In this foreword, Du Bois proclaims that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line” (2). He previews the topics of the chapters of the book. His work, he hopes, offers the reader the chance to see the untold lives of African Americans who are trapped from view “within the Veil” (2).

Du Bois opens this chapter and all subsequent chapters with an epigraph from a poem. In some editions, these poems are accompanied by bars of music from traditional African-American spirituals. Du Bois begins the chapter by noting the difficulty of interacting with whites who are hesitant to address the issue of race with him because he is African American.

As a race, African Americans suffer from “double-consciousness,” which Du Bois defines as a “sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others” (3). African Americans are trapped by racism and find their efforts and talents consumed by the exhausting struggle to be recognized as Americans by people who view them with contempt. The African American simply wants the chance to be both American and African American, to be “a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius” (3).