# Alexander Crummell — The Souls of Black Folk character guide

> Alexander Crummell in The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Alexander, Crummell

**First appearance:** 0014-xii-of-alexander-crummell

## Snapshot

A frail, dignified Black priest and scholar who crossed three temptations—Hate, Despair, Doubt—and emerged as a prophet of the race's spiritual destiny.

## Who they are

Crummell appears first at a Wilberforce commencement, tall and black and unmistakably well-bred, and the narrator bows before him as before a seer. His life story is the book's most intimate portrait: a boy shadowed by a bitter father's cruelty, refused at a white school, wandering fourscore years within the Veil yet never surrendering his vision of Black dignity. He embodies the possibility that character and faith can survive what the color line inflicts.

## In the story

### [Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/chapters/iii-of-mr-booker-t-washington-and-others)

Mentioned in the context of earlier figures who sought honorable alliance with Southerners.

### [Of Alexander Crummell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/chapters/xii-of-alexander-crummell)

The central figure of the chapter, a black boy who grows to become a priest and leader, facing temptations of Hate, Despair, and Doubt.

### [XIV: The Sorrow Songs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/chapters/xiv-the-sorrow-songs)

The song 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' is placed before the life story of Alexander Crummell in the book.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/characters/alexander_crummell
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/characters