William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an African American civil rights activist leader Pan-Africanist sociologist educator historian writer editor poet and scholar. The importance of his work to the success of the Civil Rights movement cannot be overestimated. "In the course of his long turbulent career W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism-scholarship propaganda integration national self-determination human rights cultural and economic separatism politics international communism expatriation third world solidarity." -David Levering LewisThe Souls of Black Folk propelled Du Bois to the forefront of the Civil Rights movement when it was first published. This hard hitting masterpiece is part essays part memoir and part fiction. More than any other book it brought home just how racist and unjust America could be and demanded that African Americans be granted access to education and equality.