Peabody and Emmy Award-winning director, writer and producer Rita Coburn says W.E.B. Du Bois was born to tell the story of African Americans. That’s one of the observations the longtime storyteller hopes viewers walk away with after watching her new PBS documentary, “W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause.” Coburn says the film was four years in the making. However, the first seed of possibly producing a documentary about William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was planted years ago when she was working with Maya Angelo for Oprah Radio.
“ She knew W.E.B. Du Bois, and when we discussed him, once I could see the pain in her eyes that I didn’t know enough about him,” explained Coburn. “And that did something to me because I’ve been around older Black women my whole life, and they don’t have to say much, but whatever they say, you take heed to that.”
The two-hour film, slated to air on WABE TV on May 28 at 9 p.m., chronicles Du Bois’ life of nearly 100 years from 1868-1963. Du Bois, who was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was a renowned scholar, philosopher, sociologist, author, historian and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. He was born five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, lived through Reconstruction, World War I, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. He was the first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University. Throughout his life, he wrote more than 20 books, examining and exploring topics such as race, identity, social justice and what he believed to be the root causes of systemic racism. He died in Accra, Ghana, just one day before the March on Washington. The film pulls from archival audio, Du Bois’ books, articles and speeches.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
