The Gift of Black Folk

The Gift of Black Folk (1924) is a book of essays by W. E. B. Du Bois. Written while the author was using his role at The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, to publish emerging Black artists of the Harlem Renaissance, The Gift of Black Folk is a purposeful work of history which revises the narrative of European and British influence and emphasizes the outsized role of African Americans in building the nation and establishing its definitive culture. “[Despite] slavery, war and caste, and despite our present Negro problem, the American Negro is and has been a distinct asset to this country and has brought a contribution without which America could not have been.” This thesis could not be stated clearly enough. Recognizing, in the words of Dr. King, “that the keystone in the arch of oppression was the myth of inferiority,” Du Bois set out to revise American history to properly tell the story of his people. As he does in his magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America (1935), Du Bois recognizes that the failures of the Reconstruction era were due in large part to an unwillingness to accept Black people, enslaved or free, as human. In these essays, he emphasizes the role of African Americans as workers, soldiers, and explorers, situates them in the movement for women’s rights, and celebrates their contribution to the arts and culture of the nation. This edition of W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Gift of Black Folk is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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