Washington, Feb 13 (IANS): While quoting civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, the US Department of Education sent out a tweet misspelling his name and then sent out an apology that misspelled the word "apologies".

"Education must not simply teach work - it must teach life. - W.E.B. DeBois," the Department of Education tweeted on Sunday.

The department rewrote the tweet over three hours later, correcting the spelling of Du Bois' name, followed by a tweet saying: "Post updated - our deepest apologizes for the earlier typo", Politico reported.

That tweet too was corrected, with the word "apologizes" getting replaced by "apologies".

The mistake sparked a backlash.

"Normally not into calling out spelling errors on Twitter because we've all been there. But you're the Department of Education of America," tweeted Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a candidate for Democratic National Committee Chairman.

Du Bois (1868-1963) was a civil rights activist throughout the 1800s and 1900s and wrote "The Souls of Black Folk," an influential book about the lives of black Americans after the Civil War and the end of slavery.

He was the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University and was co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.