1963 — Ghana Bids Farewell to W.E.B. Du Bois

On August 29, 1963, Ghana opened a two-day state funeral for W. E. B. Du Bois, the Pan-Africanist giant who had died in Accra two days earlier at ninety-five. The NAACP co-founder had moved to Ghana in 1961 at Kwame Nkrumah's invitation, renouncing his American citizenship, and was buried near Christiansborg Castle, the old slave-trade fortress.

On the same day, two hundred fifty thousand marchers at the March on Washington held a minute's silence in his honor. Across the Atlantic, two gatherings mourned one life — a scholar and organizer whose life's work had bound Africa and its diaspora together.