The Souls of Black Folk

In this curriculum guide, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History continues its emphasis on Du Bois¡¯ prophetic statement first enunciated at the Pan-African Conference of 1900 that ¡°the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line,¡± and moreover the ¡°double-consciousness¡± or ¡°two-ness¡± confronting African Americans¡ª¡°two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring details in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.¡± In addition to engaging the issues raised in Du Bois¡¯ prophetic statement, the editors have chosen to highlight the following themes in his seminal work:

¡ñ The Souls of Black Folk Revisited
¡ñ Black History and Historians
¡ñ The Tuskegee Machine and the Politics of Accommodation
¡ñ Talented Tenth
¡ñ Race Relations
¡ñ Pan-Africanism
¡ñ The Sacred Arts

These themes are reflective of the evolving scholarship that W. E. B Du Bois expressed in The Souls of Black Folk and throughout his prolific career.

While it is patently impossible to design a curriculum guide around the fifty or more state history standards, the editors have employed the Mid-continent Region Education laboratory¡¯s Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education as well as consulting the state standards in California, Maryland, Illinois, and Virginia in creating this useful guide.