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William Edward Burghardt du Bois better known as W E B du Bois was a American civil rights activist a scholar and a Pan Africanist He was one of the most important black protest leaders in the U S during the first half century W E B du Bois was born on February 23 1868 in Great Barrington MA he community in which he lived included a population of approximately 5 000 whites and about 50 black people He identified himself as a mulatto half white half black While growing up he freely attended school with whites and was supported by his white teachers In 1885 he moved to Nashville Tennessee to attend Fisk University In the following three years he witnessed discrimination and became more determined to quicken social justice for black people it was there that he first encountered Jim Crow laws Du Bois believed in Black Nationalism and in socialism While Du Bois originally believed that social science could help provide the knowledge to solve racial problems he came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism express as lynching disenfranchisement Jim Crow Segregation laws and race riots social change could occur only in agitation and protest In 1906 Du Bois took the lead in founding the Niagara Movement with twenty nine African American leaders from 14 states united The Niagara Movement was a black civil rights organization dedicated to attacking the platform of Booker T Washington
