The Life of W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Dubois, (1868 - 1963). W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington in Massachusetts, to Alfred Du Bois and Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois. Du Bois was the great-grandson of Elizabeth Freeman, who was a slave that sued for her freedom, and eventually won. Mrs. Freeman's successful lawsuit eventually led to Massachusetts taking steps to abolish slavery in the state. (4)

After Du Boise graduated from high school, with superior academics, he wanted to attend Harvard but did not have the financial means to attend. Fisk Collage, in Nashville Tennessee, offered Du Boise a scholarship to attend school, he accepted the scholarship and attended Fisk Collage from 1885 to 1888. (6) This was Du Bois' first trip to the south and his real first hand accounts of overt and outright racism. (2) Du Bois graduated from Fisk in 1888 and the attended Harvard. Harvard refused to recognize his degree from Fisk so he entered the institution as a junior. Du Bois graduated Harvard cum laude with a bachelor's degree in 1890. (4) Du Bois completed his master's degree in 1891 and in 1896; Du Bois graduated with a Ph.D. from Harvard, thereby becoming the first black person to receive such a degree from Harvard University. In the same year of graduating with his doctorate from Harvard Du Bois "accepted a special fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a research project in Philadelphia's seventh ward slums." (2) "[Du Bois] began his investigations believing that social science could provide answers to race problems." (3)