History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

A Short Biography of William Edward Burghardt Du bois

William Edward Burghardt Du bois, educator, was born in Great Barrington, Mass., Feb. 23, 1868; son of negro parents. His father was Alfred Du Bois, son of Alexander Du Bois, whose father was a French physician in the West Indies. His mother was Mary S. Burghardt, daughter of Othello Burghardt, whose grandfather, Thomas Burghardt, was a native chieftain, and was brought from Africa as a slave by the Dutch about 1750. He attended Fisk university, Tenn., and was graduated from Harvard in 1890, receiving the degree of A.M. in 1891. For two years he was fellow in sociology in Harvard and in 1892 was sent abroad by the trustees of the John F. Slater fund, to study history and political science, and remained at the University of Berlin for two years. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. On his return he became professor of Latin in Wilberforce university, Ohio, resigning the chair in 1896 to become assistant in sociology in the University of Pennsylvania, to take charge of a special investigation into the condition of the negro people in the city of Philadelphia. He was afterward made professor of economics and history in Atlanta university, Atlanta, Ga. He was married, May 12, 1896, to Nina Gomer. He is the author of: The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (1896); and the first volume of the Harvard Historical Studies published under the direction of the department of history in Harvard university. He also published: The Study of the Negro Problems (1898); The Philadelphia Negro, A Social Study (1898), and newspaper articles discussing sociological subjects.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor