William Edward Burghardt “W. E. B.” Du Bois (1868-1963) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and excelled in his community’s public schools. Encouraged by his teachers to pursue academics, DuBois earned bachelor’s degrees from both Fisk University and Harvard University. He engaged in postgraduate studies at the University of Berlin and Humboldt University, and later became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard. He believed that Booker T. Washington’s focus on technical and vocational education for blacks did not go far enough, and in this address eight years after Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” speech, DuBois explains his approach to education for blacks.