Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Rampant racial injustices
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
Colored American Magazine
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
Up from Slavery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the
rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and
adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guidebook to improved
fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most
disadvantaged of Black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by proving
themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before
the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation
as the most eminent African American of the new century.
Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The
Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University,
disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil
rights were less important to Black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic
self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and
discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The
problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” An uncompromising
advocate of civil and voting rights, Du Bois asserted in The Souls of Black Folk that through
“work, culture, and liberty” the dual heritage of African Americans—what he called “double-
consciousness”—could be melded into a force for positive social and cultural change in the
United States. Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national
consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one
of the most provocative and influential works of African American literature in the 20th century.
The rise of the New Negro
During the first two decades of the 20th century, rampant racial injustices, led by weekly
reports of grisly lynchings, gave strong impetus to protest writing. From the editor’s desk of the
Colored American Magazine in the early 1900s, Pauline E. Hopkins wrote novels, short stories,
editorials, and social commentary that attempted to revive the fervor of the antislavery era. The
founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
in New York City put Du Bois in charge of its organ, The Crisis, which, as its editor from 1910
to 1934, he fashioned into the most widely read African American magazine of its time. In 1912
future NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, poet, diplomat, and journalist, published
anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a psychological novel that employed
the theme of passing for white to explore the double consciousness of its protagonist with a
dispassionate objectivity previously unattempted in African American fiction. By the time the
United States entered World War I in 1917, Harlem was well on its way to becoming what
Johnson called “the greatest Negro city in the world,” attracting key intellectual leaders and
artists such as Du Bois and Johnson, not to mention thousands of migrants from the South and
Midwest whose talents and aspirations would fuel in the 1920s the second great renaissance of
African American culture.
