The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois

Book excerpt: This is the first published, comprehensive interpretation of Du Bois’s educational thought. Historian Derrick P. Alridge moves beyond the overly discussed “debates” between Booker T. Washington and Du Bois to provide fresh insights into Du Bois's educational thinking. He draws on a plethora of published and unpublished primary sources to illuminate Du Bois's educational thought on a wide variety of issues, such as women and education, black leadership, black identity, civil rights, black higher education, community education, and academic achievement. This incisive examination of Du Bois: Covers 70 years of Du Bois's life, from his graduation as the first black Ph.D. recipient at Harvard to his death in Ghana. Traces Du Bois's relationships with Booker T. Washington and other African American thinkers of his time. Shows how events such as lynchings, Reconstruction policies, and Progressivism influenced Du Bois's life and thinking.