The Souls of Black Folk Lesson Plan

Describe two topics DuBois covers in “Of the Sons of Masters and Men” to describe race relations in the late nineteenth century. Which of these topics do you feel is most important and why?

DuBois covers several topics: economic conditions, voting, the judiciary, and crime. Students should choose just two of these topics. Students may be drawn to the section on crime, in part because DuBois gives a snippet about the history of policing. DuBois points out that the police in the South were created with the explicit purpose of managing and disciplining Black people. That is what their training was aimed at. Many activists now are extending DuBois’s argument into the 21st...