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The Souls of Black Folk

by W.E.B. DuBois

4.05 · rating details · 4,132 ratings · 243 reviews

In this founding work in the literature of black protest, Du Bois eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy would only serve to perpetuate black oppression.

Paperback, 176 pages

Published May 20th 1994 by Dover Publications (first published 1903)

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Jan 23, 2010

Eric rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: essays, favorites

Man, this guy can preach. I opened The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and found myself ten years old watching Ken Burns’s The Civil War with my dad, dumbstruck by Morgan Freeman’s readings of mighty polemical passages from Frederick Douglass.

The whole land seems forlorn and forsaken. Here are the remnants of the vast plantations of the Sheldons, the Pellots, and the Rensons; but the souls of them are passed. The houses lie in half ruin, or have wholly disappeared; the fences have flown,...moreMan, this guy can preach. I opened The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and found myself ten years old watching Ken Burns’s The Civil War with my dad, dumbstruck by Morgan Freeman’s readings of mighty polemical passages from Frederick Douglass.

The whole land seems forlorn and forsaken. Here are the remnants of the vast plantations of the Sheldons, the Pellots, and the Rensons; but the souls of them are passed. The houses lie in half ruin, or have wholly disappeared; the fences have flown, and the families are wandering in the world. Strange vicissitudes have met these whilom masters. Yonder stretch the wide acres of Bildad Reasor; he died in war-time, but the upstart overseer hastened to wed the widow. Then he went, and his neighbors too, and now only the black tenant remains; but the shadow-hand of the master's grand-nephew or cousin or creditor stretches out of the gray distance to collect the rack-rent remorselessly, and so the land is uncared-for and poor. Only black tenants can stand such a system, and they only because they must. Ten miles we have ridden to-day and have seen no white face.

You can also hear Emerson in the tough eloquence, in the tone of terse King James vigor that unites this portfolio freely mixed of sociological theory, short fiction, historical essay and, underlying all, personal reminiscence of the color line as it cut through the author’s life. The sojourning soul of the poet--the kind of phrase, at once flowery and utterly clear, that Du Bois favors--pervades and completes Du Bois the sociologist, the educator, the activist. The effect of the whole is pretty extraordinary. I can’t quite believe I've neglected this book until now, on the verge of thirty. Du Bois puts forth a comprehensive treatment of the “Negro Problem” circa 1900, with elegantly resonant historical vistas--

The war has naught to do with slaves, cried Congress, the President, and the Nation; and yet no sooner had the armies, East and West, penetrated Virginia and Tennessee than fugitive slaves appeared within their lines. They came at night, when the flickering camp fires shone like vast unsteady stars along the black horizon...

(the Federal government’s century of vacillating commitment to its black citizens is all compressed into those “unsteady stars”)--and suggestive speculations about the mechanics of mass uplift that will never go out of date. And I say that despite all the academic carping about the book’s outdated “paternalism”--people often invoke that supposed sin whenever they can’t duck the fact that peoples are led, for good or ill, by someone.

Given a widespread academic armchair Marxism, and Du Bois’ own later fellow traveling, I’m amazed that some critics choose to see his ideal of a college-bred “Talented Tenth” as narrow bourgeois smugly diffusing useless genteel airs over their struggling brethren, instead of the quasi-Leninist cadre of devoted race-men he actually intended them to be. And Du Bois’ “Social Darwinism” was actually Darwinian: unlike his white counterparts, who used the phrase to argue that social struggle had ended, with the European empires and empire-builders deservedly and permanently on top, Du Bois insists that the struggle among classes and races continues with unflagging intensity and unpredictability; he holds that the first priority of turn of the century American blacks, so often helplessly baffled by the forces arrayed against them, should be the creation of an intellectually penetrative, politically uncowed, economically savvy educated class to serve as the race’s champion and advocate in a complex modern industrial society over which rapacious empires and callous conglomerates rule a roiling brawl of ethically contrasting, mutually antipathetic competing labor groups. The Progressive Era dream of the educated upper middle class joined with the government to halt the worst depredations of capitalism is no more vulnerable to irony than the ideal of a purely unassisted laboring class liberating itself.
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Mar 01, 2009

Paula rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

I appreciate DuBois’s classic study of race as an historical document, and at times even as a piece of literature. I particularly value his depiction of the political, social and material conditions in the South immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. Nevertheless, I question some of his proposals and conclusions. Although his views may have been radical in 1903, many of them now sound paternalistic and outdated. Perhaps that, in and of itself, is a s...moreI appreciate DuBois’s classic study of race as an historical document, and at times even as a piece of literature. I particularly value his depiction of the political, social and material conditions in the South immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. Nevertheless, I question some of his proposals and conclusions. Although his views may have been radical in 1903, many of them now sound paternalistic and outdated. Perhaps that, in and of itself, is a sign of progress.
The Souls of Black Folk, of course, is didactic. It’s also a polemic, for DuBois’s stated aims are to both instruct and convince his audience. Many indications in his prose suggest that he conceived his audience to be “the best kind” of white people, and more Northern, I think, than Southern. I don’t think his arguments are directed toward “the best kind” of Negro. I use these terms because they are his, and because this sorting of people, both black and white, into categories of “best” and “worst,” is one of the things that most irritates me about DuBois’s thinking. He touts The Talented Tenth (although he may not have coined this phrase, it became intimately associated with his ideas) as worthy candidates for a classical liberal education and as the source of leadership for “their race.” He admits the need for a sort of benevolent guardianship (by the Talented Tenth and enlightened whites) over the masses of unschooled and largely impoverished black folks in the South. He says, “the paths of peace winding between honest toil and dignified manhood call for the guidance of skilled thinkers, the loving, reverent comradeship between the black lowly and the black men emancipated by training and culture.”
Besides the Talented Tenth, two other concepts are integral to Du Bois’s thinking, that of The Veil, which is both a physical and social demarcation of difference, and double-consciousness, defined as “a peculiar sensation, . . . this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others . . . . one ever feels his two-ness,--an American, a Negro.”
Although he argues against Booker T. Washington’s preaching of abandonment of political and social goals in order to focus solely on material gains for blacks, Du Bois himself proposes that blacks not fit to benefit from the education he proposes for The Talented Tenth should indeed settle for training in a trade and much more limited aspirations.(Apparently, Du Bois modified these views somewhat later in his life.) On the other hand, Du Bois is often forceful in his defense of equal rights for all blacks, for example, when he states, “Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.”
Although many of the social conditions that Du Bois references have been ameliorated over time, some of his observations sound uncomfortably current today, such as the following: “the white folk say it [the county prison:] is ever full of black criminals,--the black folks say that only colored boys are ever sent to jail, and they not because they are guilty, but because the State needs criminals to eke out its income by their forced labor.”
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Aug 05, 2007

Andrew rated it

Recommends it for: those interested in blackness in America

So far, so good.

This collection of short essays was written in 1903 and basically changed the way people thought and talked about race in America. DuBois broke down the notion of a scientific explanation for racism and racial bigotry. He essentially went to the University of Atlanta to do just the opposite, to accomplish by scientific means some understanding of race relations and what was called at the time "the Negro problem." After only a few years, he realized that you...more

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Mar 13, 2007

david shin rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction

This is one of the books that every human being should read in their lifetime. No other book is more profound or searing as DuBois' evaluation of the problem between the color line. It is both challenging and heart-breaking. Though we have made progress since the dawn of the twentieth century, we still have a long way to go.

I would recommend this book not only to those interested in issues of race, but also anyone interested in American culture and society as a whole. It is a telling...more

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Dec 28, 2008

Al rated it

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Most of those interested in the struggle for black rights in this country have at least a passing awareness of William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois. Unfortunately, for many, their knowledge is limited -- as mine was - - to the adverse publicity he attracted late in life (post WW II) by his close association with Communists, both individuals and countries. The fact is that, for most of his life, Du Bois was one of the most thoughtful, articulate and prolific champions of equal ri...more

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Feb 16, 2011

Kyle rated it

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This was a good book to read along with Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery. I think both authors and their books are important to understanding the struggle of the black people after the Civil War. I have a new appreciation for Washington's life and more importantly his attitude after reading Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk.

Du Bois was an eloquent writer able to paint a clear picture of the times for the readers, yet I found in his writing an underlying tone of anger, resentment,...more

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Feb 09, 2011

Ob-jonny rated it

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This is basically a history of American black people from the Civil War to 1900. W.E.B. Du Bois is the first black person to obtain a PhD from Harvard University, and it seems like he was the top black intellectual of that time period. The book contains a description of the federal Reconstruction programs and the Freed-Mens Bureau which did much to encourage the building of schools but eventually the funding was taken away. The book describes the politics of the civil rights movement at the t...more

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Mar 13, 2010

Kevin Kennedy-Spaien rated it

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An amazing read. A view of how the rapture of freedom went sour in a mere thirty-odd years, written by a man who was there to see it.

A challenging read if you aren't taking a course on African-American history. I say challenging because a hundred years later, we can't easily see the subtext that a contemporary reader would have had. It can certainly be jarring to a 21st century progressive to read the passages which strike an understanding and forbearant stance toward the oppressors ...more

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Aug 07, 2009

Janelle Heirendt rated it

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Recommends it for: people interested in social history and present issues

Recommended to Janelle by: Norton

I read an excerpt from my Norton Anthology. (III. Of Mr. Booker T Washington and Others).

One of his central criticisms of Booker T. is his over-emphasis of the individual responsibility of the "Negroes" to lift themselves out of "degradation" at the expense of ignoring the necessity of societal and systemic change. DuBois takes a more integrated view of responsibility--both individual exertion to raise themselves from poverty and ignorance, and working toward cha

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Sep 18, 2009

Patrick rated it

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This book shows Dubois as a smart man. Although this book is informative to what life was like for Black people post-Emancipation, his writing style is really disjointed. He swings from describing the black soul in metaphors to a more textbook sociological way of writing. It makes sense that the book is actually more of independent essays rather than one coherent work of nonfiction.

Having said that, I do enjoy his metaphor of the veil that separates Black men from society and the c...moreThis book shows Dubois as a smart man. Although this book is informative to what life was like for Black people post-Emancipation, his writing style is really disjointed. He swings from describing the black soul in metaphors to a more textbook sociological way of writing. It makes sense that the book is actually more of independent essays rather than one coherent work of nonfiction.

Having said that, I do enjoy his metaphor of the veil that separates Black men from society and the constant striving that Black people undergo in order to unite two disparate notion of himself, namely, being Black at the turn of the century, and thus condemned to hopelessness and indentured servitude and that of American which is the beacon of hope and the feeling of a better tomorrow in which equality reigns.

I also enjoyed his critic of Booker T. Washington stance as incomplete in the struggle for Negroes. Even though Washington advocated black self-fulfillment through economic development, DuBois argues that it economic development has to be coupled to a political voice in order for Blacks to achieve the representation they need in America.

Another thing I found interesting is what he points out to be the role of Rev. as the defacto chief of the Black voice. Just like in other civilizations in which there is a dispossessed people, it seems that the Negro turn to spiritual leaders as people who can advocate their welfare thus when the Negro was disenfranchised, it was Rev. Martin Luther King who took on the cause of justice. Similarly, India's independence movement started with Ghandi who was also a holy man.

It is also interesting that he talks about the two types of Negros that grow out of a society based on descrimination and one that actively thwarts their ambition. One is the type who becomes a criminal because he seeks to confront the bs and the other is the two-faced politician who excepts the here and now in order to economically thrive but at the expense of showing what he actually is feeling. At the root of both those type is a common denominator of anger and rage at the injustices of their present situation. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man will later echo these two stereotypes one in the incarnation of Ras the destroyer and the other of the Booker T Washington like administrator.

In one story, it shows a person who strove for knowledge but that knowledge made him aware of the prejudice and injustices of the world and because he was open to it, he could never be happy. I wonder if ignorance of prejudicism actually helps people of today since their is a lot more opportunities in today's society than their once was. Maybe people who are ignorant actually do better and are happier in life because they strive more and spend less time thinking about the injustices of the world.

At one point, DuBois talks about Black leaders who mentor their race out of the veil. I hope once Obama is done being president, he will dedicate his post-presidency to empowering Black people and other minority groups by providing a mentoring circle of prominent minorities to their respective youth so it will be finally clear that the US is the ultimate land of opportunity for all its citizens. I would also hope that he will create or support those non-profits who already foster inter-racial dialogue. (less)

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Jun 16, 2007

Mattgro rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone interested in cultures.

From the very first essay, DuBois will astound the reader with a palpable passion for his people. With a probing technique that seeks Messianic responses to difficult questions, DuBois concurrently shows the baseness and the pinnacle of the human condition. The in-between transformative stage becomes his focus, as he seeks to explain how freed slaves became a people struggling to survive in a world that wanted no part of their heritage, intellect, or identity.

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May 28, 2009

Desera Favors rated it

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I read this book about 5years ago, and I believe that this book hits the nail on the head in regards to the condition of Black Folks post-Slavery/Colonial era. The concept of the veil and double consciousness should be studied. I was inspired to study Sociology by this great man although after in depth research I am very disappointed in DuBois's stance on many issues. I think this book can help those African's on U.S. soil understand those Blacks who have taken fight out of the black community, ...more

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Feb 27, 2008

Becky Cantor rated it

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Recommended to Becky by: Dr. Hudspeth

Shelves: american, nonfiction, norton-critical-edition, narrative-biography-personal, history

This book was so much better and more enjoyable and thought-provoking than I expected. I can't wait to teach it in a composition class. The many different writing styles that combine to make up Du Bois's argument--including personal narrative, organized essays with explicit theses and even a bit of fistion--would be an excellent example for freshmen writers. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

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Dec 19, 2010

Matt Shake rated it

· review of another edition

I read this in college and it really fascinated me. I don't remember it extremely well though, as I read it very quickly long ago. But his explanation of how music showed that African-Americans were intellects on par with the best that Euro-Americans had to offer truly struck a chord with me. As a kid I had always wondered why African-Americans seemed to be so "naturally talented" at music. After reading this book I realized that I was confused: it's not that African-Americans are ...more

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Feb 15, 2011

Marialyce rated it

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Shelves: 2011-group-reads, february-2011

What to say about a book that tries to describe the way a black person thinks, acts, and is? While the book was written with a lot of energetic meanderings, the tone of the essays left me feeling bereft of feelings. There was so much rhetoric that at times I thought I was reading a dissertation on the problems the slaves faced after the Civil War. The matter of fact style bothered me. I felt that Du Bois was not writing for the masses, but rattling on about how awful things were and providing an...more

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Jun 27, 2010

John Ortega rated it

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Written as an attempt to provide black youth with a perspective that is different than that of Mr. Booker T Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois works to analyze different racial issues and ideas in a way that is thorough and informative. The book opens with my favorite chapter, Of Our Spiritual Strivings, and asks a question that rings chillingly throughout the pages. I'm very open to reading about racial identities, but I think that Du Bois specifically made this to encourage people of all walks of li...more

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Apr 16, 2010

Sharone rated it

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Shelves: quals-reading

This is an essential piece of African American literature - for its presentation of the conditions and movements of the time, its sociological passages, and its rhetorical power.

April 16, 2010 update: This time through I listened to it on audiobook, and I have to say, it was an incredible experience. I highly recommend the (free!) audiobook from librivox.org, read by someone only identified as toriasuncle. The librivox audiobooks can be hit or miss since they're read by volunteers, but...more

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May 28, 2009

Matt Margo rated it

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Recommends it for: "every American who cherishes freedom." - Roy Wilkins

Shelves: four-star, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, african-american, social-studies, philosophy

What have I learned from this book? I have been educated as to this frighteningly factual statement: "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." No, "The Souls of Black Folk" is not another sympathy lecture to be categorized into the genre of "white guilt" literature. Instead, W.E.B. DuBois has presented an existent problem, and in itself, an existent reality. Originally published at the century's dawn, this captivating nonfictional eva...more

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Oct 14, 2009

Stacey rated it

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Not only do I find Du Bois a good commentator on society, but his writing alone reduces me to a pile of mush. And it's frankly creepy how much his depictions of America after the civil war struck a chord with me--a lot of what he observes still applies to American society today.
The following is a passage that turned into a paper for one of my classes: "I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,--held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and ...more

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Mar 08, 2010

Sadie rated it

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Shelves: books-i-own, mom-reading-challenge, 2010

For the past three years I've taken classes with Dr. Emilie Townes and in each of the classes she mentions concepts introduced by W.E.B. DuBois in this classic book. Since I've been learning and studying his work for for the past three years I finally had a chance to read the original work and it did not disappoint. DuBpis' understanding and insight of the racial issues of his time were insightful, and the development of "the veil" and "double consciousness" are still very m...more

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Feb 03, 2009

Luis rated it

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DuBois takes a structural approach on how to solve the social problem of discrimination in the US. He is forceful in demanding more from the country as a whole. When this book was written, I would have agreed with Dubois 100 percent, his approach was the one to apply. America owed a lot to African Americans and only by mobilizing the state as a whole could economic advancement and self respect be possible. However, in 2009, I think Booker T Washington is more relevant. Much of what Dubois calle...more

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Jun 27, 2007

Steve rated it

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Dubois is one of the preeminent African-American intellectuals of the 20th century--read the first few chapters to discover his creative concept of "double consciousness" for African Americans and the root of his quarrel with the assimilationism of good ol' Booker T.

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Oct 22, 2010

Melody Wilson rated it

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Shelves: reviewed

It is impossible to rate The Souls of Black Folk too highly. It is a worthwhile read solely for the impact that it has had upon American society, both in its time and in the decades since its 1903 publication. The Souls of Black Folk was a major contribution to the African-American literary tradition, and it is also a cornerstone of the literature on sociology. Beyond its historical and educational value, though, I highly recommend this book to everyone for the piercing glimpses Du Bois offers i...moreIt is impossible to rate The Souls of Black Folk too highly. It is a worthwhile read solely for the impact that it has had upon American society, both in its time and in the decades since its 1903 publication. The Souls of Black Folk was a major contribution to the African-American literary tradition, and it is also a cornerstone of the literature on sociology. Beyond its historical and educational value, though, I highly recommend this book to everyone for the piercing glimpses Du Bois offers into the souls of all men and women.

W. E. B. Du Bois first came under the spotlight by opposing Booker T. Washington, a prominent member of the African-American community who emphasized the importance of accommodating the policies of race separation prevalent in a Jim Crow society.

Du Bois believed that in order to attain suffrage, political representation, and civil rights, American society had to acknowledge the wrongs done to African-Americans and strive to integrate them fully into U.S. society. His book documented the conditions of post-slavery America while simultaneously arguing for improvements in the unequal black and white communities.

Du Bois was an impassioned advocate for higher education. While Washington focused on educating blacks for the trades and manual labor, Du Bois insisted that blacks should have access to intellectual education rivaling that available to whites. As Manning Marable states in Living Black History,

“Few books make history, and fewer still become foundational texts for the movements and struggles of an entire people. The Souls of Black Folk occupies this rare position. It helped to create the intellectual argument for the black freedom struggle in the twentieth century.” (96)

However, more than simply a revealing microcosm of post–Civil War and Jim Crow society, The Souls of Black Folk offer brilliant glimpses into mankind as a whole, regardless of color. Du Bois discusses religion, politics, history, education, money, morality, music, and mortality. His chapter on death of his young son, his first child, is some of the most impressive, tender, and passionate prose I have ever read.

It is easy—at least, it was for me—to pigeonhole Du Bois as a figure who did much for his race in the Jim Crow era, but whose work is outdated and useful only as a historical account. However, this view does Du Bois, and yourself for that matter, a disservice. I found his insight profound and his opinions valuable even after more than a century, and I learned a lot about the nature of people.

The salience of The Souls of Black Folk attests to Du Bois’s insistence on the importance of an intellectual tradition, both among black thinkers and, on a grander scale, in the then-emerging field of sociology.

Though at times the book seems to be a rather disparate collection of essays loosely centered on African-American (and cultural) identity, that connection serves, in fact,. to emphasize that topic’s importance by displaying the ways in which racism was affecting all areas of African-American life.

I have one piece of advice for enjoying this book: I listened to it on audiobook, and I’ve discovered that I tend to pay better attention to stories than intellectual discourse in audiobook format. If you’re anything like me, you may want to read a paperback or e-book. You’ll want to highlight dozens of passages anyway!(less)

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Feb 02, 2010

Natalie rated it

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Shelves: 09-10

In The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois, a national leader in the reconstruction and civil rights movement, explores the unique hardships and passions of freemen. He captured the life and thought of African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were freed from slavery, but not give all the rights of a free white man. These “free men of color” were trapped in a no man's land, so to speak, of citizenship. Du Bois’ passion concerning the dilemmas of his race was e...more

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Dec 04, 2010

Michael G. rated it

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Having just read Fredrick Douglass, perhaps I was expecting too much. I didn't get it. I did get some history of the Freedmen's Bureau established after the Civil War which had some interesting points but was dry and fact based. I was re-enforced in my belief that only through education can a person, race, or culture truly seek to improve its lot in life. The other thing I learned was that W.E.B. DuBois was well educated and he took this opportunity to prove it. There were also some more ev...more

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Jul 17, 2011

Lashana rated it

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Education among all kinds of men always has had and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach hi...more

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Feb 08, 2011

Corey Ryan rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction

Chapter II: Of The Dawn of Freedom was eye opening. What a mess the U.S. was (maybe I should use the present tense?) in (and rightly so I suppose). The Bureau of Freedmen was doomed to fail. Everyone lost. "Reconstruction" was an idea without the means or the intelligence or the ideals enough for it ever to succeed. (metaphorical for public education?) This chapter also caused me to give an extra star to Bahr's "The Year of Jubilo" due to the fact that I felt like I unders...more

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Oct 29, 2011

Jaleh rated it

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I had to read this book for an Introduction to English class, and I'm glad the professor put this book on the syllabus. This book is a great read, and Du Bois is a very compelling writer. We skipped two chapters in the book, but I went back and read them because I really wanted to get all of what Du Bois was saying. My favorite section was "Of the Coming of John." I addition to the work itself, the supplementary reading is also very interesting. It is good to read some of Washington's ...more

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Mar 04, 2010

Pat rated it

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I missed out on this one in college (pre-black studies era) and finally got around to reading it 35 years too late. The Souls of Black Folks is a masterpiece of African-American thought. But it is even more than that when we consider the context and time in which the book was written. Most of what DuBois discusses is still relevant today, and this is a tribute to the man, not only as a scholar, but as someone who was continually adapting his views in the best image and interests of black people....more

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Jul 11, 2011

Bcoghill Coghill rated it

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Recommends it for: All US citizens

Shelves: w-e-b-dubois

With the Civil War at the center of the US attention these years, 150 yrs after the fact, we should remember that it did not end with Grant & Lee signing some documents. The back people had some level of freedom but were still horrifically oppressed for a hundred years and more after the guns ceased.

The US was one of the last major countries to give up enslaving humans and that is our shame - as much as Germany has the shame of killing Jews and Japan the atrocities in China and Russia...more

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About W.E.B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a black civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95.

David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the...more

More about W.E.B. DuBois...

Books by W.E.B. DuBois

Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880

Writings: The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade / The Souls of Black Folk / Dusk of Dawn / Essays and Articles

The Quest of the Silver Fleece: A Novel (Harlem Moon Classics)

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Quotes from The Souls of Black Folk

“One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strenth alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” — 8 people liked it

“To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.” — 3 people liked it

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title link	preview: The Souls of Black Folk
avg rating	preview: The Souls of Black Folk Goodreads rating: 4.05 (4132 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/752641.The_Souls_of_Black_Folk?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328867215m/752641.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/752641.The_Souls_of_Black_Folk?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois[/url]

The Souls of Black Folk

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