(Holloway is the President of Rutgers and the author of multiple histories of Black America.) “Having The Souls of Black Folk reinterpreted as a graphic novel,” Holloway continues, “is an encouragement for us to speak across disciplines, to pursue new ways of thinking about the past, and to be reminded of the power of the visual to add texture and meaning to the written.”ĭu Bois knew the power of the visual well before publishing The Souls of Black Folk. “His words resound across decades,” Holloway writes in his Introduction by way of justifying the new Rutgers University Press graphic interpretation of Du Bois’ canonical book. Du Bois originally published in 1903 (it includes previously published essays that he expanded and reworked), includes one of the most prescient sentences any American has ever written: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” The sentence is especially-and grimly-prescient because there’s no denying that the color line is also a critical problem of the 21st century. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation, “it is clear that Du Bois had a white audience in mind from the start.” In the Introduction to another edition of The Souls of Black Folk, scholar Brent Hayes Edwards elaborates: “ The Souls of Black Folk makes its readers attempt to unmake their innermost racial conditioning and reflexes, forcing them to see black life through black eyes.” Second is to recognize that, as Jonathan Scott Holloway writes in his Introduction to W. First is to acknowledge that the author of this article about a landmark book by a Black American writer is not Black but a member (to all outward appearances) of the dominant racial and social group.

In the souls of black folk