The Soul
Du Bois’s 45 editorials on religion, Christianity, and moral argument in The Crisis (1910-1934)
Du Bois framed racial justice as the test of Christian sincerity and found Christianity failing. These 45 editorials range from allegorical fiction (“Jesus Christ in Georgia,” in which Christ appears as a mulatto and is nearly lynched) to prophetic indictment (“The Christmas Prayers of God,” in which God witnesses a lynching and falls silent) to direct attacks on church complicity in racial oppression. The most prophetic voice in the collection emerges here: biblical rhetoric deployed against the church itself.
Christian Hypocrisy
Du Bois argued that American Christianity had made its peace with racial oppression. Churches segregated their congregations. Denominations failed to condemn lynching. Missionaries who preached brotherhood abroad tolerated Jim Crow at home. He named specific denominations, specific churches, specific clergymen.
- The Methodist Church, North (1911) — trading racial justice for reunion with the South
- The Episcopal Church (1913) — slavery, racial hypocrisy, and refusal to support Black education
- The Church (1916) — urges the Black church to lead democratic uplift
- The White Church (1917) — moral failure on race
- Missionaries (1929) — racial discrimination in U.S. missionary societies
Christ as Black Man
Across several allegorical pieces, Du Bois reimagined Christ as a figure of color. “Jesus Christ in Georgia” placed Christ in the rural South. “The White Christ” inverted the racial iconography. “Pontius Pilate” collapsed two thousand years into a single scene, with Pilate as governor of Mississippi. These pieces use biblical typology as a weapon against the church.
- Jesus Christ in Georgia (1911) — Christ in the Jim Crow South
- The White Christ (1915) — white Christianity’s wartime hypocrisy
- The Second Coming (1917) — prophetic allegory of Black emergence
- Pontius Pilate (1920) — Pilate as complicit in racial injustice
- The Sermon in the Cradle (1921) — Christ born in Benin
Moral Argument
Beyond the specifically religious editorials, Du Bois deployed moral reasoning throughout the collection. He appealed to democratic principles, to constitutional promises, to the logic of human equality. When those appeals failed, he turned to prophetic denunciation.
- The Sin Against the Holy Ghost (1911) — deceit for political gain as the unforgivable sin
- Christianity Rampant (1911) — practical Christianity masks imperial cruelty
- The Church and the Negro (1913)
- The Gospel According to Mary Brown (1919) — parable condemning racial violence
- The Church and Religion (1933) — urges ethical faith and intellectual freedom
All Religion & Morality Articles
| Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1911 (Jan) | Jesus Christ in Baltimore | Condemns churches abandoning Black neighborhoods—race and class drive religious flight and moral hypocrisy. |
| 1911 (Mar) | The Methodist Church, North | Condemns the Methodist Church, North for sidelining Black leadership and trading racial justice for reunion with the South. |
| 1911 (Apr) | Forward Backward | Critiques how the ‘Negro question’ stalls democracy and reform—exposing suffrage and moral hypocrisy. |
| 1911 (Apr) | Hail, Columbia! | Rebukes America’s leaders for silence as lynchmob violence, racial prejudice and lawlessness imperil democracy. |
| 1911 (May) | Christianity Rampant | Argues in The Crisis (1911) that practical Christianity masks imperial cruelty; he links church complicity to wars, conquest, and racial justice. |
| 1911 (May) | ‘Social Equality’ | Argues that ‘social equality’ means humanity for Black Americans, exposing Southern hypocrisy and urging education and labor. |
| 1911 (Jun) | Education | Argues that education and philanthropy must restrain profit-driven business to preserve labor and democracy. |
| 1911 (Jun) | Jesus Christ in Georgia | Exposes how convict labor and mob violence reveal white supremacy, morally indicting racism and offering redemption. |
| 1911 (Jun) | The Sin Against the Holy Ghost | Argues deceit for political gain is the unforgivable sin, corroding Black humanity, race dignity, and democracy. |
| 1912 (Apr) | Of Children | Argues that children symbolize democracy’s future and moral responsibility, urging society to protect and nurture youth. |
| 1912 (May) | The Negro Church | Analyzes the Negro church’s leadership, arguing for honest, educated ministers and active programs in education and social uplift. |
| 1913 (Apr) | The Church and the Negro | Faults the church for promoting racial injustice, exposing Christian hypocrisy and urging labor, education, moral reform. |
| 1913 (Jun) | The Episcopal Church | Condemns the Episcopal Church’s role in slavery, racial hypocrisy, and refusal to support Black education and rights. |
| 1913 (Jun) | The Three Wise Men | Frames a Christmas parable that reclaims spiritual birth and uplifts the lowly, centering Black ministry. |
| 1914 (Feb) | Don’t Be Bitter | Rejects pleas to ‘’not be bitter,’’ arguing Black Americans’’ calm demands for voting rights, racial justice, and dignity. |
| 1914 (Jun) | The Christmas Prayers of God | Condemns war, imperial exploitation, racial violence and lynching, pleading to God for justice and mercy. |
| 1914 (Jun) | Y.M.C.A | Praises Black YMCAs’ growth but condemns YMCA racial segregation as unchristian, unjust, and dangerous to race justice. |
| 1915 (Mar) | The White Christ | Criticizes white Christianity’s wartime hypocrisy and praises the democratic, inclusive Negro church. |
| 1916 (Apr) | The Church | Criticizes the white church’s hypocrisy and urges the Black church to lead democratic social uplift. |
| 1916 (Apr) | Three Churches | Documents how three Negro churches advance education, social uplift, and community democracy through institution-building. |
| 1916 (May) | The Pageant | Spotlights a mass Pageant celebrating the AME Church’s centennial, staging Black religious history and racial pride. |
| 1916 (May) | The Pageant | Depicts a 1,250‑person Pageant marking the AME Church centennial and asserting Black civic pride. |
| 1917 (Feb) | Curtains of Pain | Portrays pain’s ‘Curtains’ as a crucible of shared humanity and healing that dissolves race and fosters brotherhood. |
| 1917 (May) | The White Church | Condemns the white church’s moral failure on race and calls Christian leaders to confront injustice and industrial theft. |
| 1917 (Jun) | The Second Coming | Uses a prophetic allegory to expose white racial fear and envision Black emergence and social change. |
| 1918 (Feb) | Food | Urges Black Americans to reduce meat and embrace vegetables for wartime thrift, health, and racial uplift. |
| 1918 (Mar) | Crime | Condemns white Methodist leaders’ bid to expel 350,000 Black members as a racial crime and church hypocrisy. |
| 1918 (Apr) | The Slaughter of the Innocents | Condemns Black infant mortality, urging public-health, nutrition, and racial-justice reforms. |
| 1919 (Jun) | Peace | Calls for a postwar reckoning—after WWI’s blood and terror, nations must choose peace, healing, and democracy. |
| 1919 (Jun) | The Gospel According to Mary Brown | Retells Mary Brown’s parable to condemn racial violence and lynching, tying religious faith to labor and injustice. |
| 1920 (Jul) | A Question | Condemns silence about racial exclusion at conferences, urging public exposure of segregation and moral accountability. |
| 1920 (Oct) | Steal | Condemns white churches’ hypocrisy as they abandon labor and racial justice, siding with steel interests against unions. |
| 1920 (Dec) | Pontius Pilate | Casts Pilate as complicit in racial injustice, condemning lynching and white supremacy’s mockery of justice. |
| 1921 (Jan) | Amity | Argues interracial amity and frank dialogue will heal race injustice and strengthen American democracy. |
| 1921 (Mar) | About Pugilists | Exposes racial hypocrisy in boxing—condemning outrage at Jack Johnson while lynching goes unprotested. |
| 1921 (Jun) | Crime | Rejects the myth of Negro crime, cites poverty, ignorance, unjust courts, and urges reforms in labor, schools, justice. |
| 1921 (Dec) | The Sermon in the Cradle | Reimagines Christ born in Benin, affirming Black dignity, faith, and hope as resistance to racial oppression. |
| 1924 (Dec) | The Temptation in the Wilderness | Frames a Black man’s wilderness temptations as a moral struggle over bread, labor, power, race and spiritual dignity. |
| 1926 (Jan) | The First Battle of Detroit | Condemns white churches’ inaction, credits NAACP and Darrow for resisting racial injustice in Detroit’s Sweet trial. |
| 1927 (Oct) | Wallace Battle, the Episcopal Church and Mississippi: A Story of Suppressed Truth | Exposes Episcopal Church suppression of news about a Mississippi school’s murder, indicting racial injustice and betrayal of education |
| 1928 (Mar) | Robert E. Lee | Argues in The Crisis (1928) that commemorating Robert E. Lee masks his role in upholding slavery, urging moral honesty about race and democracy. |
| 1928 (Jun) | Darrow | In The Crisis (1928), honors Clarence Darrow’s defense of labor and Black rights, and attacks ministers who favor creed over deeds. |
| 1929 (May) | Missionaries | Exposes racial discrimination in U.S. missionary societies, blocking Black missionaries to Africa. |
| 1932 (Apr) | Courts and Jails | Condemns Black churches’ and charities’ neglect of incarcerated Black people and exposes race-based injustice in courts. |
| 1933 (Oct) | The Church and Religion | Critiques organized churches for claiming absolute truth, urging ethical faith and intellectual freedom for Black youth. |
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