TICUA Hall of Fame Spotlight:

Fisk University Graduate

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois

Architect of the Civil Rights Movement, First African American to Receive a PhD from Harvard, Award-winning Author

Inducting Institution: Fisk University

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Barrington, Massachusetts on February 23, 1868. After graduating from high school with top grades at the age of 17, Du Bois, who wanted to attend Harvard but was unable to obtain a scholarship, entered Fisk as a sophomore.He said, “I was thrilled to be for the first time among so many people of my own color or rather of such various and such extraordinary colors which I have only glimpsed before, but who it seemed were bound to me by new and exciting and eternal ties.” He contributed to several campus publications and served as editor of the student literary publication, The Herald. As a student, he led a group of demonstrating students to barricade themselves in Jubilee Hall to support a cause.

Dr. Du Bois used his Fisk education to have one of America’s most distinguished careers in social thought and action. He became an educator, author, historian, sociologist, philosopher, poet, leader, and apostle of peace. He was one of the most gifted intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a pioneering Pan-Africanist, a vigorous promoter for world peace, and a champion for civil rights in the Jim Crow era.

Dr. Du Bois' experience at Fisk is said to have altered his soul and illuminated his identity. In his autobiography, Dusk of Dawn, Dr. Du Bois recalled that his three years at Fisk “were years of growth and development.” He voiced how his “knowledge of the race problem became more definite.” His Fisk experience heightened his consciousness of himself as a Black man and the destination of all Black people. Dr. Du Bois published more than 19 books, hundreds of essays, reviews, articles, and journals. His writings spanned a period of more than 75 years. His life and works continue to be the focus of dissertations, books, and other works.

Source: TICUA