Franklin Library Special Collections and Archives : W.E.B. Du Bois Collection
About the Collection
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was a trans-disciplined author, business developer, economist, editor, educator, organizational architect, researcher, and social agitator. Born February 23, 1868 in New Barrington, Massachusetts he graduated from Great Barrington High School. Later he went on to study at Fisk University and taught in rural schools during the summers before securing his B.A. in 1888. After graduating from Fisk Du Bois went on to attend Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts from which he graduated cum laude in 1890. Du Bois' preeminence as a pioneering historian and sociologist situated him as an established intellectual through national and international standards in the 20th century. He was known as one of the most widely heard and read voices of African American leadership during his era, both respected and despised alike.
Du Bois and Race
The Crisis
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Finding Aids
- Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Collection, 1832-1963The W.E.B. Du Bois Collection contains 128 boxes divided into 8 series: Correspondence; Accounts, Bills, Personal Records, and Receipts; Lecture Engagements; Organizational Affiliations; Writings; Collected Material; Miscellaneous Materials; and Oversized Materials.
Special Collections Librarian
Book Spotlight
The Autobiography of W. E. B. du Bois (the Oxford W. E. B. du Bois) by ISBN: 9780195325898Publication Date: 2007-03-15A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century. A reflective, moving account in which, with grace and clarity, Dr. Du Bois revised and incorporated his earlier works and added new sections.
The Souls of Black Folk by ISBN: 0486280411Publication Date: 1994-05-20This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy advanced by Booker T. Washington, then the most influential black leader in America, would only serve to perpetuate black oppression.
W. E. B. du Bois and the Problems of the Twenty-First Century by ISBN: 9780739116821Publication Date: 2007-02-03Unlike any other anthologies on Du Bois, this volume offers an excellent overview of the critical commentary on arguably one of the most imaginative and innovative, perceptive and prolific founders of the discipline of sociology. It will therefore be of interest to scholars and students not just in sociology, but also Africana studies, American studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, gender studies and postcolonial studies, as well as "traditional" disciplines, such as, history, philosophy, political science, economics, education, and religion.
