The reputation of
the black writer and activist W. E. B. Du Bois
(1868–1963) has recently undergone an enormous resurgence.
In his 1994 Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography,
W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race,
David Levering Lewis celebrated Du Bois as
the “primary architect of the civil rights movement.” The U.S. Postal
Service paid homage to Harvard’s first black Ph.D. by
placing his visage on a commemorative
stamp. Within the next year, PBS will broadcast two sympathetic
documentaries chronicling his life. And on the college lecture
circuit, whether the speaker is Jesse Jackson or Dinesh D’Souza, Du
Bois is one of today’s most quotable figures.

Last month,
seeking to elevate Du Bois onto an even higher plane, the University
of Massachusetts in Amherst officially named its library in
his honor. The tower library is the tallest building on campus
and, at twenty-six stories, is among the tallest public buildings in
the Bay State. A son of nearby Great Barrington, Du Bois’s papers
are housed in the structure which, campus activists reason, makes him
an appropriate choice for the dedication.

One of the founders of the NAACP, Du Bois has been packaged on the
campus as a civil rights pioneer, or given the more ambiguous label
“social justice advocate.” Subscribing to this school of thought,
University of Massachusetts Chancellor David Scott praises
Du Bois for having “worked
tirelessly to end racial discrimination” while the school’s recently
departed president, Michael Hooker, hails him as an activist