David Du Bois, professor, stepson of renowned writer

David Graham Du Bois, a professor who spent much of the past quarter-century preserving and advancing the legacy of his stepfather, civil rights pioneer and philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois, died Jan. 28 in Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. The Amherst resident, who had emphysema, was 79.

Professor Du Bois was a visiting professor of Afro-American studies and journalism at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for 18 years, retiring in 2001.

In 1994, he helped persuade the university's board of trustees to rename its main library after his stepfather, who was a native of Great Barrington. Among the library's special collections are most of Du Bois's papers, including 100,000 pieces of correspondence, play and speech manuscripts, and a file from an FBI investigation of the activist. The African-American studies department also bears his name.

"Mr. Du Bois had a long and distinguished association with the university," said UMass- Amherst spokesman Ed Blaguszewski. "He also represented an important connection and link to his stepfather."

Professor Du Bois also sought to promote translations of his stepfather's works, and he continued research for "The Encyclopedia Africana," a project his stepfather started four decades ago in Ghana. The encyclopedia is intended as a comprehensive examination of the African continent, supervised and directed by African scholars.

He also created the W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation to advance his stepfather's work and to correct misinterpretations of his intent.

W.E.B. Du Bois, with his bold, stinging rhetoric and uncompromising methods, was often a target of attack in the United States.

He became a Marxist, left the country, and finished his career in Africa.

"All his life, his main message to America was that you can't claim to be people who love liberty and equality and freedom as long as you discriminate against people of color," Professor Du Bois once told the Globe.

In some ways, Professor Du Bois reversed the footsteps of his stepfather. He began his career in Africa, arriving in 1960 by steamer in Egypt.

"I fell in love with Egypt," he later recalled. "I got here and discovered that everybody looked like me, and I looked like everybody else. I was accepted as a human being without any reference to the color of my skin. It was an overwhelming experience. I found myself invisible."

He lectured in American literature at Cairo University in Egypt and worked as a news editor of an English-language daily, The Egyptian Gazette. He also was a reporter and features editor for the Middle East News and Features Service agency and was an announcer and program writer for Radio Cairo's shortwave English language transmissions to North America.

"That was the most fascinating time of my life," he said in a 1991 Globe interview.

He often visited Ghana, where his mother, Shirley, and stepfather had settled. Professor Du Bois became a Ghanaian citizen and was a public relations consultant to the government of Ghana.

He said that he became disillusioned with the vagaries of international politics and returned to the states in 1972.

Settling in the Bay Area, he became drawn to the Black Panther Party, which had shifted its focus from revolutionary rhetoric and sporadic violence and had become more involved in the political process.

For the next four years, Professor Du Bois was editor-in-chief of The Black Panther, the weekly newspaper of the group. He also lectured in African-American studies at the University of California.

In 1973, his novel, "And Bid Him Sing," was published. Based on the experiences of African- Americans in Egypt, the book covers the period leading up to the 1967 Mideast war.

He was appointed a visiting professor of Afro-American studies and journalism at the University of Massachusetts in 1983 and taught each spring semester until his retirement in 2001.

Even while teaching in Western Massachusetts, Professor Du Bois kept a home overlooking the Nile River in Egypt and would leave for Africa as soon as the semester ended.

Mr. Du Bois, who was born in Washington state and grew up in Indiana, earned a sociology degree from Hunter College in 1950 after serving in the armed forces during World War II. He earned a master's in history from New York University in 1956.

In 1951, his mother married W.E.B. Du Bois, and he legally became David Graham Du Bois.

Plans for a memorial service are pending.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this obituary.