Black History is American history and by failing to remember the good and the bad…future generations lose momentum…

W.E.B. Dubois is one of the greatest minds ever. He was the first Black to graduate from Harvard with a PhD. He also attended Fisk University and the University of Berlin in Germany. He co-founded the NAACP, he is considered the Father of American Sociology, and he was an activist, prolific writer, and Pan-Africanist. Born in 1868, Dubois experienced 19th and 20th century life as a Black American. Highly educated, the doors of the eminent universities would not hire him. He coined the phrase, “Double Consciousness” and explained that Black Americans lived a twoness experience in America…one as a Negro and one as an American. Writing in 1903, Dubois felt that being Black and American and trying to reconcile the two experiences would be difficult. Dubois hoped for it to be “possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.” 105 years later Dubois’ double consciousness is still relevant and scholars and intellectuals continue to debate his words and legacy.

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