Essays, personal memories, and stories examine Black life in America after slavery. A moving chapter recalls the death of the author's young son.
263 pages 5h 6m reading time
One of the founding works of African American thought and a classic of American writing.
Argues that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," meaning the division between races would shape the century ahead.
Describes "double consciousness," the feeling of always seeing yourself through the eyes of a society that looks down on you, of being both Black and American and never fully at peace as either.
Openly challenged Booker T. Washington's call for Black Americans to accept segregation for now, and helped spark the push for full civil rights that led to the founding of the NAACP in 1909.
Shaped generations of later Black writers and leaders, from the Harlem Renaissance to the civil rights movement.
Music without words
Each chapter opens with bars of a Black spiritual as sheet music, beside verse mostly by white poets.
Built from magazine essays
Most chapters began as separate essays, several in The Atlantic Monthly, which Du Bois revised and joined.
A capital letter for respect
Du Bois capitalized his people’s name when most newspapers would not, a respect the capital B in Black carries on.
Praised by Henry James
The famous novelist later called it the only Southern book of any real quality published in many years.
The original uses words for races and peoples that are now dated or offensive, including slurs, which are covered. The modernized text uses today’s words, keeping slurs only where people in the book say them. Why
