How the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Lives on at UMass Amherst
Nearly six decades after his passing, the W.E.B. Du Bois legacy continues to live on in his birthplace.
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Nearly six decades after his passing, the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois continues to live on in his birthplace of western Massachusetts and beyond.
His life’s commitment to social justice inspired countless to walk in his footsteps and lead scholars and teachers here to the UMass Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies.
“Dr. DuBois was a genius, he’s someone that many of us in the academy can aspire to want to emulate, said Amilcar Shabazz, a professor of history and Africana Studies in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies since 2007. “He was truly what we call a scholar-activist and by that I mean he saw problems in the world, injustices in the world and put so much of his gifts into trying to solve those problems.”
Shabazz has spent more than 15 years teaching in the department that bears Du Bois’s namesake.
“We would like to say that we are trying to contribute to the future of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. Having a doctorate program since 1996, we have well over 100 Ph. D.s we’ve graduated and they’re all over the country, all over the world,” added Shabazz. “We’ve had students from China get their doctorate and return to China and students from Brazil. We really feel that’s important to carry on that work and the study of African American literature, African American history, and culture.”
Du Bois’s works and achievements span far and wide. In addition to becoming the first African American to graduate from Harvard University with a Ph.D., Du Bois was also one of the founders of the oldest civil rights organization in the country, with a local chapter located in Springfield.