Balls (1919)

The Crisis noted with exceeding interest last summer four social gatherings; there were doubtless many others, but these came especially under our eye: the balls of the Pythians and Elks at Atlantic City, where some 15,000 colored folk danced on the great Young’s Pier; the ball of the National Medical Association at Newark; and the Sigma Pi Phi fraternity at Philadelphia. For beauty of face and form and robing, for fine fellowship and joy of life it may well be doubted if these gatherings have ever been equalled in the United States. Assemble the nations of earth and say what you will, there is nothing in white Europe or America that can measure up to the wonderful colorings of flesh, grace of movement and rhythm of music such as Black America can furnish. To all this is being subtly added the appropriate richness and color of gown and the gentle manner based on deep, human sympathy. We are discovering at last the long-veiled beauty of our own world.

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Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1919. “Balls.” The Crisis. 18(6):285.