Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation
Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation. Art & Adaptation by Paul Peart-Smith. Edited by Paul Buhle & Herb Boyd. Rutgers University Press. 2023. 180pp. $22.95
Artist Paul Peart-Smith presents the first graphic novel adaptation of a landmark work, a hybrid of cultural studies and personal essay, W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk. The original work is filled with insight into the Black person’s experience after the American Civil War as well as functioning as a prevailing call to action. Peart-Smith masterfully works with Du Bois’s timeless prose: navigating the “vast veil,” observing with a “second-sight,” and absorbing it all with a “double-consciousness.”
Du Bois’s collection of nine essays provide for the reader a rich document of American history as told by both a scholar and someone speaking at a personal level. That makes for a compelling combination of tempered reason and heartfelt insight. Some of the language is a bit dated but it’s that passionate voice, fighting against the injustice and cruelty that African Americans have endured, that speaks loud and clear. In a lot of ways, Peart-Smith had to know when to get out of the way and when to step in. So, taking his own turn, Peart-Smith finds ways to both be a reasoned observer and a passionate interpreter. And that basically comes down to doing just the right amount of emphasizing and summarizing.
The above image is a perfect example of how Peart-Smith brings to full focus the delicious quality of Du Bois’s distinctively genteel tone infused with an activist’s bite. The text that Peart-Smith highlights has Du Bois sarcastically agreeing with racist Southerners that educated African Americans can be dangerous: “And the South was not wholly WRONG; for education among all kinds of men always has had and always will have, an element of danger and REVOLUTION, of dissatisfaction and DISCONTENT.” Discontent, indeed!
This graphic interpretation of Du Bois’s seminal work will inspire you to go back and read the original work, discover more about Du Bois, Black history, and maybe even get you involved since there’s still plenty of work ahead in numerous ways, from prison reform to keeping a check on rolling back voting rights. Du Bois’s collection of essays, so ahead of its time in content and style, is complimented by this highly original, creative and passionate graphic work.
