WASHINGTON - The Education Department is getting social media criticism after misspelling the name of a prominent African-American sociologist.

In a tweet Sunday from its official account, the department attributes a quotation to W.E.B. DeBois, incorrectly spelling the last name with an "E."

It immediately drew hundreds of responses mocking the department's misspelling of the sociologist's last name, which is correctly spelled D-U B-O-I-S.

The Twitter account immediately apologized for the mistake. However, spelling errors struck again as the second tweet mispelled 'apologies' as 'apologizes'.

One commenter tweeted: "Looks like Betsy DeVos is in charge now!" referring to the billionaire GOP donor narrowly confirmed as education secretary last week with a tie-breaker vote by Vice President Mike Pence.

Others posted quizzical looks from African-American students.

Another tweeted: "Smooth move during #BlackHistoryMonth."

Email messages seeking comment from the Education Department were not immediately returned.