Nina Gomer Du Bois
{{short description|American civil rights activist (1870–1950)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nina Gomer Du Bois
| image = W.E. B. DuBois with his wife Nina and daughter Yolande NYPL.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Du Bois (right) with her husband and daughter circa 1901
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1870|07|04}}
| birth_place = Quincy, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1950|07|26|1870|07|04}}
| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
| resting_place = Mahaiwe Cemetery
| education = Wilberforce College
| occupation = activist
homemaker
| spouse = {{Marriage|W.E.B. Du Bois|1896}}
| children = 2 (including Yolande Du Bois)
| parents =
}}
Nina Gomer Du Bois (July 4, 1870 – July 26, 1950) was an American civil rights activist, Baháʼí Faith practitioner, and homemaker. She served on the executive committee of the Women's International Circle of Peace and Foreign Relations in 1927, which was largely responsible for organizing the fourth Pan-African Congress in New York. Du Bois was the first wife of civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and the mother of the educator Yolande Du Bois.
Early life and education
Du Bois was born on July 4, 1870, to Charles S. Gomer and Mary J. Schneider Gomer in Quincy, Illinois.{{Cite web|url=https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/webduboisfamilyphotos_aspace_58ce30b9b061c9a05f42126152bec014|title=Nina Gomer Du Bois as a young woman, circa 1898 - Archives & Manuscripts at Duke University Libraries|website=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114718/https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/webduboisfamilyphotos_aspace_58ce30b9b061c9a05f42126152bec014|url-status=live}} When she was six years old, her family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where her father was employed as a cook at Brown's Hotel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.com/history/time-machine-woman-who-grew-up-in-cedar-rapids-married-civil-rights-leader/|title=Time Machine: Woman who grew up in Cedar Rapids married civil rights leader|website=www.thegazette.com|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-06-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240630080858/https://www.thegazette.com/history/time-machine-woman-who-grew-up-in-cedar-rapids-married-civil-rights-leader/|url-status=live}} Following her father's promotion to head cook of the hotel, he purchased a small house for the family in 1878.
She attended Wilberforce College.{{Cite web|url=https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/1849|title=Du Bois, Nina Gomer (1871-1950) · Jane Addams Digital Edition|website=digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114722/https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/1849|url-status=live}}
Later life
She married the activist W.E.B. Du Bois, who had been a teacher at Wilberforce College, on May 12, 1896, at her father's home in Cedar Rapids.{{Cite web|url=https://bahaiteachings.org/w-e-b-nina-du-bois-lovers-bahai-principles/|title=W.E.B. and Nina Du Bois: Lovers of the Baha'i Principles|first=Radiance|last=Talley|date=February 23, 2024}} They had two children: a son, Burghardt, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Yolande.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L7PSKiJLVhMC&q=the+fight+for+civil+rights|title=W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Civil Rights|last=Randolph|first=Ryan P.|date=2005|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=9781404226562|language=en|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114718/https://books.google.com/books?id=L7PSKiJLVhMC&q=the+fight+for+civil+rights#v=snippet&q=the%20fight%20for%20civil%20rights&f=false|url-status=live}} She lived in Baltimore with her daughter until her daughter's divorce, at which time the two moved to the family's Dunbar apartment in New York City.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REv47NrozRMC&pg=PA152|title=Up Close, W. E. B. Du Bois: A Twentieth-century Life|last=Bolden|first=Tonya|date=2008|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-670-06302-4}}
She was involved in her husband's civil rights work and described as a civil rights activist, but mostly stayed home to raise their daughter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whig.com/lifestyles/history/nina-gomer-du-bois-daughter-wife-mother/article_62e2ab72-bcdd-11ec-ae1f-cbfdd54df37f.html|title=Nina Gomer Du Bois: Daughter, Wife, Mother|first=ARLIS|last=DITTMER|date=April 16, 2022|website=Herald-Whig|access-date=July 8, 2024|archive-date=January 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117180331/https://www.whig.com/lifestyles/history/nina-gomer-du-bois-daughter-wife-mother/article_62e2ab72-bcdd-11ec-ae1f-cbfdd54df37f.html|url-status=live}} She served on the executive committee of the Women's International Circle of Peace and Foreign Relations in 1927, alongside Minta Bosley Allen Trotman and Addie Waites Hunton.{{Cite book|last=Salem, Dorothy C.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21035416|title=To better our world : Black women in organized reform, 1890-1920|date=1990|publisher=Carlson Pub|isbn=0-926019-20-1|location=Brooklyn, N.Y.|oclc=21035416|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114720/https://search.worldcat.org/title/21035416|url-status=live}} The committee was largely responsible for organizing the fourth Pan-African Congress in New York.{{Cite journal|last=Ramdani|first=Fatma|date=2015-03-26|title=Afro-American Women Activists as True Negotiators in the International Arena (1893-1945)|url=http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10646|journal=European Journal of American Studies|language=fr|volume=10|issue=10–1|doi=10.4000/ejas.10646|issn=1991-9336|doi-access=free|hdl=20.500.12210/63477|hdl-access=free|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114748/https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10646|url-status=live}}
In 1936, Du Bois converted from Christianity to the Baháʼí Faith. She was active in the Baháʼí community.{{Cite web|url=https://charlestonwvbahai.org/blog/f/nina-gomer-du-bois|title=Nina Gomer Du Bois|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2024-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709114720/https://charlestonwvbahai.org/blog/f/nina-gomer-du-bois|url-status=live}}
By 1946, she and her family were living in Morgan Park, Maryland.
Du Bois died on July 26, 1950.{{Cite web |title=Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. Announcement of the death of Nina Gomer Du Bois, July 26, 1950. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries |url=https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b273-i067 |website=credo.library.umass.edu |access-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-date=July 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723011602/https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b273-i067 |url-status=live }} She was buried in Mahaiwe Cemetery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dTVrpkls-UC&q=yolande+du+bois&pg=PA63|title=W.E.B. Du Bois: An Encyclopedia|last1=Horne|first1=Gerald|last2=Young|first2=Mary|date=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313296659|language=en|access-date=2024-07-08|archive-date=2023-10-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018132127/https://books.google.com/books?id=2dTVrpkls-UC&q=yolande+du+bois&pg=PA63|url-status=live}}
References
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Category:19th-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:Activists for African-American civil rights
Category:African-American Bahá'ís
Category:American women civil rights activists
Category:Converts to the Bahá'í Faith from Christianity
Category:People from Cedar Rapids, Iowa