Remembering Burghardt 

Pictured with his wife Nina and son Burghardt.

Burghardt died of diphtheria in Atlanta in 1899 at the age of two.  Du Bois was heartbroken by his son's death, but also felt a strange sense of relief as Du Bois believed he was better off dead than growing up in this world of racial prejudice. 

W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about the death of his son, Burghardt, in his book The Souls of Black Folk. The chapter titled "Of the Passing of the First-Born" describes the birth and death of his son.