Editing W. E. B. Du Bois (section)

==Early life==
===Family and childhood===
Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in [[Great Barrington, Massachusetts]], to Alfred and [[Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=11}}</ref> Mary Silvina Burghardt's family was part of the very small [[free black]] population of Great Barrington and had long owned land in the state. She was descended from [[Dutch Americans|Dutch]], [[African diaspora|African]], and [[English Americans|English]] ancestors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=14–15}}</ref> William Du Bois's maternal great-great-grandfather was Tom Burghardt, a [[Slavery in the colonial United States|slave]] (born in [[West Africa]] around 1730) who was held by the Dutch colonist Conraed Burghardt. Tom briefly served in the [[Continental Army]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]], which may have been how he gained his freedom during the late 18th century. His son Jack Burghardt was the father of Othello Burghardt, who in turn was the father of Mary Silvina Burghardt.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=13}}</ref>

[[File:WEB Du Bois as infant.png|thumb|left|alt=A photograph of Du Bois as an infant being held by his mother|Du Bois as an infant with his mother]]

William Du Bois claimed [[Elizabeth Freeman]] as his relative; he wrote that she had married his great-grandfather Jack Burghardt.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dusk of Dawn|first=W. E. B.|last=Du Bois|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=Piscataway NJ|orig-year=1940|year=1984|page=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868–1919|first=David Levering|last=Lewis|publisher=Henry Holt and Co.|year=1993|page=14|location=New York City}}</ref> But Freeman was 20 years older than Burghardt, and no record of such a marriage has been found. It may have been Freeman's daughter, Betsy Humphrey, who married Burghardt after her first husband, Jonah Humphrey, left the area "around 1811", and after Burghardt's first wife died ({{circa}} 1810). If so, Freeman would have been William Du Bois's step-great-great-grandmother. Anecdotal evidence supports Humphrey's marrying Burghardt; a close relationship of some form is likely.<ref>{{cite book|title=One Minute a Free Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle for Freedom|first1=Emilie|last1=Piper|first2=David|last2=Levinson|publisher=Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area|location=Salisbury CT|year=2010|isbn=978-0-9845492-0-7}}</ref>

William Du Bois's paternal great-grandfather was James Du Bois of [[Poughkeepsie (city), New York|Poughkeepsie, New York]], an ethnic [[French-American]] of [[Huguenot]] origin who fathered several children with enslaved women.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=17}}</ref> One of James' [[mixed-race]] sons was Alexander, who was born on [[Long Cay]] in the Bahamas in 1803; in 1810, he immigrated to the United States with his father.<ref>{{cite book|first=Nahum Dimitri|last=Chandler|title=X: The Problem of the Negro as a Problem for Thought|year=2014|publisher=Fordham University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8232-5407-1|pages=100–103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0pGCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT118}}</ref> Alexander Du Bois traveled and worked in [[Haiti]], where he fathered a son, Alfred, with a [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]]. Alexander returned to Connecticut, leaving Alfred in Haiti with his mother.<ref name="Lewis, p. 18">Lewis, p. 18.</ref>

Sometime before 1860, Alfred Du Bois immigrated to the United States, settling in Massachusetts. He married Mary Silvina Burghardt on February 5, 1867, in [[Housatonic, Massachusetts|Housatonic]], a village in Great Barrington.<ref name="Lewis, p. 18"/> Alfred left Mary in 1870, two years after their son William was born.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=21}} Du Bois suggested that Mary's family drove Alfred away.</ref> Mary Du Bois moved with her son back to her parents' house in Great Barrington, and they lived there until he was five. She worked to support her family (receiving some assistance from her brother and neighbors) until she suffered a [[stroke]] in the early 1880s. She died in 1885.<ref>Rabaka, Reiland (2007), ''W. E. B. Du Bois and the Problems of the Twenty-first Century: An Essay on Africana Critical Theory'', Lexington Books, p. 165.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=29–30}}.</ref>

Great Barrington had a majority [[European American]] community, who generally treated Du Bois well. He attended the local integrated public school and played with white schoolmates. As an adult, he wrote about racism that he felt as a fatherless child and being a minority in the town. But teachers recognized his ability and encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and his rewarding experience with academic studies led him to believe that he could use his knowledge to empower African Americans.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=27–44}}.</ref> In 1884, he graduated from Great Barrington High School with honors.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Melissa |title=The Du Bois Center at Great Barrington » W.E.B. Du Bois's Long Road Back to Great Barrington |url=https://duboiscentergb.org/w-e-b-du-boiss-long-road-back-to-great-barrington/ |website=Franklin Library Special Collections and Archives : W.E.B. Du Bois Collection |access-date=July 16, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Layden |first1=Diona E. |title=John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library: Franklin Library Special Collections and Archives : W.E.B. Du Bois Collection |url=https://fisk.libguides.com/c.php?g=1057119&p=7712197 |website=fisk.libguides.com |access-date=July 16, 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Great Barrington High School diploma, 1884 |url=https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-x01-i072 |publisher=UMass Amherst |access-date=July 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315031202/https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-x01-i072 |archive-date=March 15, 2024}}</ref> When he decided to attend college, the congregation of his childhood church, the [[First Congregational Church of Great Barrington]], raised the money for his tuition.<ref>Cebula, Tim, "Great Barrington", in Young, p. 91.</ref><ref name="Horne, p. 7">Horne, p. 7.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=39–40}}.</ref>

===University education===
[[File:W. E. B. Du Bois Suppression of the African slave trade in the United States (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|The title page of Du Bois's Harvard dissertation, ''Suppression of the African Slave Trade in the United States of America: 1638–1871'']]

Relying on this money donated by neighbors, Du Bois attended [[Fisk University]], a [[historically black college]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]], from 1885 to 1888.<ref>Lewis, Catharine, "Fisk University", in Young, p. 81.</ref> Like other Fisk students who relied on summer and intermittent teaching to support their university studies, Du Bois taught school during the summer of 1886 after his sophomore year.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fultz |first1=Michael |title=Determination and Persistence: Building the African American Teacher Corps through Summer and Intermittent Teaching, 1860s–1890s |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=February 2021 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=4–34 |doi=10.1017/heq.2020.65|doi-access=free }}</ref> His travel to and residency in the South was Du Bois's first experience with Southern racism, which at the time encompassed [[Jim Crow laws]], bigotry, suppression of black voting, and [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings]]; the lattermost reached a peak in the next decade.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=56–57}}.</ref>

After receiving his [[bachelor's degree]] from Fisk University, Du Bois attended [[Harvard College]] (which did not accept course credits from Fisk) from 1888 to 1890, becoming the sixth admitted African American in its history.<ref name=":1" />  He was strongly influenced by professor [[William James]], prominent in American philosophy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=72–78}}.</ref> Du Bois paid his way through three years at Harvard with money from summer jobs, an inheritance, scholarships, and loans from friends. In 1890, Harvard awarded Du Bois his second bachelor's degree, ''[[Latin honors|cum laude]]''.<ref name=":1">{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=69–80 (degree); p. 69 (funding); p. 70 (6th admitted); p. 82 (inheritance)}}. </ref> In 1891, Du Bois received a scholarship to attend the sociology graduate school at Harvard.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=82}}.</ref>

In 1892, Du Bois received a fellowship from the [[Slater Fund|John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen]] to attend [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Friedrich Wilhelm University]] for graduate work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=90}}.</ref> While a student in [[Berlin]], he traveled extensively throughout Europe. He intellectually came of age in the German capital while studying with some of that nation's most prominent [[social scientist]]s, including [[Gustav von Schmoller]], [[Adolph Wagner]], and [[Heinrich von Treitschke]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=98–103}}.</ref> He also met [[Max Weber]] who was highly impressed with Du Bois and later cited Du Bois as a counter-example to racists alleging the inferiority of Blacks. Weber met Du Bois again in 1904 on a visit to the US just ahead of the publication of the seminal ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bobo |first1=Lawrence D. |title=Bringing Du Bois back in: American sociology and the Morris enunciation |journal=Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race |date=2015 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=461–467 |doi=10.1017/S1742058X15000235 |s2cid=151045538 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

He wrote about his time in Germany: "I found myself on the outside of the American world, looking in. With me were white folk{{snd}}students, acquaintances, teachers{{snd}}who viewed the scene with me. They did not always pause to regard me as a curiosity, or something sub-human; I was just a man of the somewhat privileged student rank, with whom they were glad to meet and talk over the world; particularly, the part of the world whence I came."<ref>{{cite book|first=Aldon|last=Morris|author-link=Aldon Morris|title=The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology|year=2015|publisher=University of California Press|location=Oakland CA|isbn=978-0-520-96048-0|page=17}}</ref> After returning from Europe, Du Bois completed his graduate studies; in 1895, he was the first African American to earn a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] from Harvard University.<ref>Williams, Yvonne, "Harvard", in Young, p. 99.<br /> His dissertation was ''[[The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America]], 1638–1871''.</ref>

===Wilberforce===
{{quote box
|quote = Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: ... How does it feel to be a problem? ... One ever feels his two-ness,{{snd}}an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder ... He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.
|source=—Du Bois, "Strivings of the Negro People", 1897<ref>Quoted by {{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=143–145}}.</ref>
|align = right
|width = 30em
|fontsize = 90%
|bgcolor = #F0F0F0
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In the summer of 1894, Du Bois received several job offers, including from [[Tuskegee University|Tuskegee Institute]]; he accepted a teaching job at [[Wilberforce University]] in [[Ohio]].<ref>Gibson, Todd, "University of Pennsylvania", in Young, p. 210.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=111}}</ref> At Wilberforce, Du Bois was strongly influenced by [[Alexander Crummell]], who believed that ideas and morals are necessary tools to effect social change.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=118, 120}}.</ref> While at Wilberforce, Du Bois married [[Nina Gomer Du Bois|Nina Gomer]], one of his students, on May 12, 1896.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=126}}. Nina Gomer Du Bois did not play a significant role in Du Bois's activism or career (see {{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=135, 152–154, 232, 287–290, 296–301, 404–406, 522–525, 628–630}}).</ref>

===Philadelphia===
After two years at Wilberforce, Du Bois accepted a one-year research job from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] as an "assistant in sociology" in the summer of 1896.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=128–129}}. Du Bois resented never receiving an offer for a teaching position at Penn.</ref> He performed sociological field research in [[Philadelphia]]'s African-American neighborhoods, which formed the foundation for his landmark study, ''[[The Philadelphia Negro]]'', published in 1899 while he was teaching at Atlanta University. It was the first case study of a black community in the United States.<ref>Horne, pp. 23–24.</ref> Among his Philadelphia consultants on the project was [[William Henry Dorsey]], an artist who collected documents, paintings and artifacts pertaining to Black history. Dorsey compiled hundreds of scrapbooks on the lives of Black people during the 19th century and built a collection that he laid out in his home in Philadelphia. Du Bois used the scrapbooks in his research.

By the 1890s, Philadelphia's black neighborhoods had a negative reputation in terms of crime, poverty, and mortality. Du Bois's book undermined the stereotypes with empirical evidence and shaped his approach to segregation and its negative impact on black lives and reputations. The results led him to realize that racial integration was the key to democratic equality in American cities.<ref>Bulmer, Martin, "W. E. B. Du Bois as a Social Investigator: The Philadelphia Negro, 1899", in Martin Bulmer, Kevin Bales, and [[Kathryn Kish Sklar]], eds. ''The Social Survey in Historical Perspective, 1880–1940'' (1991), pp. 170–188.</ref> The methodology employed in ''The Philadelphia Negro'', namely the description and the mapping of social characteristics onto neighborhood areas was a forerunner to the studies under the Chicago School of Sociology.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|pages=199–200}}</ref>

While taking part in the [[American Negro Academy]] (ANA) in 1897, Du Bois presented a paper in which he rejected [[Frederick Douglass]]'s plea for black Americans to integrate into white society. He wrote: "we are Negroes, members of a vast historic race that from the very dawn of creation has slept, but half awakening in the dark forests of its African fatherland".<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|p=123}}. His paper was titled ''The Conservation of Races''.</ref> In the August 1897 issue of ''[[The Atlantic|The Atlantic Monthly]]'', Du Bois published "Strivings of the Negro People", his first work aimed at the general public, in which he enlarged upon his thesis that African Americans should embrace their African heritage while contributing to American society.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2009|pp=143–144}}.</ref>