The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, is considered the first manifesto of the civil rights movement. The book is a critical appraisal of the situation of blacks in the U.S. South after the Civil War, which nominally abolished slavery but long replaced it with a modern system of economic dependence and apartheid. The Souls of Black Folk became the foundational text of the entire civil rights movement, the source of inspiration for Martin Luther King, and the touchstone of all black intellectuals to this day. William E. B. Du Bois remains one of the most influential African Americans of the 20th century. Gröls Classics - English Edition