William Edward Burghardt

W. E. B. Du Bois (Feb. 23, 1868 to August 27, 1963 aged 95) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community.

He was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. His thesis was “The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America.”

Some of what he said:

“We cannot escape the clear fact that what is going to win in this world is reason, if this ever becomes a reasonable world.”

“There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.”

“There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.”

“Nothing in the world is easier in the United States than to accuse a black man of a crime.”

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