African American writing is passionate, angry and is often a wake up call to neutral readers. Long before the Harlem revival with Baldwin, Himes and Hughes, Dubois wrote prolifically about injustices to African Americans from a sociological perspective, but plenty of what he wrote remain obscure though he is a master essayist. Certainly, Souls of Black Folk remain his most popular book, and provided a base for black civil rights activists long afterwards.
I did not know what to expect when I picked up Souls. I expected a fiery sermon, such as Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”, and in some ways it is of the same vein. I find that Dubois’s tone contains the voices of an academic, a historian, sociologist, poet and African American all rolled into one. Souls is a unique book — I’ve never read the essay in its format treated in such a poetic and impactful manner. Read the book out loud and you’d be able to hear the tone that Dubois crafted.
There are fourteen essays in the book. All of them are different and all of them are memorable. The first three can be considered as history — how African Americans are liberated, and how they adapted to the change, and how the South adapted to the change to try and keep blacks in slavery and segregate society. Dubois wrote about the roots of segregation in the formation of the Bureau and the resistance from white America. Yet, the most powerful essay is his rebuttal to Booker T Washington’s philosophy of cooperation with white America. Though these two men were working towards the same goal — the betterment of African Americans — Washington opted for a method of non-confrontation.
We can consider the next essays as sociology — the adaptation to new norms. The success of Atlanta, the importance of education and economic independence. Some of the chapters feel personal to me, as Dubois spoke of his time as an educator in Tennessee and coming back a decade later to find that “progress” have not gone the way that he expected.
The remaining chapters covers spirituality — Dubois’s argument for the church as a way to subdue slaves, what gives colour to African American church, a heartbreaking story of a black preacher who hit a glass ceiling and the spirituality of black music.
Reading Souls should not be treated as a leisurely read. The subject matter is too important for a pedestrian read. The residues of slavery is still entrenched in American systems today. African Americans are still living double lives as a black person and an American. The veil, in fact has gone thicker because of the scale. At times, the violence is blatant, but the racism is passive, latent, and this does the most damage.
