August 27: NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois dies 95

On August 27, 1963: NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois died at age 95 in Accra, Ghana.
On August 27, 1963, the eve of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois died at age 95 in Accra, Ghana. That same year, he had become a naturalized citizen of the West African nation.
Born on Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois attended school with whites and was fully accepted by students and teachers. So it was a shock when he went to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Fisk University and met Jim Crow. The experience led to his exploration of race relations in the U.S. and involvement in the civil rights movement.
In 1895, he became the first Black to earn a doctorate from Harvard University, where he’d previously earned a master’s degree. He achieved national prominence while a professor at Atlanta University when he sharply disagreed with another famous Black scholar, Booker T. Washington.
Washington urged African-Americans to essentially accept discrimination while working to improve their economic status through largely vocational education. Du Bois, on the other hand, called on Blacks to fight for equal rights through agitation and protest.
In 1909, he helped found the NAACP and served as the editor of the monthly Crisis magazine, but later broke with the organization.
To some, the day August 28th maybe a birthday, or just a simple beach day, but the significance this day holds is truly immaculate and holds a great significance in the black community, as it continues to be a day of change and fruition.
August 28, 1833: Slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom, which had a “trickle down effect and led to American abolition of slavery,” DuVernay said.
August 28, 1955: 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered by a group of white men. His death became one of the major incidents that fueled the civil rights movement, as well as one of the most important stories in U.S. history.
August 28, 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech at the March On Washington.
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