The Souls of Black Folk was extraordinary when published and remains a key document of American literature today. Indeed, in 1903, the year he published the book, and the three previous years, an average of 95 African Americans were violently tortured and killed throughout the South, often in a festival-like atmosphere.īorn in 1868 in Great Barrington in far western Massachusetts, of Dutch, African and English ancestry, Du Bois was living in the Deep South, teaching at Atlanta University, when his book was published. It was courageous of Du Bois to address head-on “the problem of the color line” in America at the dawn of the 20 th century - audacious, even dangerous. Actually, “chutzpah” is too light-hearted a word. Du Bois in putting together this collection of essays and sketches. Rereading The Souls of Black Folks, I am struck by the sheer chutzpah of W.E.B.
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