The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions)

This work, written in the first decade of the twentieth century, is activist, spiritual, educational (on the history of African American life from the time of its publication back to the Civil War), anthropological, and poetic. "The Souls of Black Folk" should be in anthropological curriculums throughout the country, right alongside Margaret Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa." For me, it showed, firstly, how slowly progress in the quality of life for African Americans had been since the Emancipation Proclamation up to 1903, and then, how slowly it has been in coming since the publication of this book to the present. We still have today a racial inequity on a scale that I, personally, am guessing will seem as barbaric in 100 years, just as the Jim Crow laws of the past seem barbaric to us now. DuBois was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard and is credited as being one of the two leaders of the Harlem Renaissaince, Alain Locke being the other. I think this is one of the most important books on American culture that I know of, as well as an excellent document on the details of African American life, particularly in the years preceeding the works' completion.

If you are unaquainted with this book or with this author, you should remedy the situation immediately. In terms of eloquence, clear and ringing prose, descriptive power and any other quality that seperates great writers from mediocre ones, Dubois stands in the first rank. If Afro-Americans had had access to this book on a mass scale, there would have been a third real revolution in this country (I include the Civil War, obviously). This is the voice of suffering, but also of great ideas and ironclad arguement. It is also an incitement and very much an indictment, against racial boundaries that have plagued this nation since its inception. Dubois was and is one of the most powerful voices this country has ever produced. My jaw dropped on numerous occasions when first reading this text. He conveyed better than any other author, and there have been many great ones (Baldwin, Morrison, Wright, etc.) what it means to be "seperate, but equal." He is never an apologist. He at all moments maintains the dignity of his race. I really prefer in all aspects his demaeanor to Marcus Garvey's, even though that author was a more prominent "player." For modern revisionists (like Jane Smiley)who think that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was "great literature," I would recommend that they read this text and then decide. One voice is authentic, the other sorely disingenuous, and even, historically, counter-productive.