ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how William Edward Burghardt Du Bois's radical thinking led him to be the target of continued governmental surveillance for much of the last twenty-one years of his life. Following a review of his surveillance, Du Bois's 1951 formal encounter with the criminal justice system is reviewed. The surveillance of Du Bois began on May 2, 1942 and lasted, with few interruptions, until his death in Accra, Ghana, at the age of 95. A review of his FBI file shows that from 1942 to 1943 Du Bois's entire life was being monitored. In 1950 Du Bois and several colleagues formed the Peace Information Center, which was organized to tell the people of the United States what other nations were doing and thinking about war. Subsequently, for the next several years, the federal government denied him a passport to travel abroad because they suggested that his travel overseas would be contrary to the best interests of the United States.
