The Gift of Black Folk

Commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, this work represents one of the first insider’s views of the black experience in America. In it, DuBois detailed the role of blacks in the early exploration of America; the roles they played in cultivating tobacco, cotton, sweet potatoes, and peanuts; and the courage they displayed in fighting wars. He documented their creative genius in music, painting, sculpture, literature, theatre, and in virtually every aspect of American culture. He discussed the unique contribution of black women in caring for and nurturing white children as well as their own. He proposed the idea that freedom for black women could lead to freedom for all women.

DuBois also looked at the crucial contribution of blacks to the development of democracy, stating that “one cannot think . . . of democracy in the modern world without reference to the American Negro.” The United States cannot be understood apart from race because it was the presence of black slaves in America that forced the country to ask whether it would attempt to live up to its ideal of freedom for all people. DuBois made it clear that “the Negro Problem” remained the problem for the future of democracy and the United States. He stressed the fact that the black man’s bounteous gifts to the nation were present even before the shackles of physical slavery were removed. The black way of life had influenced the mind of the nation, and African spiritual values had become an increasingly evident part of the white man’s psyche. “The black laborer brought the idea of toil as a necessary evil ministering to the pleasure of life.”

At a time when the United States prepares to welcome its first African-American president, The Gift of Black Folk provides a unique picture of the struggles that paved the way for freedom and equality in our nation.