of affect, an imaginary of social struggle. Du Bois's work as a journalist and as an activist during the late forties and fifties would be devoted exclusively to the task of constructing such an imaginary, though he was building on previous achievement rather than starting from scratch. In his vision of Pan Africanism he would stress, over and over again, anti-colonial and working class solidarities, work with trade-unions, unwaveringly support African labor struggles, and consistently oppose European imperialism as well as the pretensions to global power of his native land.
[Footnotes removed]

[Note: Another online essay by Nicholas Veroli, "How a Fiction Became the Truth: Five Thesis on Cogito, Imagination, and Modernity," was published in Ijele: Art eJournal, Issue 4 (2002).]

"Washington, Du Bois, and the Black Future" by Mark Bauerlein (Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 2004). Bauerlein [faculty page] details Du Bois' initial support for Washington, as well as the factors leading to their later rift. Bauerlein concludes:
[B]ehind the division lay the peculiar chemistry of the dispositions of two men, one pragmatic and controlling, the other principled and solitary. For a time, they worked together, until each came gradually to believe that the other had betrayed the cause of racial uplift -- and the personal giving of himself.

"Washington, DuBois, and Woodson" by John Henrik Clarke. This is part of address entitled "Education for a New Reality in the African World" which Clarke delivered in 1994 at a ceremony of the Phelps-Stokes Fund honoring his contributions to understanding African civilization. Clarke writes:
We should have had a wedding between what Booker T. Washington was saying and what DuBois was saying. Instead we called Washington a traditionalist and DuBois a modernist and did not see that there was no conflict between one and the other.

"W.E.B. Du Bois, an interview by Ralph McGill published in The Atlantic Monthly (v.216, n.5 (November 1965): pp.78-81).
     This interview was conducted at Du Bois' home in Ghana in early 1963. As presented via the direct quotations of the article, the interview seemed to emphasize Du Bois's views of and experiences with Booker T. Washington. In addition, McGill added much commentary on Du Bois' editorship of The Crisis magazine and his "polemic excesses", including activities later in his life that situated Du Bois out of the mainstream of political life in the U.S.A.
     Regarding Booker T. Washington, Du Bois indicated that he "admired much about him." Du Bois provided his evaluation of the consequences of B.T.W.'s strategy:
"As Washington began to attain stature as leader of his new, small, and struggling school at Tuskegee," DuBois continued, "he gave total emphasis to economic progress through industrial and vocational education. He believed that if the Negro could be taught skills and find jobs, and if others could become small landowners, a yeoman class would develop that would, in time, be recognized as worthy of what already was their civil rights, and that they would then be fully accepted as citizens. So he appealed to moderation, and he publicly postponed attainment of political rights and accepted the system of segregation."      After some commentary by McGill on the historical context of Washington, Du Bois' thoughts on B.T.W. are again presented:
"As I came to see it," said DuBois, "Washington bartered away much that was not his to barter. Certainly I did not believe that the skills of an artisan bricklayer, plasterer, or shoemaker, and the good farmer would cause the white South, grimly busy with disfranchisement and separation, to change the direction of things. I realized the need for what Washington was doing. Yet it seemed to me he was giving up essential ground that would be hard to win back. I don't think Washington saw this until the last years of his life. He kept hoping. But before he died he must have known that he and his hopes had been rejected and that he had, without so intending, helped make stronger -- and more fiercely defended -- a separation and rejection that made a mockery of all he had hoped and dreamed. I felt grief for him when I learned of his death because I believe he died in sorrow and a sense of betrayal."

"The Contributions of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois in the Development of Vocational Education" by Nevin R. Frantz, Jr. By situating DuBois and Washington in their historical context, the author points out the positive effects of each thinker/activist for education. The essay is published online in the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, [JITE], Vol. 34, No. 4 (1996).

"Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois: The Problem of Negro Leadership." Robert A. Gibson provides lesson plans for high-school students (10th-12th grades). This was published initially in 1978 as part of "Curriculum Units by Fellows of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute" [t.o.c.], specifically in "20th Century Afro-American Culture," Volume II, 1978 [t.o.c.]. As the work involves historical matters, the pedagogical questions posed and issues raised are still useful, although newer source materials of course are available.

 "Washington or Du Bois?" This is the Internet-based version of one segment of the video series and telecourse, "A Biography of America," which was funded by Annenberg/CPB and produced by WGBH Boston. Entitled "A Vital Progressivism," it is Program 19.
* The web site visitor is asked to decide: "Who had the better vision for improving the conditions of African Americans in the early 1900s, Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Du Bois?" The visitor chooses one of the two and is prompted to reflect on the implications or situations confronting African Americans in that era. Subsequent pages provide further historical details as well as a discussion by scholars Donald L. Miller, Waldo E. Martin, Jr., and Virginia Scharff.

"Du Bois — The Spokesman of Negro Idealism" [page image].
In a 1907 issue of the periodical The World To-Day we find a photograph of Du Bois within a section entitled "Protectors of the Public" (pp. 5-8). That section contain photos of three others "Protectors." The only text within the section are the anonymously written captions. The caption to Du Bois's photo reads:

W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS — THE SPOKESMAN OF NEGRO IDEALISM
Professor Du Bois differs from Booker Washington in emphasizing the negro's need of higher education as well as industrial training. His book, "The Souls of Black Folk," is a powerful appeal for the rights of the negro as a man rather than as a workman

RW's Note 1: "Negro" is not capitalized in the original caption. The photo (a side-view of his shoulders and head facing right) has this acknowledgment: "From a photograph, copyright, 1904, by J. E. Purdy, Boston" [punctuation as found in the original text].
RW's Note 2: The full citation is: The World To-Day, v. 12, no. 1 (January 1907): p. 6. (Other details about this particular digitized work can be found at its "More-about-this-book" page at Google Books.)
RW's Note 3: Immediately preceding the photographs is what seems to be an editorial entitled "'To Hell with Such a Law'" (pp. 3-4). It lambasts "demagogues" spewing race hatred, while also saying about the North: "[f]or the most part it is even ready to admit that taking the uneducated negro [sic] out of politics is a wise move." (p. 4)
RW's Note 4: Within the "Protectors of the Public" section other photographs are included: Franklin Murphy, president of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; John E. Wilkie, chief of the U.S. Secret Service; and Lillian M.N. Stevens, president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
RW's Note 5: Alternate digitized version of this issue of The World To-Day: DuBois's photo on p. 6.

"Circle Unbroken" by Tom Chalkley. This is a news article (dated 18 June 2003) from the Baltimore City Paper Online. DuBois' family residence in Baltimore, Maryland, is mentioned. Also discussed is an organization in the city called the DuBois Circle -- a women's group which has been meeting since the early 1900s to address African American concerns in Baltimore.

"The Childhood of W.E.B. DuBois: And His Early Evolvement." This is a described as a "Drawing Book for Self Expression" which was compiled and edited by Leon Dixon of the W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center. The book is designed to be used with young students, who can submit illustrations for it (as indicated here).

"The DuBois Files." Leigh Donaldson in the Portland Monthly Summerguide 2001 (of Maine) wrote that DuBois would spend two weeks during summers at the so-called Cambridge Gun & Rod Club in Maine. This was meeting place for Black intellectuals. [This online article is dated 10 August 2001.]

Contemporary works on Great Barrington, Du Bois's birth city in Massachusetts, and on Berkshire County, MA, are available online.   Anonymous. Great Barrington: Glimpses of the Gem of the Berkshire Hills (1892), published by Alice Collins (publisher or author?) in Great Barrington, MA. A slender volume with a brief textual introduction and 13 photographs of houses and nature settings. [At Archive.org]
  Bryan, Clark W. The Book of Berkshire: Describing and Illustrating Its Hills and Homes and Telling Where They Are, What They Are and Why They are Destined to Become the Most Charming and Desirable Summer Homes in America: For the Season of 1887 (1887), seeming self-published by "Clark W. Bryan, Publishers" in Great Barrington, MA. The work conveys positive descriptions of various cities and towns in Berkshire County, complete with numerous line drawings of nature and houses. [At Archive.org]
  Smith, Joseph Edward Adams. Taghconic: The Romance and Beauty of the Hills (Boston: Lee and Shepherd, 1879). Under the pseudonym of Godfrey Greylock, the author describes the natural wonders of Berkshire County and presents accounts of various historic events. [At Archive.org]
  Taylor, Charles James. History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts (1882), published in Great Barrington, Mass., by Clark W. Bryan & Co., Publishers. The book provides an historical account, starting from the early 1700s. Apparently, the e-copy is missing the map found in the original. [At Archive.org]

"W.E.B. Du Bois - The Writer Who Traveled Backward by David Greenberg (posted online at Slate, 27 April 2001). Providing a synopsis of DuBois' life and his significance, Greenberg concludes:
Du Bois has become newly prominent because, despite his geriatric dogmatism, his thinking for most of his life was supple and original enough to reconcile what others saw as contradictions. He espoused African identity and American identity, self-improvement and integration, culture and politics. Today, a bouquet of these philosophies flowers among black thinkers and activists. All of them can trace their roots to Du Bois.

"The Soul of David Levering Lewis: Award-winning Scholar Contemporizes Black Intellectual Tradition." Ronald Roach interviews David Levering Lewis for Black Issues in Higher Education (30 December 2004). In the course of the interview Lewis discusses various aspects of Du Bois and his thought. [The piece is from the online full-text archive at <www.findarticles.com>.]

"W.E.B. Du Bois." Interview of David Levering Lewis by Christopher Lydon (in RealAudio format) on the NPR talk show, The Connection (from WBUR radio, Boston). It was originally aired on 24 October 2000. [A free RealPlayer program is required for listening.]

"W.E.B. DuBois." David Levering Lewis is interviewed on 5 November 2000 by Lisa Simeone for the NPR show, "All Things Considered." Lewis briefly discusses the content of the second volume of his biography on Du Bois, particularly the significance of the year 1919 for Du Bois and the U.S.A. This is an audio interview of 8 minutes duration and is available in Real Audio and Windows Media formats.

"W.E.B. DuBois: The Biography of a Race, 1868-1919" [Transcript of an interview]. David Levering Lewis was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN's Booknotes TV show about the first volume of Lewis' two-part biography. Lewis covers many aspects of Du Bois' life as well as a few of Lewis' own biographical details. The show was initially broadcast on 2 January 1994 (interview date: 5 November 1993). [Also, the interview can be viewed as streaming video.]

"Du Bois Photographs: Life Magazine. Various pictures of Du Bois originally photographed under the auspices of Life Magazine are available at Google Images (Google's Life Photo Archive). Search terms, reflecting Life's photograph captions and extant spellings, include "William E. B. Dubois", "W.E.B. Dubois" and "Communist Dubois" (for photos snapped during the Cold War years). I have added other search terms that can be used to search Google's Life Photo Archive.

"W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Experience." Dr. Manning Marable conducts this e-course from Columbia University (Columbia Educational Resources Online). The multimedia course covers three themes which span DuBois' life and thought: "The Cultural Imagination of Du Bois;" "The International Vision of Du Bois;" and "Du Bois as Radical Democrat."
* Free registration for "Unregistered users" is required to access the 3-part e-course (plus an introduction/course overview). A password will be sent to the email address you specify. Technical requirements, as listed on the site: online connection (minimum: 56K modem), and three pieces of free software (Macromedia Flash, RealPlayer, and Adobe Reader).

Du Bois' FBI Dossier: Du Bois was scrutinized by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, especially his comments on, and travels to, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The dossier on Du Bois runs over 900 pages and is available under the Freedom of Information Act. The dossier spans five files in PDF format. [PDF files can be read with the free Adobe reader.]

Please consider a contribution to the upkeep of <webdubois.org>. PayPal offers a secure way for you to help me with my goal to find and present more works by and about W.E.B. Du Bois. Thank you. Robert Williams