The World’s Work Between 1909 and 1910, W.E. B. Du Bois wrote prayers for the students of Atlanta University, a historically black school. They were collected and published in the book, Prayers for Dark People. In one of them, Du Bois points to the importance of rain and storm so that plants can produce fruit. He speaks of “hurt and suffering” in the human life that allows us to “bring the world’s work to its highest perfection.” [1] What is this work he’s talking about, and what does he mean by the “highest perfection”? Could it be, as he adds later, that the “the great web which hangs holy to…