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67-593: Color line may refer to: Color line (racism) Color Line (ferry operator) Baseball color line Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Color Line . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Color_Line&oldid=932771281 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

134-453: A "migration to town", the "buying of small homesteads near town". This chapter discusses "race-contact", specifically as it relates to physical proximity, economic and political relations, intellectual contact, social contact, and religious enterprise. As for physical proximity, Du Bois states there is an obvious "physical color-line" in Southern communities separating whites from Negroes, and

201-456: A "sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The History of the American Negro

268-448: A Black Belt in larger areas of the country. He says that here is a need for "Negro leaders of character and intelligence" to help guide Negro communities along the path out of the current economic situation. The power of the ballot is necessary, he asserts, as "in every state the best arbiters of their own welfare are the persons directly affected." He says that "the police system of the South

335-601: A United States Senate inquiry into the Mississippi election of 1875. J.W. Lee, previously Mayor of Aberdeen, Mississippi and Sheriff of Monroe County in the same state identified the policy of the Democrats as "the color line policy." In 1881 Frederick Douglass published an article with that title in the North American Review . He likened the color line to a disease of morality and gives seven propositions against it. At

402-490: A black folk culture—with its origins in slavery—unadulterated by the civilizing impulses of a northern black church, increasingly obsessed with respectability and with Western aesthetic criteria. Rather than vestiges of a backward time that should be purged from black repertoires and isolated from what Alain Locke called the "modernization of the negro" (coincident, for Locke, with urbanization), negro spirituals are—for Du Bois—where

469-557: A branch and defends his sister, killing John Henderson. In the final paragraphs, a lynch mob on horseback approaches with the Judge in front, for whom John Jones is filled with pity. Knowing what is ahead, John Jones "softly hum[s] the 'Song of the Bride ' " in German. (Du Bois 176). Chapter XIV, " The Sorrow songs ", is about Negro music. He refers to the short musical passages at the beginning of each of

536-508: A common hardship in poverty, poor land, and low wages; and, above all, from the sight of the Veil that hung between us and Opportunity. The fifth chapter is a meditation on the necessity of widespread higher education in the South. Du Bois compares Atlanta , the City of a Hundred Hills, to Atalanta , and warns against the "greed of gold," or "interpreting the world in dollars." The "Black World beyond

603-578: A continued use of the phrase even through the legalized segregation that continued after the abolition of slavery. It reflects a dual meaning of the phrase; one aspect of which reflects a color line created by the law, and the other of which reflects the de facto disparity between life for African Americans in the United States and life for other citizens. The term was also popularized during the emergence of Pentecostalism as it grew in North America. During

670-462: A lifetime the color line had been a real and efficient cause of misery. He goes on to write: "No, the race problem in which I was interested cut across lines of color and physique and belief and status and was a matter of cultural patterns, perverted teaching and human hate and prejudice, which reached all sorts of people and caused endless evil to all men." These quotations are of note because they reflect an expansion of Du Bois’ original definition of

737-453: A pair of epigraphs: text from a poem, usually by a European poet, and the musical score of a spiritual , which Du Bois describes in his foreword ("The Forethought") as "some echo of haunting melody from the only American music which welled up from black souls in the dark past". Columbia University English and comparative literature professor Brent Hayes Edwards writes: It is crucial to recognize that Du Bois ... chooses not to include

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804-735: A race feud. Chapters III and VI deal with education and progress. Here Du Bois argues against Booker T. Washington 's idea of focusing solely on industrial education for black men. He advocates the addition of a classical education to establish leaders and educators in the black community. Du Bois refers to the Atlanta Compromise as the "most notable of Mr. Washington's career," and "the old attitude of adjustment and submission." Du Bois claims that Washington wants black people to give up three things: political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education. He fears that, if black people "concentrate all their energies on industrial education,

871-519: A religious meeting – the Azusa Street Revival – held in Los Angeles from 1906 to 1909, the journalist, observer, and early adherent Frank Bartleman famously said, "It seemed that everyone had to go to “Azusa.” ... There were far more white people than colored coming. The “color line” was washed away in the blood." The Souls of Black Folk The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches

938-543: A serious man with a deep understanding of the world, including the injustice of racism and of Jim Crow, he finds himself at odds with both Black and white. He speaks at his church, but what he says falls flat: "[l]ittle had they understood of what he said, for he spoke an unknown tongue" (Du Bois 170). He convinces Judge Henderson to let him become a teacher at the Black school, and is warned to keep his place and to not stir up trouble. The Judge makes his opinions clear: "in this country

1005-582: A star that travels in the night and left a world of darkness in its train." Du Bois ends with, "Sleep, then, child,—sleep till I sleep and waken to a baby voice and the ceaseless patter of little feet-above the Veil." In this chapter, Du Bois recounts a short biography of Alexander Crummell , an early black priest in the Episcopal Church. Du Bois starts with, "This is the history of a human heart." He notes that Crummell faced three temptations: those of Hate, Despair, and Doubt," while crossing two vales,

1072-584: A trip to Poland and his changing attitude toward his phrase "the color-line". In the short essay, entitled "The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto", Du Bois wrote about his three trips to Poland, particularly his third in 1949, during which he viewed the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto . Du Bois wrote: The result of these three visits, and particularly of my view of the Warsaw ghetto, was not so much clearer understanding of

1139-406: A universal exclusivity, of "color" as the greatest problem of the 20th century. The general use of the term the "color-line" however, is usually in reference to the United States, a possibility Du Bois did not acknowledge in his initial essays. The phrase circulates in modern vernacular as well as literary theory. For example, Newsweek published a piece by Anna Quindlen entitled "The Problem of

1206-704: Is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois . It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature . The book contains several essays on race, some of which had been published earlier in The Atlantic Monthly . To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African American in American society. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history , The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of

1273-405: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Color line (racism) The phrase sees current usage as a reference to modern racial discrimination in the United States and legalized segregation after the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement . It is difficult to find an exact origin of the phrase "the color line." However,

1340-400: Is the history of this strive-this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face. The first chapter also introduces Du Bois's famous metaphor of

1407-599: Is the problem of the color-line", the more frequently quoted version of the sentiment. Ample nuance exists among the three versions of Du Bois’ prediction in The Souls of Black Folk , as within a very short amount of text Du Bois provides the reader with three incarnations of the thought. Some of the difference may be the result of the original serialization of the work, as parts of this book were originally serialized, many in The Atlantic Monthly . The first reference draws

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1474-480: Is to be "blamed for indifference", but to do so means "he is liable to have his feelings hurt and get into unpleasant altercation". In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk , Du Bois used the phrase in his introduction, titled "The Forethought", writing: "This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of color line". The phrase occurs again in

1541-682: The First Pan-African Conference in London in July 1900, the delegates adopted an "Address to the Nations of the World", drafted by Du Bois and to which he was a signatory, that contained the sentence: "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the colour-line". Du Bois introduces the concept of the color line in his 1899 work The Philadelphia Negro when discussing social interactions between

1608-550: The "...inevitable problems of civilization the Negro must meet and solve largely for himself." The function of the Negro college, then, is clear: it must maintain the standards of popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of problems of race contact and co-operation. And finally, beyond all this, it must develop men. Du Bois calls Albany, Georgia , in Dougherty County ,

1675-533: The "heart of the Black Belt." He says: "Here are the remnants of the vast plantations." How curious a land is this,- how full of untold story, of tragedy and laughter, and the rich legacy of human life; shadowed with a tragic past, and big with future promise! Yet, he notes, it is not far from "where Sam Hose was crucified" [in a lynching], "to-day the centre of the Negro problem,-the centre of those nine million men who are America's dark heritage from slavery and

1742-464: The 1500 Negro families around Albany in 1898, many families have 8–10 individuals in one- or two-room homes. These families are plagued with "easy marriage and easy separation," a vestige of slavery, which the Negro church has done much to prevent "a broken household." He claims that most of the black population is "poor and ignorant," more than 80 percent, though "fairly honest and well meaning." "Two-thirds of them cannot read or write," and 80 percent of

1809-757: The Century , edited by Joyce Carol Oates ; Houghton Mifflin Company , 2000). The essay/story describes two young men, both named John, one Black (John Jones) and the other white (John Henderson, the son of the wealthy and powerful Judge Henderson). Both Johns grow up in Altamaha, Georgia , where they were playmates in their youth. Both leave to go off to college, and both the white and Black communities in Altamaha anticipate their returns, saying: "When John comes."  When John Jones returns to his hometown, transformed by his time away, now

1876-466: The Color Line," about the continuing plague of racial discrimination in the United States . The phrase does not only find use in the print world, either. PBS created a series entitled America Beyond the Color Line with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. , a documentary series that looked at communities of African Americans in four areas of the United States. The phrase's current use in modern journalism reflects

1943-463: The Jewish problem in the world as it was a real and complete understanding of the Negro problem. In the first place, the problem of slavery, emancipation and caste in the United States was no longer in my mind a separate and unique thing as I had so long conceived it. It was not even solely a matter of color and physical and racial characteristics, which was particularly a hard thing for me to learn, since for

2010-467: The Judge that John Jones is "livenin' things up at the darky school." While Judge Henderson storms off to shut down the school, his son, John Henderson, grows bored and leaves his home and finds John Jones's sister. She is young and beautiful, and John Henderson is bored. He demands a kiss; she runs. He pursues her. John Jones, walking home from the school, which Judge Henderson has just closed, comes upon John Henderson accosting his sister. John Jones picks up

2077-424: The Negro must remain subordinate, and can never expect to be the equal of white men....But when they want to reverse nature, and rule white men, and marry white women, and sit in my parlor, then, by God! we'll hold them under if we have to lynch every N-- in the land." John Jones says he accepts the situation and is allowed to teach. It's hard work, but he makes some headway. Some time passes. One day, word gets back to

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2144-399: The Negro spirituals, as the "articulate message of the slave to the world." They are the music, he contends, not of the joyous black slave, as a good many whites had misread them, but "of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways." For Du Bois, the sorrow songs represented

2211-722: The Negro was to learn, he must teach himself," and cites the 30,000 black teachers created in one generation who "wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of the black people of the land, and they made Tuskegee possible." Additionally, 2500 Negroes had received a bachelor's degree, of whom 53% became teachers or leaders of educational systems, 17% became clergymen, 17% mainly physicians, 6% merchants, farmers and artisans; and 4% in government service. From 1875 to 1880, there were 22 Negro graduates from Northern colleges and 143 from Southern Negro colleges. From 1895 to 1900, Northern colleges graduated 100 Negros and over 500 graduated from Southern Negro colleges. Du Bois concludes by stating that

2278-687: The Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy—the Frenzy or Shouting being "when the Spirit of the Lord passed by, and, seizing the devotee, made him mad with supernatural joy." Du Bois says that the Negro church is the social center of Negro life. Predominately Methodists or Baptists after Emancipation, when Emancipation finally came Du Bois states, it seemed to the freedman a literal "Coming of the Lord". The final chapters of

2345-639: The Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death." Du Bois ends with, "And now that he is gone, I sweep the Veil away and cry, Lo! the soul to whose dear memory I bring this little tribute." The penultimate chapter of The Souls of Black Folk , "Of the Coming of John", "reads like a short story, [but] Du Bois clearly considered it an essay." (See footnote to this essay in The Best American Essays of

2412-596: The Veil", should not succumb "Truth, Beauty, and Goodness," to the ideal of wealth attainment in public schools. ...beyond the Veil are smaller but like problems of ideals, of leaders and the led, of serfdom, of poverty, of order and subordination, and, through all, the Veil of Race. He admonishes readers to "Teach workers to work, and Teach thinkers to think." "The need of the South is knowledge and culture," he says: "And to make men, we must have ideals, broad, pure, and inspiring ends of living,—not sordid money-getting, not apples of gold." Du Bois discusses how "to solve

2479-525: The Veil- was theirs alone, and in vacation time they sallied forth in lusty bands to meet the county school-commissioners. Yet, he states, after meeting with the commissioner, "but even then fell the awful shadow of the Veil, for they ate first, then I-alone." I have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief, at burial, birth, or wedding; from

2546-481: The ability of the representatives of these opposing views to see and appreciate and sympathize with each other's position." In Chapter X, Du Bois describes the rise of the black church and examines the history and contemporary state of religion and spiritualism among African Americans. After recounting his first exposure to the Southern Negro revival , Du Bois notes three things that characterize this religion:

2613-570: The accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South," this will lead to 1) The disenfranchisement of the Negro, 2) The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro, and 3) The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro." By Washington focusing on "common-school and industrial training," he "depreciates institutions of higher learning," where "teachers, professional men, and leaders" are trained. But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value

2680-510: The approach of a dark tenant." Closer to the end of the twentieth century, Karla F.C. Holloway , a professor of English at Duke University , centered her keynote address to the National Conference of Researchers of English on this sentence, saying: "Perhaps while sitting in his den or maybe in the midst of academic clutter at his university office, Du Bois penned the epic words that will center my reflections in this essay – 'The problem of

2747-454: The black and white inhabitants of Philadelphia. 'In all walks of life the Negro is liable to meet some objection to his presence or some discourteous treatment; and the ties of friendship or memory seldom are strong enough to hold across the color line.' Du Bois goes on to illustrate this by discussing various social contexts in which the black American is faced with social dilemmas as to whether or not to enter white-dominated spaces: to not enter

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2814-645: The book are devoted to narratives of individuals. In Chapter XI, "Of the Passing of the First-Born", Du Bois recounts the birth of his first child, a son, and his untimely death as an infant. His son, Burghardt, contracted diphtheria and white doctors in Atlanta refused to treat black patients. Du Bois comments, "Why was his hair tinted with gold? An evil omen was golden hair in my life." He says, "I saw his breath beat quicker and quicker, pause, and then his little soul leapt like

2881-564: The book's second essay, "Of the Dawn of Freedom", at both its beginning and its end. At the outset of the essay, Du Bois writes: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea". At the end of the essay, Du Bois truncates his statement to: "The problem of the twentieth century

2948-507: The bureau was "one of the great landmarks of political and social progress." After a year's work, Du Bois states that "it relieved a vast amount of physical suffering; it transported seven thousand fugitives from congested centres back to the farm; and, best of all, it inaugurated the crusade of the New England school-ma'am." The greatest success of the Freedmen's Bureau lay in the planting of

3015-429: The color-line to include discrimination beyond that of color discrimination, Du Bois also pared down his definition to acknowledge that the "problem of the color-line" as he initially imagined it existed in the United States and did not manifest itself identically across the world. Though discrimination existed everywhere, Du Bois expanded his mindset to include discrimination beyond that of simply black versus white. Both

3082-455: The color-line: "The Problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. Du Bois describes the Freedmen's Bureau as "one of the most singular and interesting of the attempts made by a great nation to grapple with vast problems of race and social condition." He says that

3149-452: The early works in the field of sociology. In The Souls of Black Folk , Du Bois used the term " double consciousness ", perhaps taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson ("The Transcendentalist" and "Fate"), applying it to the idea that black people must have two fields of vision at all times. They must be conscious of how they view themselves, as well as being conscious of how the world views them. Each chapter in The Souls of Black Folk begins with

3216-407: The faith in savings". Finally, he argues that "if we cannot peacefully reconstruct the South with white votes, we certainly can with black votes." ...the granting of the ballot to the black man was a necessity, the very least a guilty nation could grant a wronged race, and the only method of compelling the South to accept the results of the war. Thus Negro suffrage ended a civil war by beginning

3283-536: The fourth chapter, "Of the Meaning of Progress", Du Bois explores his experiences first, when he was teaching in Tennessee. Secondly he returned after 10 years and found the town where he had worked had suffered many unpleasant changes. He says: "My log schoolhouse was gone. In its place stood Progress; and Progress, I understand, is necessarily ugly." I was a Fisk student then, and all Fisk men thought that Tennessee-beyond

3350-558: The free school among Negroes, and the idea of free elementary education among all classes in the South. He gives credit to the creation of Fisk University , Clark Atlanta University , Howard University , and Hampton University and acknowledges the "apostles of human culture" Edmund Asa Ware , Samuel C. Armstrong , and Erastus Cravath . He worried that the demise of the Freedman's Savings Bank , which resulted in huge losses for many freedmen of any savings, resulted in freedmen losing "all

3417-402: The industrial revolution in the South from 1885 to 1895, and its industrial schools. Yet, he asks, "Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?" Du Bois asserts: "...education that encourages aspiration, that sets the loftiest of ideals and seeks as an end culture and character rather than bread-winning," is the right of the black as well as the white. He goes on to state, "If

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3484-431: The lyrics to mark a barrier for the reader, to suggest that black culture—life "within the veil"—remains inaccessible to white people. In "The Forethought", Du Bois states: "Leaving, then, the world of the white man, I have stepped within the Veil, raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses,—the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls." He concludes with

3551-514: The lyrics to the spirituals, which often serve to underline the arguments of the chapters: Booker T. Washington 's idealism is echoed in the otherworldly salvation hoped for in "A Great Camp-Meeting in the Promised Land", for example; likewise the determined call for education in "Of the Training of Black Men" is matched by the strident words of "March On". Edwards adds that Du Bois may have withheld

3618-484: The men, women and children are farmers. Economically, the Negro has become a slave of debt, says Du Bois. He describes the economic classes: the "submerged tenth" of croppers , 40 percent are metayers or "tenant on shares" with a chattel mortgage , 39 percent are semi-metayers and wage-laborers, while 5 percent are money-renters, and 6 percent freeholders . Finally, du Bois states that only 6 percent "have succeeded in emerging into peasant proprietorship", leading to

3685-416: The other chapters. Du Bois mentions that the music was so powerful and meaningful that, regardless of the people's appearance and teaching, "their hearts were human and their singing stirred men with a mighty power." Du Bois concludes the chapter by bringing up inequality, race and discrimination. He says, "Your country? How came it yours?..we were here". Du Bois heralds the "melody of the slave songs," or

3752-552: The phrase appeared frequently in newspapers during the Reconstruction era with specific reference to divisions between blacks and whites. For example, the July 7, 1869, issue of the Richmond Virginia Dispatch described a "color line" running between two candidates for governor. Most uses of the term in the 1870s were in newspapers from former slave states and dealt with elections. A search of Newspapers.com indicates

3819-514: The phrase appeared in newspapers with increasing frequency from 1873 on. Early usage includes an 1871 address as part of an anniversary celebration of the New England Society. At that event General Horace Porter referred to the color line as being the result of being in battle alongside black troops in Virginia which his audience found humorous. The term occurs several times in testimony during

3886-777: The privilege and duty of voting, opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds,—so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them. Note: By the time Du Bois published his book, most of the former Confederate states had completed disenfranchisement of blacks, led by Mississippi in 1890, by constitutional amendments and other laws raising barriers to voter registration, primarily through poll taxes, residency and recordkeeping requirements, subjective literacy tests and other devices. Virginia passed similar laws in 1908. By excluding blacks from political life, southern legislatures were able to pass Jim Crow laws and other discriminatory methods. In

3953-561: The problem of training men for life," especially as it relates to the Negro, who "hang between them and a light a veil so thick, that they shall not even think of breaking through." Du Bois cites the progress of Southern education, consisting of army schools, mission schools, and schools of the Freedman's Bureau, from the end of the Civil War until 1876. Then complete school systems were established including Normal schools and colleges, followed by

4020-401: The quote and the phrase can be found in numerous texts of the 20th century, both academic and non-academic alike. Langston Hughes uses the phrase in his autobiography, writing: "In Cleveland, a liberal city, the color-line began to be drawn tighter and tighter. Theaters and restaurants in the downtown area began to refuse to accommodate colored people. Landlords doubled and tripled their rent at

4087-457: The reader in with a direct reference, while the second goes so far as to identify all of the areas in the world where Du Bois believed the color-line was "the problem of the twentieth century". All imply, whether directly or passively, that the color-line extends outside the bounds of the United States. Many decades later, in 1952, nine years before he moved to Ghana , Du Bois wrote an essay for Jewish Life magazine about his experiences during

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4154-558: The slave-trade." He continues: "Careless ignorance and laziness here, fierce hate and vindictiveness there,—these are the extremes of the Negro problem which we met that day, and we scarce knew which we preferred." Speaking of the cotton fields from "Carolina to Texas", Du Bois claims an analogy between the "ancient and modern "Quest of the Golden Fleece in the Black Sea." Continuing his discussion of Dougherty County, he explains that of

4221-456: The twentieth century is the problem of the color line.'" It is important to note that in much of the general usage of the quote, the "problem of the color-line" is implied as only a problem in the United States. However, in Du Bois’ initial writing, he extended the problem across much of the world to "Asia", "Africa", and "the islands of the sea". Du Bois’ thought in "Of the Dawn of Freedom" implied

4288-402: The veil as both a blessing and a curse. In those sombre forests of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself,-darkly as through a veil; and yet he saw in himself some faint revelation of his power, of his mission. The second chapter, "Of the Dawn of Freedom", covers the period of history from 1861 to 1872 and the Freedmen's Bureau . Du Bois also introduces the problem of

4355-476: The veil. According to Du Bois, this veil is worn by all African-Americans because their view of the world and its potential economic, political, and social opportunities are so vastly different from those of white people. The veil is a visual manifestation of the color line, a problem Du Bois worked his whole life to remedy. Du Bois sublimates the function of the veil when he refers to it as a gift of second sight for African Americans, thus simultaneously characterizing

4422-408: The words: "...need I add that I who speak here am bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of them that live within the Veil?" Chapter I, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings", lays out an overview of Du Bois's thesis. He says that the blacks of the South need the right to vote, the right to a good education, and to be treated with equality and justice. Here, he also coined " double-consciousness ", defined as

4489-413: Was primarily designed to control slaves," and Negroes viewed its "courts as a means of reenslaving the blacks." Regarding social contact, Du Bois states "there is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with thoughts and feelings of the other." He concludes that "the future of the South depends on

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