Souls Of Black Folk Analysis

Tonia Nguyen
The Souls of Black Folk
Published in the early years of the twentieth century, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk explores the lives of African Americans following the Civil War, and their fight for civil liberties within the following decades. The Souls of Black Folk is a collection of essays written by Du Bois that, in particular, examines and explains “the problem of the twentieth century… the color-line,” and the “veil” that African Americans live behind (Du Bois 9). Du Bois explains the “problem of the color-line” through the perspective of African Americans by exploring life in America through his own eyes, as well as other African Americans, and by exploring how the color line creates a veil, which in return creates a double-consciousness in African Americans; the veil that Du Bois describes in his work stands as a metaphor or symbol for the disconnection of African Americans in a white-dominated society; Du Bois also argues that the manner in which African Americans should deal with the color line should not be modeled after Booker T. Washington’s ideals, and that they should extend their education; the color-line has been an issue in America for too long, but it is still extant today.
The “color-line” that Du Bois details in his work is essentially the segregation of races- it is the line between colors of skin that separates denizens of America, it is the line drawn in the sand that separates African Americans from white Americans. Du Bois explains the “color-line” through the perspective of African Americans- life behind “a vast veil.” (9; 2). Throughout his work, Du Bois writes about his own, as well as other African Americans’ experiences in a prejudiced nation, including his time as a teacher “...

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...ere are schools, neighborhoods, and cities that are thriving with people of color and only a tiny fraction of white people. It may be the people’s choice, or it may just be a coincidence, but segregation still happens. There are no “whites only” signs or schools segregated by law, but there is a thin color-line.
W.E.B. Du Bois’s collection of essays and writings make up The Souls of Black Folk, a piece that tells of the color-line and the veil. Du Bois writes about his own experiences, the lives of other African Americans, and their attempts to break the color-line. As Du Bois mentions repeatedly in his work, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line” (9). The color-line created more than enough problems for African Americans during the twentieth century, and they were forced to take action and progress as a people to be seen as humans.