# Josie — The Souls of Black Folk character guide

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

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Josie

**First appearance:** 0006-iv-of-the-meaning-of-progress

## Snapshot

A young Black girl in rural Georgia who studies doggedly beneath the star of Nashville's great school, her longing to learn set against grinding poverty.

## Who they are

Josie arrives first on the school's opening morning, one of nearly thirty children on rough plank benches in a log hut that once sheltered corn. She is a 'child-woman,' already burdened with work and worry, yet her hunger to become a student at Fisk hovers above her like a star. Her quiet determination gives the narrator's Southern school chapter its tenderest stakes: what the Veil costs a single eager mind.

## In the story

### [Of the Meaning of Progress](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/chapters/iv-of-the-meaning-of-progress)

A former student who worked hard to support her family but died young after a life of sacrifice.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_souls_of_black_folk_se/characters/josie
- 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