Now I like the colored people, and sympathize with all their reasonable aspirations; but you and I both know, John, that in this country the Negro must remain subordinate, and can never expect to be the equal of white men.
In this quote, Du Bois expresses a sobering perspective on racial equality and the societal limitations imposed on Black individuals in America.
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Three things characterized this religion of the slave,—the Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy.
He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.
Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a…
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.