Civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois was a scholar, journalist and activist — famously the first Black man to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895 — and is now the subject of a new American Masters documentary: "W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel with A Cause." The film's award-winning director, Rita Coburn, joins the show to discuss Du Bois' groundbreaking work and enduring legacy. Originally aired on May 18, 2026 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by the Anderson Family Endowment, Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Candace King Weir, the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism, the Straus Family Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson & Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Charles Rosenblum, Monique Schoen Warshaw, Koo and Patricia Yuen and Barbara Hope Zuckerberg. Subscribe to the Amanpour and Company channel here: https://bit.ly/2EMIkTJ Subscribe to our daily newsletter to find out who's on each night: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/newsletter/ For more from Amanpour and Company, including full episodes, click here: https://to.pbs.org/2NBFpjf This program is made possible by viewers like you. Please support your local PBS station: http://www.pbs.org/donate Like Amanpour and Company on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2HNx3EF Follow Amanpour and Company on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2HLpjTI Follow Amanpour and Company on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3SaTUhk Watch Amanpour and Company weekdays on PBS (check local listings). Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City. #amanpourpbs
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Thank you for sharing this incredible story!!! W.E.B. Debois was a genius. Thank God for his presence in this world!
We need The Crisis Magazine again.
So grateful to have access to stories like these. This is an important part of the conversation that can not afford to be silenced.
Thank you to all who support PBS!
Peace to W.E.B. I just finished reading The Souls of Black Folk.
Thank you Michelle Martin. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing and Neely Fuller Jr. Both of these profound thinkers have given us the Code to answer the ongoing WHY and How do we recover so that we have Justice. It would be wonderful for Amanpour to have you do a deep dive into the two these exceptional Black Americans❗️
We want to see it on the big screen in the movie theaters...would be incredible.
His _On Slavery_ stands out as one of the most monumental books of my entire life. Its impact on my education and thinking has been monumental.
Excellent.....just excellent...will most def be watching;)👍
Great presentation on an extraordinary man and gifted leader who committed his ENTIRE life to the masses, especially Africans
Amanpour and Company, why have you turned off CC (Closed Caption) on ALL your videos as of late? PLEASE turn on CC!
Thank you ladies for all of this about a beautiful soul, W.E.B.Debois. Thank you so much! It’s great to know about all of these wonderful human beings in our history fighting for better. ❤
The new PBS documentary on W.E.B. Du Bois is a powerful reminder that his journalism was an instrument for systemic change — blending intellectual rigor with real-world praxis in ways that still shape conversations today about Black America and humanity through truth and storytelling. Timely work by PBS.
I'm excited to watch this! A side, Frederick Douglass was behind the publishing of four newspapers, so he may have started as the orator many of us are familiar with, but he eventually expanded into publishing.
Great scholar.
Absolutely FASCINATING!!
W. E. B. Du Bois Co-founded the Niagara Movement (1905) and the NAACP (1909), Organized the first Pan-African Congress in 1919 to fight for self-governance of African colonies, forced out by intense political persecution, becoming disillusioned with the nation's slow progress on racial equality. In 1961, at age 93, he joined the Communist Party, moved to Ghana, and later renounced his U.S. citizenship, becoming a Ghanaian citizen shortly before his death on August 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana, at the age of 95. He passed away on the eve of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom while working on an Encyclopedia Africana project after moving to Ghana in 1961. He is buried at the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture in Accra.
Wonderful and very informative interview! I look forward to this documentary. PBS has been sharing important and valuable posts in this critical time when so many are trying to rewrite our history and erase valuable contributions by so many black Americans. As an aside, Michele Martin I love your new look! Thanks for another compelling interview!
Thank you for working on this
..........we all are from Africa!!