In 1961 Du Bois joins the American Communist party and then moves to Ghana. In 1963 W.E. Du Bois dies in Accra, Ghana and is buried with full honor, as a head of state would receive. Throughout Du Bois" entire life he contributed many things to society and to sociology, such as helping to found the NAACP, The Philadelphia Negro Study, and great literary works giving insight on the Negro in America. .
In 1909 W. E. Bu Bois helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. White social workers and reformers headed the NAACP and "Du Bois was given the position of director of publicity and research-the only black to be offered a position on the new organization's board" (p. 71-72). The NAACP was founded to fight for equality for the American Negro. Du Bois also established a monthly journal for the NAACP, which he called the Crisis. The Crisis "would also serve as a review of opinion and literature and feature an editorial page that would stand for the rights of men" (p. 73). The Crisis helped to increase the membership of the NAACP very rapidly. Du Bois was the exclusive voice of the Crisis and was perceived by the heads of the NAACP to very militant in his writings. Du Bois writes in the Crisis "we have crawled and pleaded for justice and we have been cheerfully spat upon and murdered and burned. If we are to die, in God's name let up perish like men and not like bales of hay." Du Bois also listed in his monthly journal the previous month's lynchings. In the Crisis the editor sent a call out for voluntary segregation in his January 1934 issue. This greatly upset the executive board of the NAACP. Eventually Du Bois would resign his post at the NAACP in 1934 because he was not allowed literary freedom with the Crisis. Before resigning, in 1920 Du Bois was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal. Du Bois would later rejoin the NAACP in 1944 and resign again in 1948 for the same reason.