In the book of “The Souls of Black Folks” are essays that W.E.B Dubois wrote to show what it was like living within the “Veil” that made Africa Americans feel as if they did not existed, and cause them to have that self-consciousness about them, leaving African Americans always viewing themselves in the eyes of others. Dubois described the “Veil as:
"The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unsalable to sons of night, who must plod darkly on in resignation, beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above” (Dubois, 2). Dubois mentions the problem of the color line, which was said the cause of the civil war. Even though some blacks were free, the whites took advantage over the, because they felt as if they did not have any rights, and the whites took advantage over that. One of the main rights whites took away from blacks was the right to vote, and Dubois thought, “With the right to vote goes everything (Dubois).” The power to vote was important to the black community because it can cause slavery to end, and having a voice to vote can them power. Then this mission was replace with,” Tiring of a push for political power, African-Americans begin a
Cited: The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois. Read It Now for Free! (Homepage). N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Hine, Darlene C., William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. "The African-American Odyssey, Volume 1." Alibris Marketplace. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012