If, however, the vistas disclosed as yet no goal, no resting-place, little but flattery and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection and self-examination; it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect.
From his seminal work, this passage describes the profound personal growth and development of self-awareness, self-realization, and self-respect that emerged from the ongoing struggle for Black liberation.
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All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.
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