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THE W.E.B. DU BOIS MUSEUM COMPLEX
The Final Dignified Resting Place for Dr. W.E.B. & Shirley Graham Du Bois
About the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation
The W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation (USA–Ghana) is a nonprofit organization established in 2019 with the purpose of honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Du Bois by redeveloping his final resting place in Accra, Ghana. He was the celebrated father of Pan-Africanism, co-founder of the NAACP, an essential historical leader and scholar in the US civil rights movement, a global anti-colonialist, and a human rights advocate.
The Foundation has an Agreement with the Government of Ghana through its Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts, and Culture to finance, redevelop, manage, and transfer the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra.
Interested in supporting our cause?
Donate to the W. E. B. Du Bois Museum Foundation.
Message by the Leaders
We the leaders of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Complex Capital Campaign, Accra Ghana, invite you to preview the important gift to the world that is envisioned by the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation to be constructed at the burial site of the great scholar and civil rights leader in Accra, Ghana. Our goal for the capital campaign is $117 million and $83 million for endowment, for a total of $200 million. The following pages showcase the exciting new W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Complex and the restored bungalow where Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois lived from 1961–1963 with his wife, Shirley Graham.
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois’s remarkable achievements in his long 95 years of life include being heralded as the father of the Civil Rights and Pan-African movements, the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard University in 1895, and a co-founder of the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Acknowledged as the father of scientific sociology, Dr. Du Bois was a researcher; and an insightful and prolific author par excellence.
Please join us as donors and partners to achieve the long-overdue, imagined possibility to build a fitting memorial of learning and generational inspiration to arguably the best social scholar of note—whom Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described as “first of all, he was himself unsurpassed as an intellect, and he was a Negro” (the 100th Anniversary of the Birthday of Dr. Du Bois at Carnegie Hall in New York, February 23, 1968).
There are moments in history that call us to do more than remember; they call us to build. Please share and contact us to learn more.
Meet the Campaign Leaders
(last name alphabetical)
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Philosopher and Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU; former President of PEN America. Acclaimed author of Cosmopolitanism, The Honor Code, and Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity.
Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin
Speaker of Parliament, Republic of Ghana, Senior Statesman, Lawyer, and Parliamentary Icon. President of the 52 Member Africa Geopolitical Group (I PU), African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC), and Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAU, and past President of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), deepening democratic governance
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Distinguished scholar and Harvard professor; Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute. Leading authority on African-American literature and culture; acclaimed author and creator/host of landmark documentary series including Wonders of the African World and African American Lives.
Sir Sam Jonah, KBE
C0-CHAIR OF THE CAMPAIGN
Knighted mining icon and global business leader. Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast. Ranked among the world’s top 25 most influential business leaders by CNN/Time Magazine. Member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation International Advisory Board.
Barbara Jean Lee
Oakland Mayor & Former Member Of US Congress
Mayor of Oakland, CA (2025-) and former member of US House of Representatives representing California (1998-2023). She previously was a member of the California State Legislature (1990-1998).
Prof. Dr. David Levering Lewis
Distinguished Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at New York University. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for the authoritative biography of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois.
Mr. Daniel Rose
C0-CHAIR OF THE CAMPAIGN
Prominent business leader and philanthropist. Founder of the Helping Africa Foundation and Board Chairman of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation.
Dr. Deborah Rose
Honored Yale University alumna for philanthropy and activism. Public health scholar. Development Queenmother of Yamoransa (Nana Abena Nyansima I). Board Member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation.
Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado
Historian, author & preservationist. Director of Public History at Morehouse College. Chief Historian, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Estate. Board Member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation.
The Story
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, MA, USA, on February 23, 1868. At 93 years old, in 1961, he was invited by Ghana’s first President and Pan-Africanist, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to relocate to Accra with his wife, Shirley Graham, to focus on the embryonic Encyclopedia Africana. Dr. Du Bois established an office for this purpose.
Denied a renewal of his U.S. passport to return to the land of his birth for medical treatment, he succumbed to prostate cancer and died on August 27, 1963, at the golden age of 95 years, in Ghana. His remains and the ashes of his wife, Shirley, are entombed in Cantonments, Accra, Ghana.
Countries Visited
by the Du Boises
Germany
France
Portugal
Switzerland
Italy
Belgium
Romania
China
Russia
Japan
United Kingdom
Jamaica
Vietnam
Czechoslovakia
Cuba
Bahamas
Egypt
Algeria
Guinea
Ethiopia
Uganda
Tanzania
Nigeria
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Ghana
The Du Boises in Ghana
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham Du Bois at a state function.
The Du Boises by their Russia-gifted personal automobile in front of the bungalow.
Dr. Du Bois in his bungalow in Accra, Ghana
The Du Boises with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his wife, Fatia.
Partnership with the Government of Ghana
On September 22, 2023, the Government of Ghana (GoG), represented by its Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, signed a landmark agreement with the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation (USA and Ghana entities) for the finance, management, and transfer of the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre.
This foundational agreement enabled the initial mobilization of support from key philanthropic partners and laid the groundwork for the Centre’s redevelopment. In January 2026, the partnership was further reaffirmed through an additional signing with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, reinforcing the shared commitment of both parties to the Centre’s long-term vision, governance, and sustainability.
The Bungalow
To Be Restored
The historic bungalow in Accra, once home to the Du Boises, has deteriorated over time. Thanks to a generous gift from the Mellon Foundation, work is underway to restore it to the time when the Du Boises lived in the bungalow. The estimated unfunded cost to furnish the interior and upgrade utilities is $600,000.
The Design of the Museum Complex
The W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation has engaged a Ghanaian-headed and Ghana-based architectural firm – Atelier. They are supported by a New York City–based African American architectural firm – Jerome Haferd Studio. The design of a modern Museum Complex will accommodate a Museum, Library, Mausoleum, an Akwaaba (Welcome) Center, below-ground parking, restaurant, scholars’ residence, multi-purpose hall, and amphitheatre. The preliminary estimated cost for the design and construction of the Complex is $60 million.
Preliminary estimated cost – external landscape, infrastructure, and below-ground parking: $5 million.
The Entrance
Preliminary estimated cost – Akwaaba Center and Entrance: $3 million
Welcome/Oobakɛ/Akwaaba
Green energy (solar) will be used throughout the Museum Complex.
