This study investigates the pivotal and heart-breaking issue of racism and racial relations in the United States, mainly opposing the white and black components of the nation. It shows that despite the good principles of freedom, equality and justice for which the country praises itself, on the one hand, and the long and multiform struggle against racism, on the other hand, a post-racial U.S. is nothing but a dream, as voiced Martin Luther King, Jr. in his 1963 speech in Washington (2014). This undeniably poses a challenge that this work aims to take up, relying on Ralph Ellison‘s Invisible Man. It shows how the novel, intended as a protest novel of another kind, vividly illustrates the African American struggle for a society free of racial prejudice. Marked by many a setback constituting after all a ground for maturity and enlightenment, the story of the novel‘s hero offers insights for making the fight against racism effective. The subject matter being historical and sociological, the study is supported respectively by historical facts and a theoretical framework constituted of the critical race theory (CRT) and the theory of critical consciousness (CC).

Racism, African American, prejudice, setbacks, enlightenment, Black Lives Matter Movement.