The Souls of Black Folk

W. E. B. Du Bois’s essays and one story on Black life in the United States after Emancipation, with his ideas of the “color-line” and of the “double consciousness” of those who live within the Veil.

Start reading17 chapters, about 70,000 words

Famous quotes

• The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.

  The ForethoughtIn context

  • History
  • Race

• To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

  Chapter IIn context

  • Money
  • Race

• The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

  Chapter VIn context

  • Fame
  • Work

• I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color-line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of the evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil.

  Ch. VI: “Of the Training of Black Men”In context

  • Race
  • Reading

• Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.

  Ch. XII: Of Alexander CrummellIn context

  • Knowledge

Contents

1. Dedication
2. The Forethought
3. Chapter IOf Our Spiritual Strivings
4. Chapter IIOf the Dawn of Freedom
5. Chapter IIIOf Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others
6. Chapter IVOf the Meaning of Progress
7. Chapter VOf the Wings of Atalanta
8. Chapter VIOf the Training of Black Men
9. Chapter VIIOf the Black Belt
10. Chapter VIIIOf the Quest of the Golden Fleece
11. Chapter IXOf the Sons of Master and Man
12. Chapter XOf the Faith of the Fathers
13. Chapter XIOf the Passing of the First-Born
14. Chapter XIIOf Alexander Crummell
15. Chapter XIIIOf the Coming of John
16. Chapter XIVOf the Sorrow Songs
17. The Afterthought