William Edward Burghardt Du Bois grew up in a poor but loving home in the small, rural town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from Fisk University, and from there attended Harvard to earn his doctorate in history. Throughout his life he acted as a teacher, writer, editor and activist, contributing immensely to the African American cause and cofounding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois wrote three autobiographies, the first of which, "Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil", examined racism around the world. In this work, Du Bois hoped to lift the metaphorical veil between white and black readers to reveal the distorted viewpoints of each side. It contains a series of essays, each followed by a short fictional story or poem, which address issues of gender oppression, the idea of whiteness, and democracy along race, class and gender lines.