The Souls of Black Folk

An important context for understanding Du Bois’s work in The Souls of Black Folk is the historical period of Post-Reconstruction and the institution of racially restrictive Jim Crow laws that segregated almost every aspect of life, especially in the South.

Reconstruction marked the period from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 when the federal government maintained an administrative and military presence in the former Confederacy; Post-Reconstruction began once Southern states started to re-enter the Union. Although African Americans gained legal rights with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, those rights quickly began to erode once the federal government withdrew from the postwar South.

African Americans’ efforts to uplift themselves by buying homes and land, building businesses, educating themselves, and even gaining elected office became increasingly difficult as Southern states and towns passed restrictive codes called “Jim Crow” laws that restricted their housing, employment, use of public facilities and spaces, and legal recourse.  

The legal system stripped African Americans of their civil liberties and was complicit in re-enslavement. For example, towns and municipalities would pass anti-vagrancy laws that forbid idle people from staying in these areas upon pain of arrest or fines. African Americans who were arrested for the crime of being someplace without leave from whites or the authorities were incarcerated and then “leased out” as workers to local businesses, farms, or authorities with little due process.