The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?
W.E.B. Du Bois: “The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?”
Editor's note · Context
In his foundational text, Du Bois asserts the critical importance of the right to vote as a defense against renewed subjugation for African Americans.
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Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.
Many of the worst characteristics of the Negro masses of to-day had their seed in this period of the slave’s ethical growth.
By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.