Who is W.E.B DuBois?

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a well known writer, sociologist, historian, and civil-rights activist. Today happens to be his birthday (we may or may not have planned that). He was born Feb 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. He completed his graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard — becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate. Commonly known as W.E.B. Du Bois, he was also a data visualization pioneer. While he is known for his collection of essays, Souls of Black Folks, he also architected the nation’s most sophisticated quantitative research on race and the black population. This research, now about 121 years old, is a data narrative of resilience and perseverance. This body of work consisting of 60 full-color charts, graphs, maps and tables laid the groundwork for his sociology program at Atlanta University. This is now recognized as the first school of American sociology. Du Bois is a man of many firsts and his data visualizations are no doubt groundbreaking.