Above the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois’s Otherworldly Perspective and a New Racial Order

Abstract

Though W. E. B. Du Bois was critical of traditional religion, he understood the power of religious orientations to the world, including religious attitudes of faith and hope. Although many scholars have commented on Du Bois’s secular faith, few have understood the secular, scientific sources that he used to develop it. In this article, we examine how Du Bois built a post-Christian otherworldly perspective in part by drawing from popular science writers who examined the possibilities, both real and imagined, of higher-dimensional spaces and planes of existence. We analyze Du Bois’s scholarship, visionary fiction, prayers, and poems to better understand how he repurposed higher-dimensional concepts to envision a post-racial God, reimagine the social order, and develop key ideas that informed his life’s work, including the concept of the “color line.”