(On this day) W. E. B. DuBois Dies in Ghana; Negro Leader and Author, 95

[EFerrari]

W. E. B. DuBois Dies in Ghana; Negro Leader and Author, 95
Special to The New York Times
August 28, 1963



ACCRA, Ghana, Wednesday, Aug. 28--W. E. B. DuBois, the American Negro philosopher and writer, who settled in Ghana a few years ago, died last night, the Government announced. He was 95 years old.

Dr. DuBois, who had come here as a special guest of President Kwame Nkrumah, was director of the Encyclopedia Africana, which is sponsored by the Government. He became a citizen of Ghana this year.

Leader of Negro Thought

For more than half a century, William Edward Burghardt DuBois was a monumental and often controversial, leader of Negro thought.

As a sociologist, educator and writer, he frequently disagreed not only with whites but with members of his own race. Early in his career, he challenged the philosophy of Booker T. Washington. Dr. DuBois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but later broke with the organization under conditions of bitterness.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0223.html

Tributes to Dr. DuBois on line:

http://www.webdubois.org/wdb-about.html#tributes

edit for clarity :)

[XemaSab]

1. I was all like "He was still alive? He must have been 150!"

:P

[RB TexLa]

2. That's what I was just thinking LOL

[Ken Burch]

5. self-delete

(didn't mean to undermine EFerrari's intentions)

[EFerrari]

11. Oh, it's fine. I should have done better on the first try.

:)

[Ken Burch]

12. I guess I was thinking of the old "SNL" sketch(from the late 70's)

Where Dr. King and Jack and Bobby were having a secret meeting at Hyannis Port in 1963 and they kept starting every sentence with the words "anybody here seen my old friend Martin?" or variants.

[EFerrari]

13. LOL

Missed that. Must have been putting a kid to bed or something. :)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Me, too. Glad I read the OP.

I was thinking, WTF? How the hell old was he?

[EFerrari]

4. If anyone could have pulled that off, he could have

with just the will in his pinky. lol

[stevedeshazer]

6. +1. Yeah, I know.

:)

[Rhiannon12866]

7. K&R. One of the greats!

I went to school with one of his descendants and she was very proud. :patriot:

[EFerrari]

10. I started to tell my mom about him once and she waved me off.

She has a degree in sociology and of course, she was taught DuBois in the late 60s/early70s as part of her coursework. Oops.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. Maybe she'd be more willing to discuss him if you asked her questions.

That's how my mother is, anyway, LOL, she prefers doing the talking about something she knows about. :D :hi:

[Faygo Kid]

8. Great man, great American. One of my heroes.

He was not afraid to take on the status quo. At a time a tree and a rope were always in play.

Wish he was here today to have a conversation with a certain president.

[EFerrari]

9. Prof Bracey of Amherst tells the story, when Hoover sent the FBI

after DuBois, they sent an agent to a library to look up who he was and the librarian directed the agent to the drawers of references to him and to his work. :)

Great presentation: The New England Roots of WEB DuBois: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/WEBD

[Hissyspit]

14. "he frequently disagreed ... with members of his own race"

Heavens to Betsy! How could this be?

[EFerrari]

15. LOL -- that's how I was still taught DuBois in grad school in 1993

believe it or not. :)

[EFerrari]

16. Africana Skp Gates' amazing recounting of bringing DuBois's dream

of an Encyclopedia Africana to fruition.

About an hour, transcript.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Africana3