and 1848” and graduated from the Sorbonne in
1925.
The demonstrated excellence of several
Harlem Renaissance figures resulted in scholar-
ships to study at the Sorbonne. Writer and artist
GWENDOLYNBENNETTwas one of several emerg-
ing artists who studied at the prestigious institu-
tion. Following her graduation from PRATT
INSTITUTEin NEWYORKCITYand appointment to
the faculty at HOWARDUNIVERSITY, Bennett ac-
cepted a $1,000 scholarship to pursue studies in art
at the Sorbonne. In 1928 COUNTEECULLENwon a
GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP that facilitated his
studies at the Sorbonne.
Artist ROMAREBEARDENenrolled at the Sor-
bonne following his schooling at COLUMBIAUNI-
VERSITYand his stint in the army. He used the GI
Bill to fund his six months of study in Paris. In ad-
dition, artist James Porter, a highly respected
Howard University professor who is heralded as
the father of African-American art history, studied
baroque art at the Sorbonne.
JESSIEFAUSET, the era’s most acclaimed men-
tor and the most published woman writer of the
Harlem Renaissance, enrolled at the Sorbonne fol-
lowing her graduation from the UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA, where she had earned a master’s
degree in French. Fauset traveled to France and
furthered her studies in French literature and lan-
guage before returning to New York City, where
she became a leading literary figure.
JOEL AUGUSTUS ROGERS, the self-educated
anthropologist, historian, and journalist, repre-
sented a set of Harlem Renaissance–era intellectu-
als who had ties to French institutions and
academic communities. Rogers, who was an elected
member of the Paris Society of Anthropology, lec-
tured at the Sorbonne.
Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. DuBois(1903)
W. E. B. DUBOIS’s best-known publication, Souls of
Black Folk, cemented his reputation as an intellec-
tual and as the main challenger to the accommoda-
tionist philosophies of BOOKERT. WASHINGTON.
The volume consists of a series of 14 probing
autobiographical, historical, sociological, and fic-
tional narratives. These essays, which include ti-
tles such as “Of the Training of Black Men,” “Of
Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” “Of Our
Spiritual Strivings” and a biographical tribute to
Alexander Crummell, constitute, according to
Peter Coviello, “an impassioned, often surpass-
ingly lyrical account of the trauma of race in
America” and a staggeringly intricate account of
the intimate life of race” (Coviello, 2). DuBois’s
prefatory words to readers, published in the “Fore-
thought” to the volume, offer a memorable and
confident characterization of the work. “Herein
lie buried many things which if read with patience
may show the strange meaning of being black here
at the dawning of the Twentieth Century,” he
wrote. In keeping with the traditionally deferential
tone and studied humility of many late 19th-cen-
tury writers, he asked his “Gentle Reader” to “re-
ceive my little book in all charity, studying my
words with me, forgiving mistake and foible for
sake of the faith and passion that is in me, and
seeking the grain of truth hidden there” (DuBois,
xxxi). He also authorized himself as one able to
provide a reliable and convincing assessment of
African-American life, noting that he was “bone
of the bone and flesh of them that live within the
Veil” (DuBois, xxxii).
DuBois outlined the deliberate structure of
the work and called attention to the systematic
ways in which he had attempted to address the
lives and histories of African Americans, the “ten
thousand thousand Americans” who had to con-
tend with and survive bondage and ruthless op-
pression. “I have tried to show what Emancipation
meant to them,” he wrote, before noting that ad-
ditional chapters tackled subjects such as “the
slow rise of personal leadership,” “the two worlds
within and without the Veil,” “the struggles of the
massed millions of the black peasantry,” and “the
present relations of the sons of master and man.”
Finally, he noted that he had, on behalf of his
readers, “stepped within the Veil, raising it that
you may view faintly its deeper recesses,—the
meaning of its religion, the passion of its human
sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls.” The
first essay included one of the most powerful con-
ceits ever applied to the African-American condi-
tion. In “Spiritual Strivings,” DuBois articulated
his conception of double consciousness, a “pecu-
liar sensation, this double-consciousness, this
sense of always looking at one’s self through theSouls of Black Folk 485