| Summary: | According to Telles, « W.E.B. Du Bois arguably set the stage for the study of race relations (…) when he declared the color line as the problem of the century ». The paper intends to assess this statement. It means, first, to shed light on Du Bois’s famous prophetical diagnosis : « The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line » ; second, to determine in what ways this diagnosis is relative to the very specific context of the United States at the turn of the century. The paper describes the political and legal norms and categories directed at the treatment of race relations in the ideological landscape of the United States at the time, through a brief study of some constitutional important constitutional cases. Then it shows how Du Bois transformed these categories into efficient instruments for political struggle, aiming at the emancipation for African Americans, through a constructivist and pragmatist approach.
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