W.E.B. Du Bois: "The honor, I assure you, was Harvard's.

[sheshe2]

NATIONAL & WORLD AFFAIRS

Giving Du Bois his due
Graduation portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, a member of Harvard College Class of 1890. Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer; courtesy Harvard University Archives

Sociology conference to reconsider contributions by African-American scholar, leader

snip

Born in 1868 in Western Massachusetts, Du Bois lived through a remarkable sweep of African-American history, from five years after the Emancipation Proclamation declared slavery ended to the eve of the March on Washington.

A revolutionary thinker far ahead of his time, Du Bois blazed trails as a civil rights activist, visionary scholar, scientist, historian, educator, editor, and outspoken public intellectual. His pioneering research and theories, his prolific writing about black and white social dynamics and racial identity, his deep understanding of U.S. history, global politics, and political movements, along with public education, art, and literature, make Du Bois one of America’s intellectual giants.

His ties to Harvard are deep and complicated. Lacking the means to afford Harvard College, Du Bois went to all-black Fisk University in Tennessee. After graduating, he entered Harvard in 1888 and earned a second bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in 1890. In 1891, he completed a master’s degree at Harvard, and headed to the University of Berlin before returning to Cambridge to pursue a Ph.D. in history. In 1895, he became the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard. “The honor, I assure you, was Harvard’s,” Du Bois reportedly once said.

To honor the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Harvard Department of Sociology is hosting a major four-day symposium that begins Thursday, featuring scholars from Harvard and across the country and designed to reconsider his intellectual legacy and his standing in the canon. Though Du Bois conducted some of his most groundbreaking scientific research in the 1890s when sociology was still in its infancy, the field has been far slower than the humanities to recognize his contributions.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/harvard-sociology-conference-to-give-web-du-bois-his-due/

[LanternWaste]

1. K&R, nt

[Hekate]

2. KnR

[Tennessee Hillbilly]

3. Wasn't Du Bois one of the founders of the NAACP?

n/t

[sheshe2]

4. He was.

Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Earlier, Du Bois had risen to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks.
Born: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois; Febr...
Known for: The Souls of Black Folk; Black Rec...
Thesis: The Suppression of the African Slave-t...
Institutions: Atlanta University, NAACP

W. E. B. Du Bois - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › W._E._B._Du_Bois

TY, TH.

[ShazzieB]

6. He was indeed!

He was also editor of The Crisis, NAACP's monthly journal, from 1910 to 1934.

https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/web-du-bois

[niyad]

5. KNR

[Progressive Jones]

7. K & R. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

8. K&R!

You know, I went to school with his granddaughter - she was very proud of him. I always thought she must be exaggerating, he was decades too old to have a granddaughter my age. My own grandmother was far from even being born in 1890! But I looked it up once and apparently W.E.B. Du Bois had a child very late in life.

[sheshe2]

10. That is pretty cool, Rhi.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I thought so too, once I learned it was possible. No wonder she liked talking about it.

[Sneederbunk]

9. Died the day before "I Have a Dream Speech."

[sheshe2]

11. That is so sad, one day.

He would have been so proud to hear MLK that day.

[Hortensis]

13. And what a service to help Harvard realize it

then, instead of only someday.

[DashOneBravo]

14. K & R

[oasis]

15. K and R for W.E.B. DuBois.