William Edward Burghardt (. B. ) Du Bois - 1085 Words

William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois was a successful author of many books and an accomplished student. He supported women s rights and the equality of African-American people. He had a pretty ordinary childhood, but his adult life was full of many accomplishments. He began to show a love and talent for reading and writing at a young age and this continued throughout his life. W.E.B. was born February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a mostly European American town. His parents were Alfred and Mary DuBois. Shortly after his birth, his parents separated and his father passed away. As a child, he chopped his neighbor s wood and mowed their lawns. He also liked sledding down snow packed hills with his†¦show more content†¦He received his Bachelor s degree in philosophy around October 1890. 2 Soon after graduating from Fisk University, W.E.B. went on to attend Harvard University. He graduated in 1895 and became the first African American to get a Ph.D from Harvard. He went on to become a doctoral student at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Università ¤t (now Humboldt-Università ¤t). In 1958, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Humboldt. Later on, DuBois was hired by Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio to teach Greek and Latin. At the university he had a heavy workload. He had to teach German, English and history in addition to Greek and Latin. He really wanted to teach sociology, but he was not allowed to do so. During his time at Wilberforce, he began to show an interest for one of his students, Nina Gomer. On May 12th, 1896, the couple married and Nina soon moved in with W.E.B. in his two room apartment in the men s dorm at Wilberforce. Later on, Nina found out she was pregnant in February of 1897. Nine months later, she gave birth to a son named Burghardt Gomer Du Bois. Unfortunately, he died about two years later on May 24, 1899 from diphtheria. The next year, W.E.B. went to Europe for the Paris exposition which recognized nineteenth century achievements, including a Negro Exhibit. By then, Nina was already five months pregnant with her second child. Soon after W.E.B. returned from Europe, Nina gave birth to Nina Yolande