Political Quotes

W.E.B. Du Bois: “Each generation sought to shift its load upon the next, and the burden rolled on, until a generation came which was both…”

On the record
Each generation sought to shift its load upon the next, and the burden rolled on, until a generation came which was both too weak and too strong to bear it longer.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois

Editor's note · Context

In this reflection, Du Bois discusses the generational burden of unresolved social issues, suggesting a cycle of avoidance.

Share

More from W.E.B. Du Bois

Jan 1, 1903

Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

Would America have been America without her Negro people?

gutenberg.org