The Negro Problem (book)

The Negro Problem

Authors	Booker T. Washington W.E.B. DuBois Charles W. Chestnutt Wilford H. Smith H.T. Kealing Paul Laurence Dunbar T. Thomas Fortune
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	J. Pott & Company
Publication date	1903

The Negro Problem is a collection of seven essays by prominent Black American writers, such as W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Laurence Dunbar, edited by Booker T. Washington, and published in 1903. It covered such topics as law, education, disenfranchisement, and Black Americans' place in American society.

Like much of Washington's own work, the tone of the book was that Black Americans' status in the U.S. was a matter of personal responsibility. While this represented the point of view of the authors at the time, some - like DuBois - would later revise their stance to consider the effects of systemic and institutional racism.

Essays

• Industrial Education for the Negro by Booker T. Washington
• The Talented Tenth by W.E.B. DuBois
• The Disfranchisement of the Negro by Charles W. Chesnutt
• The Negro and the Law by Wilford H. Smith
• The Characteristics of the Negro People by Hightower Theodore Kealing
• Representative American Negroes by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• The Negro's Place in American Life at the Present Day by T. Thomas Fortune

In Popular Culture

• Talented 10th, an album by Christian hip-hop artist Sho Baraka, is based on the essay by DuBois
• The Negro Problem is a band led by singer/songwriter Stew