Double Consciousness In The Souls Of Black Folk

The Souls of Black Folk, by Du Bois, shows us the African American experience in the 19th century. The novel represents the challenges of being black and the struggle they went through in Black America. Life for blacks wasn’t much different after the Emancipation Proclamation. When Du Bois moved south, he was appalled by the way blacks were treated.. The actions Du Bois and his acquaintances took, altered life for African Americans which still stands today. The novel shows the importance of “The Veil”, double consciousness, and the reality of racism. African Americans in the south didn’t receive the rights they deserved after the Emancipation Proclamation. Perhaps the biggest social challenge during this time was “The Veil” The Veil was the separation between blacks and whites in the 19th century. It showed the whites views on blacks and vice versa. From a social perspective, blacks were horribly disrespected by the whites. African Americans eventually come to the realization of the two views and acted. Relating to the issue of the Veil, was “double consciousness”. This was two faced lives that African Americans experienced.

In the south, blacks were denied daily rights that belonged to the whites. Due to this, poverty was common within the African American population. Du Bois explains that because the blacks were deprived of certain rights, the poverty caused a rise in crime. He showed that if the African Americans were granted their rights, poverty and crime would decrease. Due to the high rate of poverty, blacks commonly worked in rural areas. In the south, sharecroppers were introduced to a lot of the African American population that worked in rural areas. They were at first granted a piece of land. Not long after that, the blacks were forced to buy a small portion of land for the crops which eventually ended up with the landowner and were stripped of their earned