W.E.B. DuBois

Labeled as a "radical," he was ignored by those who hoped that his massive contributions would be buried along side of him. But, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man."

He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Du Bois wrote and published over 4,000 articles, essays and books over the course of the 95-year life. Most of these are out of print and hard to find even in their original publications. No edition of his complete works has yet been published.

You can read more about him here, here and here.