The Soul of Black Folk

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 Key Issues in W .E .B . DuBois ' The Souls of Black Folk

The Souls of Black Folk , by W .E .B . DuBois , is a compilation of essays written by DuBois and first published in 1903 . In these essays , DuBois covers many of the problems that he sees in the lives of African American people . These multitude of problems can be summed up into one issue , the problem of the color-line (DuBois 1994 , 9 . DuBois sees this color-line ' as the root of difficulties for his race reaching back

to the days of the Civil War , but he claims to really see it take hold in the era that he published his book , the early twentieth century (DuBois 1994 , 9 . Through his collection of essays , DuBois allows the reader to see multiple events pertaining to the lives of African Americans through his eyes , and paints the history of black struggles in ways that might not have been clear to someone who had not been so close to them

DuBois chose to begin each of his essays with a sorrow song ' a line or two of music that welled up from black souls in the dark past (DuBois 1994 , 1 . These bits of song give the tone for each of the essays . DuBois speaks of being a problem ' to the white world around him , but he sees major issues in his time that keep people thinking of him as a problem (DuBois 1994 , 2 . These issues are those of work culture , and liberty (DuBois 1994 , 6 , things that DuBois does not see coming easily to his people . At the time , they lacked the right to vote , many lacked adequate schooling , and the emancipation ' granted in the Civil War era had not led to anything resembling true freedom (DuBois 1994 , 6 . An example of this lack of freedom is illustrated in the chapter , Of The Black Belt ' This particular essay gives the reader the view from a traveling buggy in early twentieth century Georgia (DuBois 1994 , 53 . Due to recession after the war , most of the land has been abandoned by the previously wealthy owners , and is being rented to the African Americans who are willing to work on it (DuBois 1994 , 53 . These African Americans live in broken down plantations houses , barely fit for inhabitation , but still must pay exorbitant rents to the people who previously lived there (DuBois 1994 , 53 . On top of the out of control rents , no amount of money that the African Americans pay ensures them of ever owning any home or land (DuBois 1994 , 60 . The work they had done on the land over the years quite often ended up sold to a white person , not matter how much the African American had paid on it (DuBois 1994 , 61 . Most of them are destitute , for all the money they make from growing crops goes into the hands of their landlords (DuBois 1994 , 57 . For a few older people , these landlords are their former...