ABSTRACT
Chapter 13 explores the influence of W.E.B. Du Bois’ text, The Souls of Black Folk. Bharat Malkani argues that while primarily sociological, the ideas and concepts that Du Bois developed have had a profound influence on how legal scholars and activists have understood the paradoxical relationship between racism and the legal system. The chapter argues that the influence of Souls on the field of racial justice and law is threefold. First, it set the foundations for how social justice movements concerned with racism have used the law to further their cause, from the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century through to the Black Lives Matter movement of more recent times. Second, the book provided the intellectual groundwork for subsequent academic scholarship on race, social justice, and law, most notably the field of Critical Race Theory that emerged in the 1980s. Third, Souls marked Du Bois as a prominent scholar-activist, and his approach to marrying academia with social justice activism has inspired future generations of scholar-activists, particularly those concerned with racial injustices.
