A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South

¹ "A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South" was first published in the January, 1899, issue of "The Atlantic Monthly." DuBois later included the article in his classic 1903 book, "The Souls of Black Folk," as Chapter IV with a new title, "Of the Meaning of Progress."

² DuBois attended Fisk University from 1885-1888. The university was first established as Fisk School about six months after the end of the Civil War and was incorporated as Fisk University in 1867.

³ DuBois graduated Fisk College in 1888, so it is probable the story begins the summer of 1887, when DuBois was 19.

⁴ As is made clear here, the existence of a schoolhouse does not mean school will be in session, since a schoolmaster cannot always be found. This would be especially true in remoter areas where DuBois finds himself.
It's also worth noting that this school is only in session during the summer months, since DuBois returns to school in the fall.

⁵ The term, "the Veil" is one DuBois uses on a few occasions in this article and throughout his book, "The Souls of Black Folk." It is a complex, multi-layered metaphor that seems to distill the essence of DuBois' vision of black-white relations.
I will not attempt the daunting task of defining this complex concept. However, the metaphor can be partially understood by considering what happens when a veil is placed between two people -- or two groups of people. It acts as a curtain to divide one group from another and to keep secrets hidden from view. Also, when members of one group look at the other through a veil, their vision tends to be obscured and distorted.
In this passage, DuBois feels happy with his teaching position and accepted by the white teacher and the school commissioner. But "then fell the awful shadow of the Veil" at the moment DuBois sees the reintroduction of the race barrier. He realizes he must eat dinner alone after the other two have finished.

⁶ The schoolroom DuBois describes is similar in size and design to the country schoolhouses of the period in rural areas around the U.S., but the deplorable state of the building and the furniture indicates a level of poverty I have not come across in descriptions of schools serving white children.
DuBois' reference to "a New England vision of neat little desks and chairs" most likely springs from his own childhood experiences attending school in Massachusetts.

⁷ The wide range of ages in this single classroom is typical of country schools all over the U.S. in the 19th century. Josie, the "child woman," is 20 and another young woman is married. The youngest child, we learn later, is a "school baby of six."

⁸ "Webster's blue-back spelling-book" was written by the same Noah Webster who compiled the first U.S. dictionary. His spellers and readers were widely used in the first half of the 19th century. During the second half of the century, McGuffey's "Readers" were more popular. It can be inferred that since these books were being used in the 1880's, they were castasides from other more affluent schools or, even more likely, texts brought down from the north after the Civil War by the Yankee schoolmistresses who first brought schooling to the freed slaves.

⁹ In country schools where the parents tended to be unschooled and often illiterate, children were often kept out of school due to family necessity, and they sometimes failed to return due to "the doubts of the old folks about book-learning." Education and the schoolmaster who delivered it were often viewed with a complex mixture of respect and distrust in communities where schooling was an irregular event.

¹⁰ Du Bois is drawing a generalized contrast between the older and younger members of the community. Those who were older had experienced slavery as adults and saw the Emancipation as "the glory of the coming of the Lord." Having witnessed this miracle, they believed that God would continue to improve their lot when He was ready. However, many of the younger members of the community for whom slavery was a distant memory were less hopeful, "and therefore sank into listless indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado."

¹¹ Until the last sentence, the conclusion of this essay has a meditative, philosophical tone, pondering whether things are getting worse (the twilight before nightfall) or better (the first light of a new day). However, the final sentence jars the reader from abstract contemplation into the reality of the moment by placing DuBois in a segregated "Jim Crow car" of a train.