Outspoken, militant, profoundly committed to nothing less than full equality, W.E.B. Du Bois was the single most important intellectual leader of the twentieth century in the fight for civil rights for African Americans everywhere. Yet, for many years, he was largely ignored by the majority of Americans.

In a book that is both an honest and compelling account of his life and a searching history of the black experience in the United States, Virginia Hamilton examines the reasons for this neglect and the enormous influence Dr. Du Bois has had on us all in spite of it.

A founder of the Niagara Movement and later of the N.A.A.C.P., editor of “The Crisis” magazine and father of the movement to unite Africa for Africans, Dr. Du Bois was, in the crucial period of the twenties and thirties, the man most responsible for the changes in the attitudes of black people toward themselves and their condition in American society. He made them aware of the grave and just reasons for their discontent.

Ms Hamilton, a distinguished author of books for young people, writes with conviction and dignity of this extraordinary leader, who said as long ago as 1903, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”

An American Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Book

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Jacket design by Christine Kettner
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