W.e.b. Dubois

5 Pages 1127 Words

W.E.B. Dubois, the most influential African American intellectual of his day, shaped modern African American cultural values.

William Edward Burghardt Dubois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the only child of Alfred and Mary Dubois. There were few African Americans in Great Barrington, and William Edward was the only African American in his high school graduating class.

Throughout his academic career, Dubois distinguished himself as a top student; he also displayed an early interest in the condition of the African American people by becoming a local correspondent for the New York Globe, an African American newspaper, at the age of fifteen. A prolific writer throughout his life, he wrote, as a teenager, about the need for African Americans to advance in the American political arena. Upon graduation he wished to attend Harvard, the top university in the nation; although his academic achievements were sufficient, he lacked financial resources, so in 1885 he accepted a scholarship to Fisk College instead, and spent the next few years at Fisk in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Fisk, he spent two summers teaching at a local school; it was the first time he had been exposed to the harsh realities of African American life in the South. This experience helped him to develop his ideas regarding the need for African American educational opportunities and cultural advancement.

After graduating from Fisk in 1888, Dubois applied again to Harvard, he was accepted, and graduated from Harvard with a second bachelor’s degree in 1890. His primary fields of study included history, philosophy, economics, and political science. By 1891 he had also earned a master’s degree from that university and began working to obtain his doctorate. He won a grant to study for two years in Berlin, Germany, and returned to take his doctorate, becoming the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

Du...