On August 27, 1963, W. E. B. Du Bois passed away in Ghana at the age of ninety-five. The famed civil rights leader had relocated to Ghana just two years earlier, but it was only fitting that he should find his final resting place in the West African country, a nation that held deep symbolic significance for black people the world over.

Following its independence in March 1957, Ghana had emerged as a symbol of triumph and hope for people of African descent, and over the next decade, thousands of black activists and intellectuals, including Martin Luther King Jr, Maya Angelou, Pauli Murray, and Julian Mayfield, would visit or move to Ghana.

Du Bois’s journey to Ghana can be understood as part of this wave of migration. Yet Du Bois stood out even in this distinguished company — few figures were more influential in shaping anticolonial ideas and movements. Alongside a vanguard of black activists and intellectuals — including C. L. R. James, Marcus Garvey, Jeanne and Paulette Nardal, Claudia Jones, Amy Ashwood Garvey, and George Padmore — Du Bois was one of the chief progenitors of the anticolonial struggle that swept the globe during the twentieth century.