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Historian, sociologist, novelist, editor, and political activist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was the most gifted and influential black intellectual of his time. This volume presents his essential writings, covering the full span of a restless life dedicated to the struggle for racial justice. "The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States 1638-1870" (1896) , his first book, renders a dispassionate account of how, despite ethical and political opposition, Americans tolerated the traffic in human beings until a bloody cival war taught them the disastrous consequences of moral cowardice. "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903) , a collection of beautifully written essays, narrates the cruelties of racism and celebrates the strength and pride of black America.