THESOULS OFBLACKFOLKS 1079
While using Hegelian notions, Du Bois noticed something unique about the self-
consciousness of black folk. As a “problem,” as an “other,” black folk develop a kind
of “double-consciousness.” Black folk have the “sense of always looking at one’s self
through the eyes of others.” This “twoness,” this consciousness of “two souls, two
thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body,” means
that black folk must uniquely struggle to find true self-consciousness and self-identity.
Although in some ways Du Bois is more activist than philosopher, his thought
has been enormously influential. His identification of a “black soul” provided a
theoretical base for African American studies. His identification of a unique black
culture gave blacks both dignity and an alternative to the assimilationist tenden-
cies of integrationists. His discovery of double-consciousness and his notion of
the “other” anticipated some recent debates in Continental philosophy.A good place to begin studying Du Bois is Julius Lester, ed.,The Seventh Son: The
Thought and Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois,two volumes (New York: Random
House, 1971). For biographies of Du Bois, see Jack B. Moore,W.E.B. Du Bois
(Boston: Twayne, 1981); and Du Bois’s own autobiographies,Dusk of Dawn(New
York: Harcourt, Brace, 1940) and The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois,edited by
Herbert Aptheker (New York: International, 1968). Studies of Du Bois’s social and
political involvements include Francis L. Broderick,W.E.B. Du Bois: Negro
Leader in a Time of Crisis(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959); Cary
D. Wintz,African-American Political Thought, 1890–1930: Washington, Du Bois,
Garvey, and Randolph(Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1996); Charles F. Peterson,DuBois,
Fanon, Cabral: The Margins of Elite Anti-Colonial Leadership(Lanham, MD:
Lexington Books, 2007); and Reiland Rabaka’s books,W.E.B. Du Bois and the
Problems of the Twenty-First Century: An Essay on Africana Critical Theory; and
Du Bois’s Dialectics: Black Radical Politics and the Reconstruction of Critical
Social Theory (both Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007 and 2008). For a more
philosophical treatment of Du Bois, see Joel Williamson,The Crucible of Race
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) and Bernard W. Bell, Emily R.
Grosholz, and James B. Stewart, eds.,W.E.B. Du Bois on Race and Culture:
Critiques and Extrapolations(London: Routledge, 1996).THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLKS (in part)
CHAPTER1: OFOURSPIRITUALSTRIVINGS
O water, voice of my heart, crying in the sand,
All night long crying with a mournful cry,
As I lie and listen, and cannot understand
The voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea,