The Souls of Black Folk

Du Bois recalls the time he worked as a teacher in Tennessee while he was a student at Fisk University. After attending a segregated teacher training program, Du Bois looked for a job and only found one in the countryside after Josie, the daughter of a poor, morally upright farming family, told him about a position.

The school, a log hut where crops were once stored, was poorly furnished and in disrepair. When school started, there were 30 students, but Du Bois found that he had to hunt down students from time to time because they needed to work on their family’s farm or to take care of younger siblings. Du Bois boarded with the families of his students and found some homes to be prosperous, clean, and neat, while others were impoverished or untidy. He most liked staying with Josie’s family. Josie’s mother bragged about how hardworking her daughter was but feared Josie’s dream of going away to Fisk would never come true because the family could not get ahead financially.

On Sundays, Du Bois went to the village church and noted the wide range of generations—the old ones who remembered freedom, emancipation, and the disappointing aftermath; the younger ones, “to whom War, Hell, and Slavery were but childhood tales” (29).