Who was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University?

Scholar and activist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, better known as W.E.B. Du Bois, born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895. Du Bois wrote extensively and was the best known spokesperson for African American rights during the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Also, he was a strong proponent of Pan-Africanism; he helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to free African colonies from the control of European countries.

Du Bois died in Ghana. He died at the age of 95 on August 27, 1963. This was one day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington D.C.