oples. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire. (Turner, The Harlem Renaissance Reexamined)Du Bois had a unique influence on the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was hired to head the NAACP’s publicity and research efforts. He also was named editor of The Crisis, which soon became the most important national voice for the advancement of civil rights, largely through Du Bois’s reporting and editorials.Du Bois resigned from the NAACP in 1934 because he was unwilling to advocate racial integration in all aspects of life, a position adopted by the NAACP. He returned to Atlanta University, where he taught, wrote books, and founded a new journal, called Phylon. He also published Black Reconstruction and Dusk of Dawn.In 1961 Du Bois moved to the newly independent West African nation of Ghana. In an act of defiance just before his departure, he joined the American Communist Party. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1963 and became a citizen of Ghana in February of that year, shortly before his 95th birthday. Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah welcomed Du Bois’s decision and deemed him "the first citizen of Africa." Du Bois died a few months later.The Souls of Black Folk (which shall now be referred to as Black Folk)is perhaps as emotional and subjective a book as any written in the first decade of the 20th century(Redding, Portrait…Du Bois). It is considered one of the most prophetic and influential works in American Literature(Aptheker, "The Historian"). Du Bois uses the essay to state that Black’s quiet acceptance of racism only stifles their chance for advancement in society. Black Folk exposed the magnitude of racism in our society. Black Folk is a collection of 14 essays which records the cruelties of racism, celebrates the strength and pride of black America, and explores the paradoxical "double consciousness" of African-American life...
