Maybe the Department of Education should have double-checked the spelling of W.E.B. Du Bois’ name with Frederick Douglass before tweeting about him.
In a tweet that went out Sunday morning, the agency attributed a quote from famous civil rights activist Du Bois to “W.E.B. DeBois.”
The internet was quick to point out how horrifying it is that the Department of Education ― now run by Betsy DeVos, an education activist who critics fear could dismantle the public education system ― would misspell the name of a civil rights leader, especially during Black History Month.
The NAACP clapped back with an apt Du Bois quote, while others roasted the department for its carelessness.
The department issued a correction three hours later ― with another typo. That correction tweet was swiftly deleted and replaced, this time with the correct spelling of “apologies,” but we saved a screenshot of the original:
The misspelling of Du Bois’ name comes just over a week after President Donald Trump described abolitionist Douglass as “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice,” leaving everyone wondering if Trump has any idea who Douglass was or that he had died in 1895.
And DeVos is no grammar purist, if her social media posts are any indication:
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