Soul Power: Culture, Radicalism, and the Making of a U. S. Third World Left Book

Four short lectures from c. 1900 - 2 by Booker T; 2 by WEBD.


Most notable about Booker T is his tactical admiration for white civilization (going so far as to see the silver lining in slavery - the chance to shed the savagery of Africa and begin to learn from the white man). He also expresses a patient and non-threatening desire to lift the negro race up to the level of the white in due time, and makes a strong connection between good honest work and dignity and success (and the necessity of erasing the negative attitudes towards manual labor caused by slavery).

DuBois's first essay recounts the South's rejection of the industrial revolution in favor of King Cotton, and the New South's process of catching up with the North after the Civil War. DuBois takes a much more negative, angry view of Redemption / Jim Crow, especially the stifling of the 15th Amendment and the re-establishment of slavery in all but name (peonage/sharecropping). Sees strength in urban migration and "Group Economy" - closed economic circle of Negros, largely independent from whites. Sees the south stuck between a desire to industrialize, and a refusal to allow the blacks to become a viable, educated working class...