W.E.B. Du Bois (95), scholar, protest leader and a founder of the NAACP, died in Accra, Ghana.

W.E.B. DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868. He was raised mostly by his mother, Mary, after his father left the family when he was very young. He was the first black person to graduate from his high school. After high school, he went on to study at Fisk University in Tennessee on full academic scholarship. After graduating with honors in 1888, he then went on to Harvard to pursue a second undergraduate degree. He received a second B.A. from Harvard in 1890, and went on to get his Master’s there as well in 1891. He became the first Black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. DuBois then began teaching at Atlanta University in 1897, staying there until 1910. In 1905, DuBois helped found the Niagara Movement. This led to his work with the NAACP, where he served as editor for The Crisis from 1910-1934. He then became involved with the Pan-African movement, organizing the first four Pan-African Congresses. He continued to write, penning several important works. In 1961, DuBois joined the Communist Party. He expatriated to Ghana in 1964, where he died the same year.

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