W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an American sociologist, historian
and civil rights activist. The first African American to earn a
doctorate from Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology and
economics at Atlanta University. He rose to national prominence as the
leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists
who wanted equal rights for blacks, and was one of the co-founders of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
in 1909. He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of
American sociology, and published three autobiographies. Black
Reconstruction in America (1935) challenged the prevailing orthodoxy
that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era.
On August 28, 1963, a day after his death, his book The Souls of Black
Folk was highlighted by Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington, and
hundreds of thousands of marchers honored him with a moment of silence.
A year later, the US Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for
which he had campaigned his entire life, was enacted.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
With the first use of his new 1.2 m (3.9 ft) telescope, then
the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of
Saturn, which was later named Enceladus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus>
1830:
Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive, engaged
in an impromptu race against a horse-drawn car in Maryland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thumb_(locomotive)>
1914:
In the first naval battle of the First World War, British ships
ambushed a German naval patrol in the Heligoland Bight area of the North
Sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Heligoland_Bight_(1914)>
1924:
An unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, known as the August Uprising, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Uprising>
1963:
During a large political rally in Washington, D.C., Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, describing his
desire for a future where blacks and whites would coexist harmoniously
as equals.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
syndicate:
1. A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific
business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.
2. (crime) A group of gangsters engaged in organized crime.
3. (mass media) A group of media companies, or an agency, formed to acquire
content such as articles, cartoons, etc., and to publish it in multiple
outlets; a chain of newspapers or other media outlets managed by such an
organization.
4. The office or jurisdiction of a syndic; a body or council of syndics.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syndicate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe
they are free.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe>