"The Souls of Black Folk," by W.E. B. Dubois

Paper Summary:

This paper is a review of the collection of essays in W.E.B. Dubois' "The Souls of Black Folk." The writer presents a short biography of William Edward Burghart Dubois, who was active in the civil rights movement and is identified as one of the most influential black intellectuals of the last century. Dubois' life experiences influenced his political and personal agenda and set him aside from other black leaders of his time. The book includes chapters on the civil rights movement and the history of the American Negro, with most of its content being influenced by his own experiences.

From the Paper:

"The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903 with Dubois declaring in the foreword "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," (The Souls, "Forethought," p. 1) and setting the stage for a groundbreaking treatise on the condition and soul of the black community. It is interesting to look at what the critics and the white community thought of the book at the time. In a review published in the New York Times on April 23, 1903, the reviewer attacks Dubois' credentials for understanding the Southern black folks, as he was a black man of northern education who could not feel what the Southerners (Black or White) felt. The reviewer concluded that the fundamental attitude (of the whites about blacks) was the product of conditions prevailing over centuries and was comparable to the attitude of the gentry over the peasantry in other countries. (Quoted by Rydell, 1996)."

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