Civil rights leader and writer. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk and Harvard, Du Bois taught economics and history at Atlanta University from 1896 to 1910 and from 1932 to 1944. He was one of the first to urge total economic, political and social equality for blacks. He helped to found (in 1909) the National Negro Committee, which later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and he edited the magazine The Crisis for 24 years. In 1961, at the age of 93, he joined the Communist Party. He died in Ghana after becoming a Ghanaian citizen.