AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/3/3-7)
Unit 3 · Topic 3.7
3.7 The Color Line and Double Consciousness in American Society
At the turn of the twentieth century, Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem 'We Wear the Mask' and W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk gave lasting language for how racism shaped Black life: the mask, the Veil, the color line and double consciousness.
Key terms
- color line
- double consciousness
- the Veil
- We Wear the Mask
- The Souls of Black Folk
'We Wear the Mask' (1895)
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of formerly enslaved parents, was one of the first nationally famous African American poets. His poem opens, 'We wear the mask that grins and lies'. The speaker describes hiding pain behind a smiling face because the world doesn't want to see Black suffering.
The mask stands for the way African Americans had to hide their true feelings to survive in a racist society. It also shows how they were cut off from full participation in American life: the world sees the mask, not the person.
The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
W.E.B. Du Bois was a sociologist, historian and activist, and the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard. The Souls of Black Folk is a collection of essays about Black life after slavery. Each chapter opens with lines of music from a spiritual, which Du Bois called the Sorrow Songs, honoring the music enslaved people created (2.9). He wrote to counter myths of Black inferiority during an era of lynching and Jim Crow.
Key ideas
Du Bois described double consciousness as 'this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others'. It came from the alienation that racism creates. But Du Bois also saw a kind of 'second-sight' in it: because Black Americans had to understand both their own world and the white world, they could see America's unequal realities clearly. That insight could fuel adaptation, agency and resistance.
| Idea | Meaning |
|---|---|
| The Veil | An invisible barrier between Black and white America; Black people can see the white world, but white people don't truly see them |
| The color line | Racial discrimination and legal segregation that remained after slavery ended; Du Bois wrote that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line |
| Double consciousness | The inner conflict of seeing yourself through the eyes of a society that looks down on you, feeling a 'twoness' as both American and Black |
The required chapters
The required selections include 'The Forethought', where Du Bois introduces the Veil and the color line; 'Of Our Spiritual Strivings', where he explains double consciousness; 'Of Alexander Crummell', a portrait of a Black Episcopal priest and scholar who struggled against the color line all his life; and 'The Afterthought', a closing appeal to readers.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Comparing two metaphors
Compare how Dunbar's 'mask' and Du Bois's 'Veil' describe African American experience.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Similarity: both describe separation between Black people's inner lives and how white society sees them.
- Step 2: Difference: the mask is something Black people put on to survive; the Veil is a barrier society places between the races.
- Step 3: Use a detail from each text.
Answer: Model answer: Both metaphors describe a gap between who African Americans really are and how white society sees them. Dunbar's mask, which 'grins and lies', is something Black people choose to wear to hide their pain and survive. Du Bois's Veil is a barrier racism places between Black and white America, so that white Americans never truly see Black life.
Common mistakes
- Defining double consciousness as simply having two identities. It's the conflict of seeing yourself through the eyes of a society that looks down on you.
- Treating double consciousness as only negative. Du Bois also saw insight and the potential for resistance in it.
- Mixing up the color line (segregation and discrimination) with the Veil (a barrier to understanding).
On the exam
- Expect to explain a concept like double consciousness and apply it to a source or later example.
- These ideas appear across the course; connect them to later writers and movements (3.11, 4.10).
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 3.7 The Color Line and Double Consciousness in American Society. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear the Mask," 1895 (first two stanzas)
The "mask" in the poem most likely represents
Dunbar's mask is most similar to which idea from W. E. B. Du Bois?
"It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"
Du Bois defines "double-consciousness" as
Scholars note that double consciousness was not only a burden. Which statement best reflects that view?
In the book's opening, Du Bois famously predicted that the central problem of the twentieth century would be
0 of 5 answered