William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was a historian, social scientist, journalist, and civil rights activist best known for his landmark 1903 book
The Souls of Black Folk. He was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 and served for many years as the editor of its monthly magazine,
The Crisis.
The first to win the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice, John Edgar Wideman has written a dozen novels, including Philadelphia Fire and Sent for You Yesterday, and a NBCC-nominated memoir, Brothers and Keepers. His second memoir, Fatheralong, was a finalist for the National Book Award.