Born on 11 November 1896, Shirley Graham Du Bois was a pioneering African American writer, composer, historian and civil rights activist whose work helped shape the cultural and political landscape of the twentieth century.
In 1961, she travelled to Ghana with her husband, the renowned scholar and Pan-Africanist Dr W. E. B. Du Bois, at the invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah. While Dr Du Bois laid the intellectual foundation for Pan-Africanism, Shirley gave it rhythm, colour and voice.
She played a crucial role in introducing television to Ghana and worked with President Nkrumah to build a new national broadcast identity. She later became Ghana’s first woman to direct the nation’s television service, Ghana Television, using the medium to promote African identity and independence.
Shirley Graham Du Bois was also a trailblazer in the arts and education. She became the first African American woman to write and produce an all-Black opera, Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro (1932). She was among the first Black women to earn a master’s degree from Oberlin College and one of the earliest to publish widely read biographies of Black heroes such as Frederick Douglass and Paul Robeson.
Her books were later included in American school curricula during the 1940s, cementing her place as a leading voice in Black literary and cultural history.
In her later years, she lived in China, where she continued to advocate for peace and equality until her passing in 1977. Today, her ashes lie beside her husband’s at the W. E. B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture in Accra, a lasting tribute to their shared dream of a united and liberated Africa.
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