The Souls Of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois
The Souls Of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois
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The Souls Of Black Folk

Author: W. E. B. Du Bois

Narrator: Geoffrey Giuliano, The Ark

Unabridged: 8 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/24/2022


Synopsis

“I believe in pride of race and lineage and self; in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves.

“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”

“Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.”

W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community, and after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Earlier, Du Bois had risen to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth, a concept under the umbrella of racial uplift, and believed that African Americans needed the chance for advanced education to develop their leadership.

Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemic, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism

About W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), writer, civil rights activist, scholar, and editor, is one of the most significant intellectuals in American history. A founding member of the NAACP, editor for many years of the Crisis and three other journals, and the author of seventeen books, his writings, speeches, and public debates brought fundamental changes to American race relations.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on June 29, 2020

While reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, I asked myself whether any other book offered such penetrating insight into the black experience in equally impressive prose. The first name that came to me was The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. The Souls of Black Folk was published......more

Goodreads review by Trevor on February 23, 2015

This is really not the book I thought it was going to be. I thought this would be a more-or-less dry book of sociology discussing the lives of black folk in the US – you know: a few statistics, a bit of outrage, a couple of quotes, some history, but all written in a detached academic style. It isn’t......more

Goodreads review by B. P. on January 27, 2024

"I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, Because the sun hath looked upon me: My mother's children were angry with me; They made me the keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard have I not kept." - So......more

Goodreads review by mark on May 07, 2023

an imperfect book, made perfect by its imperfections. perfection is cold; this is a warm book, hot at times. complex and flawed and all too human; anger and mourning and judgment doled out in equal measures. Du Bois' sad and often seething voice rings from the page. surprisingly lush and stylized pr......more

Goodreads review by Roy on June 15, 2016

W.E.B. Du Bois was many things: pioneering social scientist, historian, activist, social critic, writer—and, most of all, a heck of a lot smarter than me. I say this because, while reading these essays, I had the continuous, nagging feeling of mental strain, which I found hard to account for. There......more