W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was a scholar, a writer, and a political activist. He was one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in the first half of the 20th century, and he helped found the NAACP. In his speeches and writings he spoke out strongly against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination, and he fought for the rights of people of color everywhere. During the McCarthy era, the United States Government confiscated his passport for eight years in retribution for his support of a ban on nuclear weapons. In 1961, he moved to Ghana and became a citizen there. He died in 1963.