This collection of essays emerged from a symposium held at Mercer University which examined the ways in which W. E. B. DuBois's theories of race have shaped racial discussion and public policy in the twentieth-century. The essays also examine the application of Du Bois's theories to the new millennium, as well as his contributions to the study of the humanities.

For Black writers, what is tradition? What does it mean to them that Western humanism has excluded Black culture? Seven noted Black writers and critics take up these and other questions in this collection of original essays, attempting to redefine humanism from a Black perspective, to free it from ethnocentrism, and to enlarge its cultural base. Contributors: Richard K. Barksdale, Alice Childress, Chester J. Fontenot, Michael S. Harper, Trudier Harris, George E. Kent, R. Baxter Miller