W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an African American sociologist, civil rights activist, and intellectual. Before the First World War, he studied in Berlin and became the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. He taught as a professor at Atlanta University. In 1909, he was among the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His essay collection The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is considered a classic of American literature.