W.E.B. DuBois was an influential African-American sociologist from Earth of the 19th and 20th centuries. DuBois fought for the social and economical rights of colored people in the United States. He was also an accomplished writer, among other things.
In 1953, when Benny Russell was told that that the world was not ready to hear that one of the Incredible Tales writers was a Negro, he mentioned DuBois, along with Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, as examples of such writers. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 222), the birth and death years of W.E.B. DuBois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) were 1868 and 1963, respectively. Furthermore, the authors of the reference work identified him as one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The W.E.B. DuBois was presumably named after him.