W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois was a pioneering sociologist, historian, author, and civil-rights activist whose scholarship examined race, inequality, and Black life in the United States. He co-founded the NAACP and edited its journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1934, using it to challenge lynching, segregation, and colonialism. His 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk introduced “double consciousness,” a concept that became central to modern discussions of racial identity.