The landmark book about being black in America, now in an expanded edition commemorating the 150th anniversary of W. E. B. Du Bois’s birth and featuring a new introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist, and cover art by Kadir Nelson
“The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.”
When The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903, it had a galvanizing effect on the conversation about race in America—and it remains both a touchstone in the literature of African America and a beacon in the fight for civil rights. Believing that one can know the “soul” of a race by knowing the souls of individuals, W. E. B. Du Bois combines history and stirring autobiography to reflect on the magnitude of American racism and to chart a path forward against oppression, and introduces the now-famous concepts of the color line, the veil, and double-consciousness.
This edition of Du Bois’s visionary masterpiece includes two additional essays that have become essential reading: “The Souls of White Folk,” from his 1920 book Darkwater, and The Talented Tenth.
Soft cover.
About the author: William Edward Burghardt “W. E. B.” Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, poet, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he attended public schools there prior to attending Fisk University, where he received a second BA degree, and an MA and PhD from Harvard. He studied at the University of Berlin, taught at Wilberforce University and the University of Pennsylvania before going to Atlanta University in 1897, where he taught for many years.
Du Bois was one of the main founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was a lifelong critic of American society and an advocate of black people against racial injustice. He spent his last years in Ghana, where he died in exile at the age of ninety-five.
