The great social activist’s collection of essays on the African American experience became a founding text of the civil rights movement
The 100 best nonfiction books: the narrative so farJust as Barack Obama,“the skinny kid with a silly name”, seemed to spring from nowhere in the summer of 2004 with his electrifying keynote speech in Boston to the Democratic conference, or so – on the printed page – did William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) burst into American life in April 1903 as the passionate spokesperson for African Americans. Of mixed French,Dutch and African parents, Du Bois is emblematic of America’s complex relationship to slavery.
The Souls of Black Folk is a loosely linked collection of essays that explored in highly personal terms Du Bois’s prophetic assertion that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line. It became an almost immediate hit.
Du Bois believed that African Americans must always see themselves as they are perceived by whites “through a veil” Related: Donald Trump starts MLK weekend by attacking civil rights hero John Lewis Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com