of the veil from the end of the civil war to the failure of reconstruction. The following chapters then tell of those who have acted to strengthen the veil such as Booker T. Washington or who suffered behind the veil such as the school children Du Bois taught. *br* The veil also acts as a psychological barrier separating blacks from whites. The theme of the psychological separation of blacks and whites is a central metaphor of the book starting with the first lines where Du Bois recalls his encounters with whites who view him not as a person but as a problem, "They half approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then instead of saying directly how does it feel to be a problem? They say, I know an Excellent colored man in my town."*A href=#Footnote13B name=Footnote13A*Footnote13*/A* The veil in this case hides the humanity of blacks which has important implications to the types of relations that developed between blacks and whites. With their humanity hidden behind "the veil" black and white relations at the time of the writing of the *I*Souls of Black Folk*/I* were marked by violence: draft riots in New York during the Civil War, riots following the reconstruction period, the lynching of Blacks, and the formation of the Klu Klux Klan.*A href=#Footnote14B name=Footnote14A*Footnote14*/A* *br* The theme of separation caused by the veil is repeated in many other black texts. In Raboteau's book slave religious practices were separate from white religious practices.*A href=#Footnote15B name=Footnote15A*Footnote15*/A* Although many time slaves and their masters worshipped together religion during the slavery period provided to very separate things for master and slaves. For the master religion was a way to justify slavery*A href=#Footnote16B name=Footnote16A*Footnote16*/A* and for slaves religion became a fo...
