The Souls of Black Folk

"Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here in the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."

So begins W. E. B. Du Bois's classic exploration of the moral and intellectual issues surrounding the perception of blacks within American society at the turn of the century. Believing that one can know the "soul" of a race by knowing the souls of individuals, he seeks to establish the relations not only between blacks and whites but also among blacks themselves - rich and poor, educated and uneducated - by describing his own encounters, from his upbringing in a northern city through his days at college, to his journeys through the South. Throughout, Du Bois is concerned with the separation of the races, both literally, through segregation, and psychologically, through the attitudes of whites towards blacks.

First published in 1903, Du Bois's book raised new questions and concerns; today, it remains an important document of American social and political history.
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Introduction and Explanatory Notes by Donald B. Gibson