Courtney B. Vance Narrates W.E.B. Du Bois Biography Audiobook

In Volume One of "W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race" audiobook, the actor will narrate the first five decades of the activist's life.

Tony Award-winning actor Courtney B. Vance will reintroduce the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois as narrator of a two-volume biography about the civil rights activist.

The opportunity to narrate the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race, is a true passion project for Vance as the work makes its debut as an audiobook for the first time. The Lovecraft Country actor said in a press release obtained by BLACK ENTERPRISE that his love for history drew him to Du Bois’ biography, authored by David Levering Lewis.

According to the March 19 announcement, Volume One will cover the first five decades of Du Bois’ legacy, followed by Volume Two, a continuation of his life through 1963. “Listen to Courtney B. Vance, and you shall hear the spoken wisdom of an American colossus, a prophetic man of color in whose ninety-five years all intellectual, political, economic, and racial choices were profoundly explored,” said Lewis.

The biography explores an intense fifty-year period of the African American scholar’s life and career, according to the book’s description on Simon & Schuster. Born William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, the renowned civil rights pioneer, editor, and writer changed the way Americans think. The NAACP says the leading thinker was “one of the foremost Black intellectuals of his era.” Du Bois, an NAACP founding member who became the organization’s director of publicity and research, published several essays and works speaking on race and the plight of Black Americans. Du Bois made history as the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Simon & Schuster Audio President Chris Lynch said, “To have a narrator as talented and passionate as Courtney B. Vance bring W.E.B. Du Bois’ legacy to life is a true publishing event.” Vance has portrayed significant figures over the course of his acting career, from Johnny Cochran in FX’s The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story to Rev. C.L. Franklin in National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha series.

Simon & Schuster Audio’s announcement additionally revealed the actor’s plans to produce a documentary film based on the W.E.B. Du Bois biography through the Bassett Vance Productions company, founded in partnership with his wife, Golden Globe Award-winning actress Angela Bassett.

Volume One of W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race will be released as an audiobook on June 17.