Racial Identity and the Souls of Black Folk – a Zoom dialogue

More than 35 years out of bondage, African Americans struggled to find their place in American society. While some recognition of civil equality occurred, there were still elements of American society more comfortable with the antebellum status of Blacks as chattel property. WEB DuBois’ collection of essays found in The Souls of Black Folk illustrates the complexities of being an “African in America” at the beginning of the twentieth century. This talk highlights the book’s enduring legacy and the the theme of racial identity woven throughout DuBois’ essays.

Inspired by the exhibit Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks currently at Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston.

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Our presenter: Ron Goodwin is an Associate Professor at Prairie View A&M University and a native of San Antonio, Texas. His research interests focus on the intersection of race and neighborhood development, the political impacts of the urban planning processes, and the cultural preservation of Texas’ black community through the New Deal’s Slave Narratives. Goodwin’s publications include the manuscripts The New Deal and Texas History: Saving the Past through Hardship and Turmoil (2021) and Remembering the Days of Sorrow: The WPA and the Texas Slave Narratives (2014) and the co-authored The Mask of Microaggressions: Case Studies of Racism in the US (with Dr. Mark Tschaepe in 2017). His numerous peer-reviewed articles examine such topics as race and politics, the impacts of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sweatt v Painter, factors influencing white flight in Texas, and the negative impacts of subprime lending contributing to the financial crises in 2008. Goodwin received his PhD from Texas Southern University.

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