What to Watch: W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel with a Cause documentary

W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause premiered this week on PBS. From American Masters, the new documentary is from Peabody Award-winning director Rita Coburn, featuring narration by Viola Davis and readings by Common, Courtney B. Vance, and Jeffrey Wright.

The two-hour film examines Du Bois’s remarkable life from his birth, just five years after the Emancipation Proclamation; to his death, on the eve of the March on Washington in 1963, and how his legacy as an activist continues to resonate today.

The film follows his life chronologically, enriched by commentary from leading scholars, historians, artists, and biographers including Raymond Arsenault, Karida Brown, Eric Foner, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Eddie Glaude Jr., Nikole Hannah-Jones, David Levering Lewis, Imani Perry, and more.

For Du Bois, the power of the pen was his greatest weapon. He authored more than 20 books and fused scholarship with activism, deploying literature, data, and groundbreaking infographics to expose the roots of systemic racism.

Drawing from his books, articles, speeches, and archival audio, Rebel With A Cause illuminates the poetry and force of his language. The documentary charts this visionary’s singular journey by exploring both his monumental achievements and his deeply personal struggles.

“My hope is that this documentary invites reflection and sparks dialogue, not only about who Du Bois was, but about the world we continue to shape in his wake,” says director Rita Coburn. “His life reminds us that scholarship and art, grounded in truth, can be weapons against oppression. To tell his story is to affirm that the pursuit of justice is as urgent today as it was in his time.”

Watch the full documentary: