ja@webdbmf.org
THE W.E.B. DU BOIS MUSEUM & LIBRARY COMPLEX
ACCRA, GHANA
IMAGINING THE POSSIBLE
About W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation
W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation (USA/Ghana) is a nonprofit organization established in 2019 in the USA and in 2021 in Ghana. The purpose is to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Du Bois by redeveloping his resting place in Accra, Ghana. He was the celebrated pioneer scholar-activist of U.S. civil rights, co-founder of the NAACP, father of Pan-Africanism, and a global peace and human rights advocate.
The Foundation has an agreement with the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts, and Culture, “for the finance, management, and transfer of the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre” in Accra.
Interested in supporting our cause?
Donate to the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation
Leaders’ Message
We, the leaders of W.E.B. Du Bois Museum and Library Complex Capital Campaign, invite you to preview the important gift to the world that is envisioned by W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation to be constructed at the burial site of the great scholar, civil rights leader and Pan-Africanist in Accra, Ghana. Our fundraising goal is $200 million ($120 million for construction and operations, and $80 million for endowment). The following pages showcase the exciting new W.E.B. Du Bois Museum and Library Complex to be constructed and the bungalow where Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois lived from 1961 to 1963 with his wife, Shirley Graham, which is being restored.
The remarkable achievements of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois during his blessed 95 years of life include being heralded as a pioneer of the U.S. Civil Rights movement. father of Pan-Africanism, 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 innovator of scientific sociology, Dr. Du Bois was an insightful researcher and a 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 one of the best scholars and civil activists of note, of whom Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “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 for posterity lest our best is lost. Please share. Contact us to learn more.
Campaign Leaders
(last name alphabetical)
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, 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 noted parliamentarian. President of the 52-Member Africa Geopolitical Group (IPU), African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC), Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAL), and past President of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Distinguished scholar and Harvard University 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
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.
Barbara Jean Lee
Mayor of Oakland, CA (2025-presnt) and former member of U.S. 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
Prominent business leader and philanthropist, founder of the Helping Africa Foundation, and Board Chairman of W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation.
Dr. Deborah Rose
Yale University alumna honored for philanthropy and activism, and Public Health scholar, Development Queen Mother of Yamoransa (Nana Abena Nyansima l), and board member of 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, and board member of 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. In 1961, at the age of 93, he was invited by Ghana’s first President and Pan-Africanist, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to relocate to Accra with his wife, Shirley Graham. They came to work on the embryonic Encyclopedia Africana. Dr. Du Bois established an office in Accra for this purpose.
He was denied renewal of his U.S. passport to return to the land of his birth for medical treatment. He later succumbed to prostate cancer and died in Ghana on August 27, 1963, at the age of 95. 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.
Condition Before Restoration
A prolific author and scholar, Dr. Du Bois brought approximately 1,500 books along with his academic gowns from the USA to Ghana. The bungalow in Accra where the Du Boises lived was in disrepair and cried out for restoration to its period profile. The books and academic gowns fared no better.
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 an agreement with W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation – USA/Ghana for the finance, management, and transfer of the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture. This foundational agreement enabled the initial mobilization of support from key philanthropic partners and laid the groundwork for the Centre’s redevelopment.
On January 14, 2026, W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation and the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, signed a revised agreement.
Bungalow
The historic bungalow in Accra, once home to the Du Boises, was deteriorated over time. Thanks to generous gifts from the Mellon Foundation and the Roses, work is ongoing to restore it to the time when the Du Boises lived in the bungalow.
Museum & Library Complex –
Conceptual Aeiral View
The W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation has engaged Atelier, a Ghanaian-headed and Ghana-based architectural firm. Atelier is supported by Jerome Haferd Studio, a New York City–based African American architectural firm. The design of a modern Museum & Library Complex will accommodate a museum, library, mausoleum, a welcome center, below-ground parking, restaurant, scholars’ residence, multi-purpose hall, and amphitheater. The estimated cost for the design and construction of the Complex is $60 million.
Estimated cost – external landscape, infrastructure, and below-ground parking: $4 million.
Museum & Library Complex - Entrance
Estimated cost – Welcome Center and Entrance: $3.2 million
Museum & Library Complex - Welcome Center
Green energy will be used throughout the Museum & Library Complex.
Mausoleum – Top View
Estimated cost – Mausoleum (Tomb): $4 million
The burial site of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham Du Bois. The design evokes the translation of the initials of Dr. Du Bois — W.E.B. — into a spider’s web.
In Ghanaian and Pan-African folklore, the spider is personified as Kwaku Ananse, the wily creature who outsmarts all in the animal kingdom. It is a symbol of the gifted scholarship and intellect of Dr. Du Bois. He made history with his PhD from Harvard University and proceeded to become a prolific writer on the condition of the Negro post-emancipation and to progressively lay the tracks for U.S. civil rights, global freedom, and human rights. The expanding spider’s web is a cultural symbol of the global and topical reach of Dr. Du Bois — ever captivating and relevant.
Mausoleum – Inside View
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois’s remains will be in one grave. The ashes of Shirley Graham Du Bois will be in a second. The circular skylight reflects the African and universal belief in unending life, underscored by the enduring relevance of Dr. Du Bois’s life.
Mausoleum – External View
Museum & Library
Preliminary estimated cost – Museum – $13 million . Library – $12.5 million
The W.E.B. Du Bois Museum is twinned with the library. This creates a unity of the scholarship of Dr. Du Bois when alive, with the presentation of his 95 year-life as captured in the Museum. We expect to receive significant donations from around the world. Thus, ample provision is made.
Museum & Library - Entrance
Library - Lobby
Museum & Library - Night View
Library - Interior View
Museum - Interior View
Amphitheater
Estimated cost – Amphitheater:
$2 million
The 360-seat amphitheater captures the link between academics and community to create a dynamic of active scholarship that was the hallmark of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham.
Active scholarship led Dr. Du Bois to apply scientific inquiry to the lives of Black people, giving rise to sociological inquiry as a science. He was a co-founder of the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909). As the editor of NAACP’s acclaimed “The Crisis”, his writings exhibited community-mindedness and interconnectivity to scholarship. The programming at the Amphitheater will reflect the Du Boises intellectual activism. Shirley was the first Black woman to write a full opera.
Amphitheater - Public Exchange
Provision for exhibitions, gift stores and public exchange
Marcus Garvey Scholars Residence Night View
Estimated cost – Garvey Scholars Residence: $10.3 million
Marcus M. Garvey (1887–1940), a Jamaican-born leader, was a contemporary of Dr. Du Bois. As a Pan-Africanist, Garvey led the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The 50-room Scholars Residence will host academics from around the world for research, utilizing the Library, Museum, and Bungalow.
The outer design captures the “Veil” that Dr. Du Bois introduced in his “The Souls of Black Folk” to describe the unproductive separation between Blacks and Whites, spelling racism.
Scholars Residence - Lobby
Scholars Residence - Standard Room
Restaurant for Tourists, Scholars & the Public
Estimated cost – Restaurant: $2.5 million
The Restaurant at the Du Bois Museum Complex is contemplated to enhance visitors’ experience by providing revitalization and interconnectedness. The operators will be experienced restaurateurs, specializing in African cuisine.
Summary of Construction Costs
| Landscape and Infrastructure including below-ground Parking | $ 5,000,000.00 |
| Akwaaba (Welcome) Center and Entrance | $ 3,000,000.00 |
| Mausoleum (Tomb) | $ 4,000,000.00 |
| Museum | $ 13,000,000.00 |
| Library | $ 12,500,000.00 |
| Amphitheater | $ 2,000,000.00 |
| Marcus Garvey Scholars Residence | $ 10,300,000.00 |
| Restaurant(s) | $ 2,500,000.00 |
| Security Posts | $ 108,000.00 |
| Provision for Licenses & Taxes | $ 900,000.00 |
| Bungalow – Provision for Furnishings | $ 600,000.00 |
| Contingencies and Soft Costs | $ 6,092,000.00 |
| $ 60,000,00.00 |
Capital & Endowment Campaign Goal
| Construction Costs | $ 60,000,000.00 | |
| Estimated Government Taxes at | 21% | $ 12,600,000.00 |
| Estimated Provision for Equipment and Furnishings | 25% | $ 15,000,000.00 |
| General Contingency | 15% | $ 9,000,000.00 |
| Provision for Initial Ten Years of Operation | $ 20,000,000.00 | |
| Planned Endowment | $ 83,400,000.00 | |
| $ 200,000,000.00 |
Principal Ghanaian Architect –
Samuel Mbraye Quartey
Samuel Mbraye Ouartey, a distinguished Ghanaian architect. is a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) and Founder and Principal Architect of Atelier. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and has more than thirty years’ experience in the field.
Atelier has garnered several distinctions and awards that include: 1st Prize in GIA:s Design Competition – Legacy Project for the University of Ghana (2024), Best Eco and Green Development (2019), Best Architectural Design Firm of the Year (2019), and Best Landscape Architectural Design Firm (2018).
Atelier has delivered some of Ghana’s iconic buildings, including the CAL Bank Head Office, the National Communications Authority (NCA) Head Office, Allied Oil Head Office, UNA Home, KEK Insurance Head Office, and the Elizabeth residential complex. Atelier has completed projects in Bamako (Mali) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). It is currently engaged in major projects in Madagascar.
Samuel was the guest speaker at the Salute to Ghana event. hosted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Memphis, USA, in 2022.
Supporting Architect from the USA -
Jerome Haferd
Jerome W. Haferd, an African American practitioner, is based in Harlem, New York, USA where he also works as an assistant professor of architecture at the City College Spitzer School of Architecture. The Jerome Haferd Studio engages in projects that are at the intersection of design and preservation, often looking to diverse and marginalized histories to unlock a new imagination for the public space.
He co-directs the new Mellon Foundation’s Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator. Jerome was selected as a 2025 United States Artist and exhibited at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. He holds a MArch from Yale University and a B.S. from The Ohio State University.
Jerome Haferd Studio’s work includes collaborations with M.O.V.E. Africatown, the Harlem African Burial Ground, and Fairfax Stone State Monument. The Park Avenue Armory, the National Black Theatre, and the Amsterdam News. Jerome was part of a finalist team for a public memorial honoring Yale University’s Legacy of Enslavement. He received the 2022 Meta BlackVisionaries award.
Non-Brick-and-Mortar Opportunities
Critical to the functionality and impact of the new W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Complex are non-brick-and-mortar activities that donors can elect to support. The recommended list below is not exhaustive and is intended to highlight areas that advance the Foundation’s mission. Donors are welcome to propose other areas of support aligned with this vision.
1. Research, Publications, and Academic Collaboration
Your support can fund:
- Research Fellowships and Scholar Residencies
- Academic Conferences and Public Lectures
- Publications and Collaborations with Institutions
- Encyclopedia Africana
- Continuation, modernization, and dissermination of the final academic research, and publication pursuit of Dr. Du Bois.
2. Research, Publications, and Academic Collaboration
Your support can fund:
- Digitization and Preservation
- Linkage and Access to Du Bois Collections around the Globe
Application of AI to Enhance Visual Tours and Exhibitions
3. Youth Engagement, Culture, and Education
Your support can fund:
- Du Bois Subject Curriculum Development and School Partnerships
- Youth Leadership and Instructor Development (Creative Arts and Culture Development)
- Exchange Programs Across Africa and Its Diaspora
4. Capacity Building
Your support can fund:
- Continuous Improvement – Staff, Operations, and Sustainability
- Specialized Museum / Library Training
- Global Partnerships, Innovative Programing, and Endowment
5. Community Engagement and Development
Your support can fund:
- Internship, Mentorship, and Empowerment
- Community Outreach
- Heritage Awareness
Major Donors & Sponsors
- Bank of America
- Board Members
- Daniel Rose
- Deborah Rose
- Elihu Rose
- Executive Leadership Council, Washington, D.C.
- Ford Foundation
- Jovani Monexil
- Library of Congress
- MacArthur Foundation
- Mellon Foundation
- Yonover Family Foundation
- Berlin University
- Pacific Coast Surgical
Naming Rights Opportunities
All individual components including the non-brick-and-mortar items of the Du Bois Museum & Library Complex are available for naming rights for buildings, hallways, conference rooms, functional spaces, landscaping, utilities, activities and more.