"There is a growing urgency, in classrooms as well as in publishing at large, to encompass the African American experience, African American thought and culture. Much of the recent headway has been made in the superhero framework, including Black Panther, but not only there. The tremendous success-in sales and prizes-of March, the trilogy based upon the life of Congressman John Lewis, is arguably a landmark. No greater figure exists in African-American thought, the shaping of modern narratives, than W.E.B. Du Bois, even after the nearly six decades following his 1963 death. DuBois not only influenced institutions so greatly as to be credited with reshaping them, he rewrote Black history (with Black Reconstruction, slow to be accepted as one of the classics of all U.S. history). He also arguably supplied what might be described as the "poetics" of African American life. With Souls of Black Folk (first published in 1903), he famously set forth his analysis of the folk culture, including religious folk culture, that would be the basis for future progress. In doing so, he pleaded for education and a new sensibility. But he made clear that the promise of these would not come "from the outside." A graphic novel based on The Souls of Black Folk will be a dramatic entry to a field growing rapidly within schools and beyond in popular culture. No "W.E.B. Du Bois" comic proper yet exists, a rather amazing absence, perhaps because the complexity of his story has not been taken up. It may also be that Du Bois, whose political life became so controversial from the onset of the Cold War to the end of his life, has seemed a daunting subject. This graphic novel will be less ambitious than a comprehensive biographical treatment. Beginning with a chapter on Du Bois's life before the writing of The Souls of Black Folk, it will utilize that book itself as the chief text from which to narrate its message, and close with a postscript chapter on Du Bois's life and work after its publication"--

Publisher Marketing: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." These were the prescient words of W. E. B. Du Bois's influential 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. The preeminent Black intellectual of his generation, Du Bois wrote about the trauma of seeing the Reconstruction era's promise of racial equality cruelly dashed by the rise of white supremacist terror and Jim Crow laws. Yet he also argued for the value of African American cultural traditions and provided inspiration for countless civil rights leaders who followed him. Now artist Paul Peart-Smith offers the first graphic adaptation of Du Bois's seminal work. Peart-Smith's graphic adaptation provides historical and cultural contexts that bring to life the world behind Du Bois's words. Readers will get a deeper understanding of the cultural debates The Souls of Black Folk engaged in, with more background on figures like Booker T. Washington, the advocate of black economic uplift, and the Pan-Africanist minister Alexander Crummell. This beautifully illustrated book vividly conveys the continuing legacy of The Souls of Black Folk, effectively updating it for the era of the 1619 Project and Black Lives Matter.

Format: Paperback | Pages: 180 | Publication Date: 2023-04-14