On the Road Not Taken: “Revolt and Revenge” in W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk

The Souls of Black Folk, first published in 1903, famously begins with the claim that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line” (5; hereafter Souls). The text is a multifaceted delineation of this problem and an equally multifaceted attempt to articulate a solution. In the latter regard and politically speaking, Du Bois marks out a middle path between accommodation and rebellion. Rejecting either “an attempt to adjust all thought and action to the will of the greater group” or “a feeling of revolt and revenge,” he argues for “a determined effort at self-realization and self-development despite environing opinion” (37). Despite environing opinion, and against it: “By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men, clinging unwaveringly to those great words which the sons of the Fathers would fain forget: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’” (45).

Du Bois's approach to solving the problem of the color-line centers the cultural explorations of Souls; and—with no little assistance from Du Bois himself—it centered the struggle for black liberation throughout the better part of the twentieth century. It is open to alternative interpretations and strategic adjustments; indeed, Du Bois construed it varyingly over time. Leaving aside the variances, however, one might make the argument that it dialectically resolves the opposition between the rejected alternatives of accommodation and revolt, preserving what is workable in each while leaving behind the self-defeating aspects. But unlike in the ideal world of Hegelian dialectics, in the real world all such syntheses are imperfect and incomplete. Residues of unresolved problems trail after them and the roads not taken continue to beckon. In the present instance, the pathway of