The souls of black folk: essays and sketches

"The Souls of Black Folk is a founding text of the US civil rights movement, an inspiring work of literature and advocacy by a young man who drew on his own experience as a child in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a teacher in the hills of Tennessee, a father grieving after the death of his baby son. It is a book compiled in haste but nonetheless a command performance. The fourteen vivid essays are political, philosophical, historical, and personal. The first three explore the history of slavery, following by six chapters of sociological analysis in Du Bois's resonant prose. The remainder of the book is replete with stories that show different facets of the Black experience and explain Du Bois's statement that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line." More than a century later, The Souls of Black Folk inspires us to find the courage and imagination to solve that problem in the twenty-first century. Berkshire Publishing is delighted to make several of W. E. B. Du Bois's most accessible and relevant books available in new Great Barrington Editions. They include his Autobiography rearranged, for the first time, in accordance with Du Bois's instructions and also available for the first time as an ebook. Berkshire Publishing Group was founded in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the small New England town where W. E. B. Du Bois was born in 1868. Du Bois wrote eloquently about the town and its people, and he is remembered today as the most influential graduate of the town's schools. Du Bois wrote eloquently about his formative experiences in Great Barrington: Du Bois's origins in Great Barrington have been an inspiration to Berkshire Publishing Group for many years, as debates about honoring him roiled the town. Some claimed that this was simply racism; others insisted that the issue was that he he became a communist and left the United States at the end of his life, Nonetheless, at long last there is now a W. E. B. Du Bois Middle School in Great Barrington, and signs on roads leading into town saying, "Birthplace of W. E. B. Du Bois." Main Street is lined with flags showing his portrait and the words "Native Son." As this book was going to press in 2022, his granddaughter, Yolande Du Bois Williams Irvin (1932-2021), was buried in the Mahaiwe Cemetery, next to her grandmother, mother, and uncle (Du Bois's first wife and his two children). And the small Black church that "Willie" Du Bois attended and wrote his first published articles about, a story first told in Berkshire's Sewing Circles and Dime Suppers, is being developed as an educational and cultural center"--

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- The Souls of Black Folk -- Dedication -- The Forethought -- Herein is Written -- I. Of our Spiritual Strivings -- II. Of the Dawn of Freedom -- III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others -- IV. Of the Meaning of Progress -- V. Of the Wings of Atalanta -- VI. Of the Training of Black Men -- VII. Of the Black Belt -- VIII. Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece -- IX. Of the Sons of Master and Man -- X. Of the Faith of the Fathers -- XI. Of the Passing of the First-Born -- XII. Of Alexander Crummell -- XIII. Of the Coming of John -- XIV. The Sorrow Songs -- The After-Thought -- Selected Documents -- J. Douglas Wetmore to Du Bois, October 20, 1903 -- Du Bois's critique of Souls, 1904 -- Annah May Soule to Du Bois, February 26, 1904 -- Casely Hayford to Du Bois, June 8, 1904 -- D. Tabak to Du Bois, ca. 1905 -- Hallie E. Queen to Du Bois, February 11, 1907 -- Du Bois to A. J. McMaster, March 27, 1907 -- W. D. Hooper to Du Bois, September 2, 1909 -- Du Bois to W. D. Hooper, October 11, 1909 -- Yasuichi Hikida to Du Bois, October 15, 1936 -- J. Saunders Redding's review of Souls, 1954 -- Langston Hughes to Du Bois, May 22, 1956 -- Back Cover

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; Introduction; The Souls of Black Folk; Dedication; The Forethought; Herein is Written; I. Of our Spiritual Strivings; II. Of the Dawn of Freedom; III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others; IV. Of the Meaning of Progress; V. Of the Wings of Atalanta; VI. Of the Training of Black Men; VII. Of the Black Belt; VIII. Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece; IX. Of the Sons of Master and Man; X. Of the Faith of the Fathers; XI. Of the Passing of the First-Born; XII. Of Alexander Crummell; XIII. Of the Coming of John; XIV. The Sorrow Songs; The After-Thought

The Souls of Black Folk is the seminal work by Du Bois on race in late 19th-century North America. The way we think about and examine race today stems from his ideas. He spoke of the "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," and of the progress and obstacles to progress of the black American