"Two Unreconciled Strivings"
African-American Identity in the Gilded Age, 1877-1915

By Scott Culclasure and Pat Adams-Caskie
American Memory Fellows 1998

   "One ever feels his two-ness,

 

an American,

 a Negro,

two souls, two thoughts,

 two unreconciled strivings,

 too many ideals in one dark body,

 whose dogged strength alone

 keeps it from being torn asunder."

 
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks, 1903 Arrow to next page