Color Line (civil Rights Issue) - Use in 20th-century Literature and Literary Theory

Use in 20th-century Literature and Literary Theory

Both the quote and the phrase can be found in numerous texts of the last century, both academic and non-academic alike. Langston Hughes uses the phrase in his autobiography, writing: "In Cleveland, a liberal city, the color-line began to be drawn tighter and tighter. Theaters and restaurants in the downtown area began to refuse to accommodate colored people. Landlords doubled and tripled their rent at the approach of a dark tenant." Closer to the end of the twentieth century, Karla F. C. Holloway, a professor of English at Duke University, centered her Keynote Address to the National Conference of Researchers of English around this sentence, saying: "Perhaps while sitting in his den or maybe in the midst of academic clutter at his university of office, DuBois penned the epic words that will center my reflections in this essay –"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."

It is important to note that in much of the general usage of the quote, the "problem of the color-line" is implied as only a problem in the United States. However, in Du Bois’ initial writing, he extended the problem across much of the world to "Asia" "Africa" and "the islands of the sea". Du Bois’ thought in "Of the Dawn of Freedom" implied a universal exclusivity, of "color" as the greatest problem of the 20th century. The general use of the term the "color-line" however, is usually in reference to the United States, a possibility Du Bois did not acknowledge in his initial essays.