Shirley Graham Du Bois (November
11, 1896
– March
27, 1977) was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes. Born in
Indianapolis to an Episcopal minister, she moved with her family throughout the United States as a child. After marrying her first husband, she moved to Paris to study music at the
Sorbonne. After her divorce and return to the United States, Graham Du Bois took positions at
Howard University and
Morgan College before completing her BA and master's at
Oberlin College in Ohio. Her first major work was the opera
Tom-Tom, which premiered in
Cleveland in 1932. She married
W. E. B. Du Bois in 1951, and the couple later lived in Ghana, Tanzania and China. She won several prizes, including an
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for her 1949 biography of
Benjamin Banneker. This photograph of Graham Du Bois was taken by
Carl Van Vechten in 1946.
Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam Cuerden
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