Well-attended Tribute Features New Document Comments on `Philadelphia Negro' Reissue

 PHILADELPHIA -- Some 500 persons gathered recently at the University of Pennsylvania to celebrate the life and scholarship of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, and to view a new film chronicling his contributions to American scholarship. Du Bois, connection to the university is a notable one. It was there, in 1896, where he was commissioned to gather data for a study that resulted in the classic work, "The Philadelphia Negro."

 The new documentary, "W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography In Four Voices," served as the centerpiece of the meeting. it is comprised of archival film footage, audio recordings and photographs about Du Bois' long and active life as a leading figure in 20th-century American history.

 After viewing the film, University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier said, "The film was a beautiful and moving epic -- not only about the life of a brilliant and important figure, but about the struggle of a people in the 20th century."

 A Life in Four Acts

 The film is divided into four short stories, each written and narrated by a contemporary writer. Author Wesley Brown writes and narrates the first section, which covers the years 1895 through 1915, and examines the emergence of Du Bois as a political figure through his opposition to the powerful Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute.

 AuthorThulani Davis narrates the second section, from 1919 to 1929, which uses the Harlem Renaissance as a backdrop for the period when Du Bois edited Crisis magazine and led the international Pan-Africanist movement.

 In section three, Toni Cade Bambara examines the period from 1934 through 1948 when Du Bois returned to Atlanta University. And Amiri Baraka speaks of his later life, up to the day Du Bois died at the age of 95 in Accra, Ghana, where he was compiling the massive Encyclopedia Africana.