by placing them behind a “vast veil” (DuBois’s
trope for legal segregation), imposing definitions
on blacks from a position of dominance, creates
a psychological problem for blacks. He labels this
condition “double-consciousness,” a term that
continues to resonate in discussions of the signifi-
cance of race in America. “Double-consciousness”
had various connotations during the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. It implies a situation of self-
alienation that borders on the pathological. Du-
Bois’s usage carries some of this implication:
After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and
Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro
is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and
gifted with second-sight in this American
world—a world which yields him no true self-
consciousness, but only lets him see himself
through the revelation of the other world. It
is a peculiar sensation, this double-conscious-
ness, this sense of always looking at one’s self
through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s
soul by the tape of a world that looks on in
amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his
twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls,
two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings;
two warring ideals in one dark body, whose
dogged strength alone keeps it from being
torn asunder. (364)This passage opens in the realm of magic, of sev-
enth sons, veils, and second sight—qualities that,
in the African-influenced Haitian folk religion
of voudoun, are associated with powers beyond
ordinary humanity. However, in the case of Afri-
can Americans, DuBois wants us to believe, these
qualities result from marginalization and oppres-
sion inasmuch as they create a situation in which
blacks are not permitted “true self-consciousness”
and thus are forced to see themselves second-
hand. Survival requires being able to see oneself
as the oppressor sees and being willing to submit
to that gaze. But accepting that negative view as
the whole self is to sacrifice all personal identity
and integrity. DuBois argues that it is essential to
maintain a “second-sight” that reveals the truth of
the self. The tension between these two images is
the black condition in America, and DuBois con-
siders living within this tension to be a heroic act.
He asks at the end of “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”
that readers of Souls “listen to the strivings in the
souls of black folk” (371).
DuBois intentionally asks readers to “listen to
the strivings” because, in the end, he argues, blacks
made their greatest contribution to American cul-
ture through their music, their “sorrow songs.”
DuBois writes in chapter 14, “The Sorrow Songs”:And so by faithful chance the Negro folk-
song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands
today not simply as the sole American music,
but as the most beautiful expression of human
experience born this side the seas.... [I]t still
remains as the singular spiritual heritage of
the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro
people. (536–537)BIBLIOGRAPHY
DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folks. In W. E.
B. DuBois Writing, 357–547. New York: Penguin
Books, 1986.
Keith ByermanSouthern Road Sterling Allen Brown (1932)
Southern Road was STERLING ALLEN BROWN’s first
collection of poems. Many of the pieces here re-
flect Brown’s love of black folk culture, speech, and
music, especially the blues. Sterling Stuckey notes
in his introduction to Southern Road that Brown’s
use of “the great body of Negro music... extend[s]
rather than reflect[s] meaning” (9). Stuckey also
notes that “Brown realized the need to explore
the life of the Southern Negro below the surface
in order to reveal unseen aspects of his being, his
strength and fortitude, his healing humor, and his
way of confronting tragedy” (9).
“Ruminations of Luke Johnson” confirms
Stuckey’s premise. Luke Johnson watches each
morning as Mandy Jane goes to work “wid a greatSouthern Road 475