W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause explores the life and legacy of notable Black scholar and civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois.
More than 120 years after the publication of his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois’ writing and ideology still resonate globally. His commentary on systemic racial discrimination against Black Americans and the concept of “double consciousness” identity made him an influential voice of the Harlem Renaissance and inspired trailblazers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In celebration of Du Bois’ legacy, American Masters and Peabody Award-winning director Rita Coburn are partnering to produce the new documentary W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel with a Cause (w.t.), which is expected to premiere in 2026 on PBS.
The film will explore Du Bois’ remarkable journey, through education and personal growth, examining how he transcended the social constraints of the early 20th century and worked to elevate the lives of Black people worldwide. Born just five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Du Bois lived a life marked by cultural influence, passing away in Ghana on the eve of the 1963 March on Washington.
“W.E.B. Du Bois authored 17 books, co-founded the NAACP, and challenged the ideas of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. He even created infographics to depict the color line and explain why Black Americans were being held back. This documentary will give audiences a deeper understanding of his enormous contributions to our culture,” said Michael Kantor, Executive Producer of American Masters. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Rita Coburn again to bring this essential American story to a broad national audience.”
Coburn previously directed and produced American Masters documentaries about trailblazers Maya Angelou and Marian Anderson. Her film Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, which premiered on American Masters in 2017, was an official selection at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won the AFI Docs Audience Award. Marian Anderson: The Whole World In Her Hands, which aired on American Masters in 2022, received the highest documentary production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was recognized with a Christopher Award.
“What Du Bois does in this moment is what he has always done – champion people of color and oppressed citizens of caste societies globally by fiercely addressing what he prophetically and famously wrote in his 1903 publication, The Souls of Black Folk: ‘the problem of the 20th century is the color line,’” Coburn said. “This documentary will work tirelessly to bring his still-resonant point of view, that ‘either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States,’ to the forefront.”
