W.E.B. Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist whose genius provided a definitive analysis of the Black experience in America. In his seminal book 'The Souls of Black Folk,' he introduced the concept of 'double consciousness'—the sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others. He was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard and was a co-founder of the NAACP. Du Bois's genius for sociology used empirical data to disprove theories of racial inferiority, and he advocated for the 'Talented Tenth'—an educated class of Black leaders who would fight for social justice. His work remains the foundation of modern African American studies.