“Herein
lie buried many things, which if read with patience may sow the strange
meaning of being black here in 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.”
Thus
begins one the most important treatments on the condition of black life
that was written in the 20th century.
This year marks the centenary of the publication of W.E.B. Du Bois’s
book The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois wanted white America to
understand what it was like to be black in America at the turn of the
century, and did so by letting them see their souls. To know a person’s
soul is to understand the individual; Du Bois wanted black people to
be seen as human, that they too have hopes and aspirations, feel despair
and hopelessness, and the profound effect that prejudice had on them.
To
achieve this, he employs memoir, history, polemic, treatise and narrative,
set out in 14 essays.
The word ‘soul’ was a very carefully chosen one; it represents
the part of us that isn’t easy to categorise, which cannot be stereotyped.
It is the most vital, integral part of an individual, the essence of
being. As a title, it is Du Bois’s first argument, by challenging
the negative images of blacks that existed back then. The book has great
emotional and intellectual power, and illustrates Du Bois’s considerable
talents as a writer, philosopher, sociologist (for he is one of the
first people to conduct an extensive sociological study on black people),
cultural commentator as well as historian.
Du Bois wrote ‘Souls’ at a time when black people were reeling
from the disappointments of the late nineteenth century. Despite the
legal and political rights given to them as American citizens as expressed
in the 14th (1868) and 15th (1870) Amendments, they had not been realised.
Reconstruction had been a disaster, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 had
been repealed, and in the South, the Jim Crow laws had become institutionalised,
in great part due to the Supreme Court decision of Plessy v Ferguson
(1896) that upheld the separate but equal rule.
The
lynching of black men in this period was a regular occurrence. In 1899,
Du Bois had seen the charred knucklebones of Sam Hose, a black man who
had been lynched and burned alive, displayed in the window of a shop
in Atlanta. In 1895, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute,
the foremost institute for black vocational training, delivered an address
at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, advocating economic improvement
for blacks, but not political or social equality:
“In all things purely social, we can be as separate as the five
fingers, and yet as one as the hand in all things essential to human
progress.”
His autobiography, “Up from Slavery”, was seen by Du Bois
as a sentimental portrait of slavery, and its ‘civilising’
effects.
Du Bois could not tolerate Washington’s policies of accommodation,
believing that at such a crucial time, the beginning of a new century,
surrendering the right of self assertion and determination, not wanting
to be part of the political process, and ignoring the part that African
Americans had played in the building of the nation would spell disaster
for the future of the race.
Writing ‘Souls’ was a very courageous act, given the time
in which it was written – he is holding up a mirror to white America,
he shows them the ugly and treacherous nature of racism, and how it
had affected American life.
To
help his audience understand the African American experience in America,
Du Bois introduced several concepts, the most significant being “double
consciousness”.
A powerful metaphor, it deals with the conflicting images of blackness
– those images produced by a white racist American culture, and
those images maintained by African Americans, within their own communities:
“One ever feels his two ness – an American, a Negro; two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals
in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn
asunder.”
Dealing with
these profound contradictions, being compelled to accept white definitions
of black being meant that they were denied control over their identity.
This powerful concept can be applied to the discussion of feminist and
gay issues, in fact, the cultural relevance of any group.
Du Bois often wrote of blacks being cloaked in the ‘Veil’, which
illustrates the literal separation of blacks and whites through segregation,
of the difficult worlds that exist inside and outside of it. Du Bois himself
become aware that he was shut out of this white world by this veil, when
his visiting card at school was rejected by a white child – “then
it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from
the others…shut out from their world by a vast veil”. This theme
runs throughout the book, and Du Bois lifts the veil to show his readers
an existence they have never seen.
The issues of identity and perception that are discussed in ‘Souls’
are powerful ones; it is also the first time that the concept of black
invisibility was introduced. Fifty years later, Ralph Ellison would articulate
of invisibility and the veil in his novel, Invisible Man.
In
his chapter, ‘Of the Training of Black Men’, Du Bois argues
for the necessity of education African Americans, emphasising that all
that is needed is the opportunity to grow intellectually, and to debunk
the myth of the ignorant, impossible to teach black:
“Such human training as will best use the labor of all men without
enslaving or brutalizing; such training will give us poise to encourage
the prejudices that bulwark society, and to stamp out those who in sheer
barbarity deafen us to the wail of prisoned souls within the Veil, and
the mounting fury of shackled men.”
African Americans, he argues, are not, and will not be satisfied with
being only labourers, domestics and farmers; there are many intelligent
and brilliant black people who need to be nurtured and encouraged to
be the best they can be:
“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line
I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where
smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls…I summon
Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously
with no scorn or condescension.”
Literature, philosophy, and music should be accessible to all; they
are above the veil and know nothing of the colour line.
The chapter “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” is where
Dubois challenges Washington’s policy of accommodation. Washington’s
influence in this period was considerable; the most powerful black man
in the nation, controlling al major political appointments of blacks
as well as many southern whites. A black man in such a prominent position,
who supported the notion of segregation in all areas of life, and to
defer to the ‘superior’ wisdom of whites was anathema to Du
Bois:
“There is among educated and thoughtful colored men in all parts
of the land a feeling of deep regret, sorrow and apprehension at the
wide currency and ascendancy which some of Mr. Washington’s theories
have gained."
Du Bois called for “ultimate assimilation through self assertion
and on no other terms”. Many black conservatives believed that
Washington was right; standing up and saying that he was wrong established
Du Bois as Washington’s most ardent opponent. He argued that everything
that Washington supported would lead to the continued disenfranchisement
of African Americans on all levels.
In “Of the Passing of the First Born”, Du Bois gives a very
personal account of the death of his son, Burghart. In doing so, he
believes he will touch the hearts and minds of his audience by revealing
his suffering as a father who has lost a son. He relates to the audience
as a human being, showing that death and tragedy is part of the human
condition, regardless of race.
In
the final chapter, “The Sorrow Songs”, Du Bois talks of the
black spirituals, how they express the black experience, how the have
blended both African and American expressions, in this way pointing
out the African American’s place in American culture, not outside
it:
“Our song, our toil, our cheer and warning have been given to this
nation in blood brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is
not this work and striving? Would America have been America without
her Negro people?”
“The
Souls of Black Folk” has become a standard for African American
and American literature, history and sociology
classes. Insofar as the relation between black and white is central
to the meaning of American culture, ‘Souls’ is an American
classic. It presents another way of seeing things; it did not echo what
the majority of whites wanted to hear.
Today, the concepts of double consciousness and the colour line have
never been more relevant, in view of thecurrent turmoil in African countries,
finding self determination a struggle in the wake of their colonial
pasts, and the chasm that exists between the developed and developing
nations. Du Bois asks the fundamental question as to whether civilisation
can deal with difference, and altered the conceptions that people hold
of what a people can be. It has an eternal validity that makes its legacy
timeless.
By Angelina Osborne
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