The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. Du Bois

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Title: The Souls of Black Folk

Author: W. E. B. Du Bois

Release Date: January 29, 2008 [EBook #408]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK ***

The Souls of Black Folk

by

W.E.B. Du Bois

Herein Is Written

The Forethought
I. Of Our Spiritual Strivings
II. Of the Dawn of Freedom
III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others
IV. Of the Meaning of Progress
V. Of the Wings of Atalanta
VI. Of the Training of Black Men
VII. Of the Black Belt
VIII. Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece
IX. Of the Sons of Master and Man
X. Of the Faith of the Fathers
XI. Of the Passing of the First-Born
XII. Of Alexander Crummell
XIII. Of the Coming of John
XIV. Of the Sorrow Songs
The Afterthought
Selected Bibliography [Updater's note: missing from e-book]

To Burghardt and Yolande

The Lost and the Found

The Forethought

Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the
strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth
Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader;
for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color
line. I pray you, then, receive my little book in all charity,
studying my words with me, forgiving mistake and foible for sake of the
faith and passion that is in me, and seeking the grain of truth hidden
there.

I have sought here to sketch, in vague, uncertain outline, the
spiritual world in which ten thousand thousand Americans live and
strive. First, in two chapters I have tried to show what Emancipation
meant to them, and what was its aftermath. In a third chapter I have
pointed out the slow rise of personal leadership, and criticized
candidly the leader who bears the chief burden of his race to-day.
Then, in two other chapters I have sketched in swift outline the two
worlds within and without the Veil, and thus have come to the central
problem of training men for life. Venturing now into deeper detail, I