William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and civil rights campaigner who lived from February 23, 1868, to August 27, 1963. Du Bois, who was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was raised in a neighborhood that was somewhat accepting and integrated. He became the first African American to receive a doctorate after finishing graduate studies at Harvard University and Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. As the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of Black civil rights activists who favored equal rights for Blacks, Du Bois gained national recognition. The Atlanta Compromise was opposed by Du Bois and his allies. Rather, Du Bois pushed for greater political representation and complete civil rights, which he thought would be achieved by the intellectual class of African Americans. Under the general heading of racial uplift, he called this group the Talented Tenth and felt that African Americans required opportunities for higher education in order to grow as leaders. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909, with Du Bois among its founders. Du Bois responded to racist occurrences by using his position within the NAACP.
