In the Preface, Johnson alludes to W. E. B. Du Bois's foundational book The Souls of Black Folk as he describes the mission of his own book. He also uses a metaphor to elaborate on what he aims to accomplish:
In these pages it is as though a veil had been drawn aside: the reader is given of view of the inner life of the Negro in America, is initiated into the “freemasonry,” as it were, of the race.
Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. It was a collection of sociological essays about the experience of being Black in the United States. Du Bois described the "double-consciousness" Black Americans have of themselves as both Americans and as Black people, two identities that white Americans have historically made it difficult to reconcile. Du Bois uses the idea of a "veil" as a metaphor for the border between the experiences Black and white Americans share and the experiences of Blackness that lie beyond the comprehension of white people. Du Bois aimed to show that with education and other social supports, Black Americans could succeed alongside white Americans. Beginning each essay with a quote from a classic work of European literature alongside the musical score of a spiritual traditionally sung by enslaved Black people, he aims to carve out a place for Black culture within "respectable" American culture. Du Bois has faced criticism for some of his elitist ideas, but it is difficult to overstate the book's significance both to the field of sociology and as a work of African American Literature.
Johnson's allusion to the veil positions The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man as a response to Du Bois's book. He goes on to say that he wants to draw the veil aside to show the reader (here presumed to be white) the "freemasonry, as it were, of the race." Freemasonry is associated with America's founders and a slough of secrets and conspiracy theories. The idea that Johnson is exposing the "freemasonry" of Black people suggests both that he is exposing well-kept secrets and that Black people, too, are implicated in the founding of the United States. It is important to note that, as always in this book, Johnson might not be entirely forthright. There are aspects of Black culture that Johnson might be able to reveal to white readers, but the idea that Black people are all organized and conspiratorial turns out to be ludicrous. The narrator ends up choosing his own personal gain over collective progress, and ultimately most of the Black people he encounters make the choices that they believe are right for them personally. With his work to blend ragtime and classical music, the narrator lives out Du Bois's hypothesis that Black culture can and should be blended into "mainstream" white culture. Johnson lets the reader decide just how useful this project has been.
