To commemorate the anniversary of the publication of W.E.B. Dubois's "The Souls of Black Folk," members of the University community participated in a panel discussion last night honoring the author.
The Carter G. Woodson Institute and the Office of African American Affairs sponsored the event as part of continuing programming for Black History Month.
A collection of 14 essays written in response to the post-reconstruction environment of America, "The Souls of Black Folk" was published in April of 1893.
The panel featured members of the faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students reading from the work and offering their analysis and commentary on its contemporary relevance.
Assistant Politics Prof. Lawrie Balfour said Dubois' examination of the "limits of formal equality" during post-reconstruction was echoed by the continuing struggle for racial harmony in America.
"I'm interested in the ways Dubois helps us to understand the contemporary political predicament problem of racial injustice in the post civil rights era," Balfour said.
She said the questions Dubois raised should continue to be asked.
"Its important to keep these questions in the forefront of our minds and to see them as moral and political questions," she added.
Dubois employed a variety of literary techniques and academic disciplines in his writing, said Marlon Ross, professor of English and African American Studies.
Dubois used multiple genres, discourses, and ways of thinking that ranged from sociology to the short story, he said.
The panel members said Dubois' work is applicable to a wide range of contemporary issues, including the problem of third world debt and race relations both in academia and the world.
Though Dubois is often characterized as a "cold intellectual," he had a drive to bring education to a broad base of people, said Corey Walker, director of the center for local knowledge at the Carter G. Woodson institute and professor of African American and African studies.
"It's interesting that we're in the Dome Room," he said. "He wanted to expand knowledge but was also a product of the academy."
Overall, Walker said the forum offered an opportunity for the University community to acknowledge what he termed "one of the best works in American letters."
Third-year college student Evita Byrd said she met the diverse audience with satisfaction.
"The mixture is looking good," she said. "Black History is everyone's history."
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