This hitherto unpublished essay by W. E. B. Du Bois, the text titled "The Afro-American," which likely dates to the late autumn of 1894 or the winter of 1895, is an early attempt by the young scholar to define for himself the contours of the situation of the Negro, or "Afro-American," in the United States in the mid-1890s. It is perhaps the earliest full text expressing his nascent formulations of both the global "problem of the color-line" and the sense of "double-consciousness" among African Americans in North America.

[Chandler] proposes a path for the initial reading of this essay by rendering thematic the worldwide horizon that framed Du Bois's projection from this early moment and by bringing into relief the interwoven motifs of the global "problem of the color-line" and the sense of "double-consciousness" for the "Afro-American" in the United States.

     "In the metropolis of the modern world, in this the closing year of the Nineteenth Century, there has been assembled a Congress of men and women of African blood, to deliberate solemnly upon the present situation and outlook of the darker races of mankind. The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line, the question as to how far differences of race, which show themselves chiefly in the color of the skin and the texture of the hair, are going to be made, hereafter, the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization."

     Let me for a moment recapitulate. In the life of advancing peoples there must go on simultaneously a struggle for existence, accumulation of wealth, education of the young, and a development in culture and the higher things of life. The more backward the nation the larger sum of effort goes into the struggle for existence; the more forward the nation the larger and broader is the life of the spirit. For guidance, in taking these steps in civilization, the nation looks to four sources: the precepts of parents, the sight of seers, the opinion of the majority and the traditions of the past.  [Par.37]

In its larger aspects the style is tropical — African. This needs no apology. The blood of my fathers spoke through me and cast off the English restraint of my training and surroundings. The resulting accomplishment is a matter of taste. Sometimes I think very well of it and sometimes I do not.

    The fact of racial antipathy is as old as the interaction of people with one another. But the history of the centuries is the history of the discovery of the human soul and in every age the curse of the average person was his own narrowness, his blindness toward the riches that surrounded him, the notion that his own narrow heart and his small mind are the measure and borders of the universe. Above all in our days we do not want to forget the trivial observation that even in the nooks and alleys, and under threadbare clothing, lay hidden riches and depths of human life that we will perhaps never experience in ourselves.
    In the struggle for his human rights the American Negro relies above all on the feeling of justice in the civilized world. We are no barbarians or heathen, we are educable and our education is increasing; our economic abilities have proven themselves. We too want to have our chance in life. Whoever wants to get acquainted with our living conditions, be welcome; we demand nothing other than that one gets acquainted with us honestly and face to face, and does not judge us according to hearsay or according to the verdict of our despisers.

 Joseph Fracchia [department page] offers us a nicely rendered translation; he appends several translator's endnotes that amplify or clarify several aspects of the original DuBoisian text. The translation is contained within a special issue of the New Centennial Review on Du Bois that is edited by Nahum Dimitri Chandler. Other pieces in this issue are written by Nahum D. Chandler, Hortense J. Spillers, Nicole A. Waligora-Davis, Rebecka Rutledge Fisher, Karen E. Fields, and Jeremy W. Pope. The entire issue and individual articles can be purchased either in print form or else in downloadable PDF files. For purchases one would need first to use the "Table of Contents" drop-down menu list located on the navigation bar and select "Volume 6, Number 3 (2006)". After the contents of that particular issue are displayed, one then can make purchase choices.

 DESIGNED FOR ALL CHILDREN BUT ESPECIALLY FOR OURS.
 It aims to be a thing of Joy and Beauty, dealing in Happiness, Laughter, and Emulation, and designed especially for Kiddies from Six to Sixteen.
 It will seek to teach Universal Love and Brotherhood for all little folk--black and brown and yellow and white.
 Of course, pictures, stories, letters frrom little ones, games and oh--everything!

* Note: This anthology also contains essays by Mary McLeod Bethune, Sterling A. Brown, Gordon B. Hancock, Leslie Pinckney Hill, Langston Hughes, Rayford W. Logan, Frederick D. Patterson, A. Philip Randolph, George S. Schuyler, Willard S. Townsend, Charles H. Wesley, Doxey A. Wilkerson, and Roy Wilkins.

 [....]  Here comes a new idea for a Talented Tenth: The concept of a group-leadership, [sic] not simply educated and self-sacrificing, but with clear vision of present world conditions and dangers, and conducting American Negroes to alliance with culture groups in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, and looking toward a new world culture. We can do it. We have the ability. The only question is, have we the will?

This calls for leadership through special organization. Such organization calls for more than a tenth of our number. One one-hundredth, or thirty thousand persons is indicated, with a directing council composed of educated and specially trained experts in the main branches of science and the main categories of human work, and a paid executive committee of five or six persons to carry out the program.