And as the black third of the land grows in thrift and skill, unless skilfully guided in its larger philosophy, it must more and more brood over the red past and the creeping, crooked present, until it grasps a gospel of revolt and revenge and throws its new-found energies athwart the current of advance.
Du Bois issues a stark warning that without wise guidance, the developing Black population may embrace a philosophy of revolt and revenge against historical and ongoing injustices.
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He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.
So the Cotton Kingdom still lives; the world still bows beneath her sceptre.
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.
The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the…