W.E.B. Du Bois: “The legacy of the Freedmen’s Bureau is the heavy heritage of this generation.”

One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of…

The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant.