Darkwater by WEB Du Bois
WEB Du Bois is one of the greatest American thinkers and writers. This is a collection of essays meant as a follow on to Souls of Black Folks and published approx 20 years later. Like Souls, it is a mixture of genres ... essays interposed with fiction, poetry and prayers. On these pages you see arguments for women sufferage, anti-poverty measures, raw explanation of the continued racial struggle in our country, perspective on WWI, Jesus in Texas --- where he witnesses a chain gang, has dinner with a wealthy white family and then witnesses a lynching, and more. I don't think you can be an american citizen without interacting with Du Bois. To start-Credo; Of Work and Wealth and The Damnation of Women. For fiction, read The Comet. Here is the very last paragraph of an essay called The Souls of White Folk: "Back beyond the world and swept by these wild, white faces of the awful dead, why will this Soul of White Folk,--this modern Prometheus,--hang bound by his own binding,...